Label Interactive Technologies x Lifetime Brands: Increasing Efficiency and Accuracy

By Alexandria Kane, Label Interactive Technologies Inc. 

INTRODUCTION

It is my pleasure to introduce you to Label Interactive Technologies (Label IT or LIT). Label IT is a guaranteed barcode label printing service bureau. With production facilities located in the USA, Hong Kong, Vietnam, and India, we have the ability to print the barcoded product and logistic labels on behalf of the manufacturers and importers shipping to our trading partners (QVC & HSN - Qurate Retail, Cracker Barrel, Colony Brands, LTD Commodities), and a host of other retailers, e-comm & catalogers. As a value-added tool, our proprietary StreamLine™ vendor portal was developed to provide the integration, transparency, and accountability for both our trading partners and their vendor communities to globally manage this critical process in their supply chain.

Our vendor, Lifetime Brands is a leading global provider of kitchenware, tableware and other products used in the home. The Company markets its products under well-known kitchenware brands, including Farberware®, KitchenAid®, Sabatier®, Amco Houseworks®, Chef'n®, Chicago™ Metallic, Copco®, Fred® & Friends, Houdini™, KitchenCraft®, Kamenstein®, Kizmos™, La Cafetière®, and MasterClass®, just to name a few.

OVERVIEW

Lifetime Brands has been using Label-It on a variety of projects/label printing for over 10 years. An incredible opportunity to expand our business with them presented itself when LIT became a nominated printer for HSN in 2004 and then QVC when they acquired HSN several years ago, and completed the development of their StreamLine™ vendor portal. With QVC and HSN pushing PO Data to Label IT’s Portal, our overseas and domestic teams are able to go to the portal, download the data and order labels in the fraction of time that it used to take us, with no mistakes.

Prior to utilizing LIT it was difficult for Lifetime to maintain SSCC’s due to the various global  factories, their system monitors and maintains the sequential order under each of our multiple GS1 Company Prefixes. Given that Lifetime has manufacturing facilities in China, Viet Nam and India, and Label IT has printing facilities in all 3 countries that they manufacture goods, this saves them processing time as well as freight costs. Another perk, Label IT also has a facility in the US for domestic production as needed.

A WORD FROM LIFETIME BRANDS

“We appreciate that they stand by their product and that they even have a compliance guarantee that the labels that are printed will meet or exceed the Retailers requirements or Label It will pay for any fines or penalties assessed. I might add that Lifetime has not seen any penalties associated with the production of labels as of this writing. Their portal allows us to assign which merchandiser can order for which trading partner, providing my team with the control and visibility needed to manage this apportion of our global supply chain.

The development team is awesome! The response we get when we do run across issues, though limited, are responded to immediately and are resolved quickly, which in return allows us to avoid any delays. They also provide training on using the portal in all locations which for us was a great benefit. We also love the direct contact, clear communication, and quick problem resolution that our China Team has with Label IT’s team in China who they communicate with on an as needed basis.

One thing I feel I must address is the service level during the COVID Pandemic. While many of our factories were closed at the beginning of the pandemic for several weeks, many Retailers continued to order products since they were still operating their Direct to Consumer businesses. As our factories started to open, Label IT was there to service us. If one of their locations was closed due to the pandemic they made other arrangements through another factory to service our needs without missing a beat. Our offices and DC’s never shut down through the pandemic so this made it extremely important that we were able to get the labels we needed.”

CONCLUSION

Label Interactive Technologies has increased the efficiency and accuracy of Lifetime Brands GS1-128 labeled production as their global printing solutions provider. Prior to utilizing LIT, it was difficult for Lifetime to maintain SSCC’s due to the multiple factories, Lifetime Brands outsourced this category and was printing the labels in-house domestically, only to ship them globally to factories which, for application to the product or cases, is extremely costly and time consuming. Since Label It guarantees that the labels we print will meet or exceed retailers requirements or they will pay the fines and penalties, Lifetime is also free of this worry. By utilizing Label Interactive Technologies services, all of Lifetime Brands’ production, shipping, and fine concerns are eliminated.