Catching up with Avery Dennison

The other day, I got one of those e-mails and telephone call that every reporter dreads, letting me know I’d messed up. In this case, I left a deserving company off the list of providers of automatic data capture equipment from our annual Top 20 Automatic Data Capture story.

And it wasn’t just any company. Avery Dennison’s printer systems division is doing about $340 million a year, according to Linda M. Delaney, director of product line management. $340 million in sales would have put Avery Dennison at number 9 on the list, ahead of Hand Held Products, now part of Honeywell. Delaney says sales are evenly divided between printer sales, including printer applicators; consumables, including barcode labels; and systems integration and services.

While that’s a big miss, in fairness, Delaney says it’s understandable. Avery Dennison entered the industrial printer business this year through the acquisition of Paxar, and chose not to participate in the surveys distributed by analysts who cover this space. Those analysts help me put together my list and serve as a sounding board. Long story short, they slipped through the cracks. My apologies. Next year, I’ll make sure they’re included.

What then is Avery Dennison up to? Delaney outlined the company’s approach to the market and the trends emerging in the marketplace.

One throat to choke: There is a reason the division’s sales are divided between integration and services, consumables and equipment. “Our value proposition is that we do every thing from sales to service, so you have one throat to choke,” says Delaney. That may include doing a business analysis for customers at no charge to look for ways to improve efficiency and reduce costs that may not involve Avery Dennison products.

Focus on retail: While Delaney says the company has some manufacturing customers, Avery Dennison’s focus is on the retail supply chain, both in the store and in the distribution center and logistics hub. Its portfolio of products from mid-to-high volume tabletop printers to a handheld data collection scanner/printer is focused on that vertical.

Make it portable: “Mobility is a major theme we’re seeing,” Delaney says. “People have realized the value of being able to take a printer to where the work is being done.” That has led to battery-powered workstations with a mounted tabletop printer that can be wheeled throughout a facility.

Distributed printing: Central printing is giving way to distributed printing. That means large, heavy-duty, high volume printers are giving way to smaller, lower-priced printers that have been ruggedized to withstand an industrial environment.

Connectivity counts: Functionality is important, but wireless connectivity is even more important. “The biggest issue we face in designing printers today has to do with networking and connectivity,” says Delaney. “The price of the printer may be coming down because customers want smaller printers, but they still want to communicate wirelessly through a connection.”

Let us know how printing is changing in your warehouse and distribution center as your processes change by posting below, or e-mailing me at Robert.Trebilcock@verizon.net.