COLUMBUS, Ohio — Andrew Boyd is the fourth generation of his family to work at Blue Label Packaging, a company that started in the 50s in Lancaster, specializing in printing church offertory envelopes.

But a decade ago, it was Boyd, fresh off his MBA at The Ohio State University, with a vision to seek out a new client, the ever-expanding craft beer industry.

“Turns out there's a lot more to building a successful brewing business then just having a few mocked up labels. It took about a year to get our first brewery customer on board and they were good enough to trust us. And from there, we got a better idea of what the market looked like,” Boyd said.

The digital finishing room is where a beer or liquor company's computer design comes to life. 

Employees oversee the printing of 500 different labels each day, 85,000 in 2020 for clients not only in Ohio but across the globe. 

“Taking a film, prepping it on both sides with kind of a varnish to make sure it's frictionless in the application process. And we're getting ready to be seamed, which means we're going to take that tube and close it up into a full tube. Nine or 10 different options for how we might finish an individual label. And each job is set to its own specs of after it's printed, where it's going to go next to be finished,” Boyd said.

Blue Label currently serves one-fifth of all U.S. breweries and in the last three years has tripled its workforce. 

Later this year, they will add a third warehouse, expanding to over 110,000 square feet of space, adding 50 more jobs. 

“We couldn't have imagined this happening, but here we are. A work atmosphere that you hear about on the east and west coasts and the most forward-thinking kind of manufacturing environments. And that's paid off. I mean we have no issues attracting people, and it’s made a lot of growth possible,” Boyd said. 

For more information on Blue Label Packaging, go to www.bluelabelpackaging.com.