FDBusiness.com

Swiss food manufacturer Coop has selected NiceLabel, a leading global developer of label design software and label management systems, to help streamline and improve the company’s labeling processes at its factories and in-store bakeries. Those processes include the design, management, quality assurance and production of food labels that contain allergen, ingredient and nutrition information in a consistent and traceable manner.

Coop is the second-largest retailer in Switzerland, and is using the NiceLabel label management system across its production sites. This latest project sees the food retailer roll out that functionality to its network of 45 in-store bakeries to improve accuracy of labeling and food safety.

The NiceLabel system enables Coop to consolidate the labeling process, remove inconsistencies and improve workflow and quality assurance when designing and printing product and packaging labels.

Didier Gremaud, Head of IT Processes ERP Production Companies at Coop, says: “We cannot ignore the issues within the industry around allergen labeling. Coop requires that all food prepared in the store is clearly and uniformly labeled with ingredients and potential allergens. Rolling out NiceLabel to our 45 in-store bakeries allows us to do just that.”

The NiceLabel label management system integrates with Coop’s existing SAP system. Each production site and bakery can produce their own labels, but the centralized document management system means that only specified users can make changes; the result is a more secure workflow which produces consistent labels in a timely manner. Coop can now use universal templates that maintain the correct, approved label format, regardless of the printer type or resolution.

“In addition, NiceLabel digitized our processes and removed the IT burden every time we wanted to change a label. Before, we had multiple interfaces to multiple printing solutions. Now we have one system, one single point of contact and one interface. NiceLabel’s Document Management System logs everything, making it traceable, and is critical to our quality control processes,” adds Didier Gremaud.

Ken Moir, VP, Marketing at NiceLabel, says: “The food label market is changing, and while it’s all about consumer safety, there’s a lot of confusion at the moment about what’s actually required. It is good to see that an industry leader like Coop is leading the way in food safety labeling and taking a definitive stand by transforming the way it labels its food in its bakeries.

“We are working with Coop to help them achieve these goals, by enabling them to produce labels that are universal and portable, with consistency, speed and accuracy across the process. No matter which bakery or production facility the label is printed at, users and customers can be confident that it contains accurate and up-to-date allergen and nutritional information. This process is supported by NiceLabel’s document management system which streamlines, automates and improves the quality assurance process, removing human error, risk and improving its overall accuracy.”

The NiceLabel label management system is also now available in the cloud following the launch of Label Cloud, the world’s first public cloud label management system. More information can be found at: www.nicelabel.com/label-management-system .