Technology wins labelling success

By PAULA OLIVER

After years of knocking on the doors of New York's top fashion houses, local entrepreneur Gerry Lynch can finally label his efforts a success.

This week he notched up a particularly satisfying batch of frequent flyer miles en route to the US to personally deliver Label Makers' first order of specialist garment labels to leading fashion house Ecko.

Mr Lynch says the companys's million-unit order was secured by offering specialist technology to make a unique label that would not alter the sleek look of a particular Ecko knitwear garment.

While in the US this week, final orders will be confirmed with Ralph Lauren, Calvin Klein, Victoria's Secret and Osh Kosh.

It is no coincidence that technology is what secured the orders, and what also carried Label Makers through the tough times of tariff cuts in the late 1980s and past the turbulent split of the Australian Rugby League competition in the late 1990s.

Mr Lynch's labels, which will be worn on the body-suited chests of the Australian Olympic swim team, are becoming bigger fish in a very competitive market.

His passion for labels began in 1971, with the launch of Label Makers in what was then a protected local industry.

"The labels then were really quite crude garment labels," he says.

"We were printing them with wet ink, they frayed, they scratched and washed out, but it didn't matter. We were a protected industry and, while there were better items available overseas, tariffs meant we had the market to ourselves."

Huge tariff cuts in the late 1980s changed all that and eroded Label Makers' business to about 25 per cent of what it had been.

Mr Lynch knew he had to do something different to compete with the flood of imported garments that came pre-labelled, so he went looking for new technology.

He found it through one of his oldest Norwegian business contacts, Atle Gandrudbakken, who had developed an air-driven heat transfer process that ensured durable labels.

He made Mr Lynch's company the first licensee of the technology, throughout Australasia and the Pacific Islands.

"We spent a year developing it here and ironing out the bugs in 1990, then in 1991 we hit Australia and it proved immensely successful."

Persistent door-knocking at Australia's leading sportswear manufacturers made Mr Lynch the preferred label supplier for all five makers of jerseys for the glamour Australian Rugby League competition.

The replica jersey market was huge, with sales of 750,000 jerseys a year.

Label Makers supplied the large sponsor labels worn on the chests of Australia's top players, and all the fans wanted a piece of them.

"We were earning $1 million a year from the competition when it was at its best, because instead of screen printing we were able to offer a less risky and far quicker transfer product," Mr Lynch says.

"If a sponsor changed during the year, the jersey makers only had to throw out 1000 transfers rather than the previous worst scenario of [throwing out] jerseys."

Enter Rupert Murdoch and Super League. Politics and money split rugby league, and fans were divided between two rival competitions.

All Super League jerseys were made by Nike, and while the rugby league competitions have since come back together, the support base has never been recaptured.

Mr Lynch says the jersey sales now average a meagre 130,000 a year.

The fickle world of fashion had struck Mr Lynch again, and he found it difficult to justify the cost of trips to Australia, despite the fact that they had secured him several million dollars in business outside the core rugby league deal.

"We got on a roll during the height of the rugby league success, and I made deals with all kinds of companies by flying over and meeting them, and using the reputation we had earned," he says.

Mr Lynch gathered contacts in the US through attending two trade shows each year, Bobbin and Magic.

After missing a lucrative deal with Adidas in the US two years ago, Mr Lynch put his distributors on notice.

He sent a detailed letter to the offending group, spelling out exactly why the deal had not been won, and how it could have been.

He credits that letter with a change in fortune, saying his distributor has since followed the instructions religiously, and the deals have come.

Larger labels have been sampled for children's wear maker Osh Kosh, increasing the value of each order Mr Lynch receives.

But perhaps the greatest exposure one of his labels will get begins at the Olympic swimming pool. Australia's finest, sporting the latest low-drag bodysuits, will have a Label Makers coat of arms on their chests.

"Adidas and Classic pleaded a big favour, because there wasn't anyone in Australia that could do the small run in the short amount of time," Mr Lynch says. "We did it in 48 hours, and had them shipped immediately, and as a consequence they virtually said 'name your price'."

But he is not resting on his laurels.

"The last thing in the world you can do is be complacent, and we have to keep looking for ways to do things faster, smarter and better," he says. "That's the idea behind this latest label, with a smell impregnated in it."

Four keys to success:

* Persistent door-knocking visits overseas.

* Securing new technology to survive tough times.

* The ability to produce short product runs for good customers.

* Attending US trade shows.