John Watson targets self-adhesive labels with £3m spend

The 10-colour machine will allow the firm to respond to growing demand from whisky firms for self-adhesive labels as opposed to the traditional wet labeling process.

John Watson & Co, which has around 80 staff, currently produces around 20m labels every week for clients including Pernod Ricard, Whyte & Mackay, Wm Grant and Morrison Bowmore.

Watson said: “The self adhesive process will enable customers to increase the bottling speeds with often an improvement to the quality of the label too.

“We will still be producing 20m wet labels a week but with the Gallus we have a breathtaking technology that allows us to cover all bases.”

However, the company was unable to obtain finance for the machine from UK banks, forcing it to seek support in Switzerland.

Watson said: “We have been in business since the early 1800s, survived countless recessions, two world wars and continue to be profitable in our third century.

“If we can’t persuade banks to lend, what hope have other businesses especially new ones starting up? The Government must now intervene significantly to resolve this and force banks to lend before this lending famine wrecks the economic recovery.”

John Watson & Co’s latest investment comes two years after it installed the world’s longest B2 Heidelberg press, a 15-unit Speedmaster built to produce both wet labels and tube and box wraps.