Twenty years have passed since we produced our first labels for English apple growers,” explains Tim Watkins, EuroMed and Africa sales and marketing manager of Sinclair International, the fresh produce labelling company. “At the time companies like East Kent Packers and Waveney Apple Growers wanted the Union Jack to be labelled on their fruit, and demand for the national flag has grown each and every year since.”
The Norwich-based labelling specialist was set up 30 years ago and, although it is now owned by a US parent company based in California, remains proud of its roots in Norfolk, the East Anglian county that is home too to the Sandringham Estate, where famously the Royal Family spends part of Christmas.
“Our facility in Norwich still manufactures the large majority of our labelling machines, and is also responsible for the design and production of labels for Europe, the Middle East and Africa,” explains Watkins.
Sinclair has its own royal connections too: it has twice been awarded an export medal under the Queen’s Awards for Enterprise in recognition of achievement in selling its labelling systems to customers all over the world.
Closer to home, Sinclair is now producing labels for a wide range of UK-grown produce. “It’s not just apples and pears, “says Watkins. “Peppers, cucumbers, marrows, aubergines and beef tomatoes have all been labelled with the Union Jack. There are trials underway now to grow avocados in Kent, so perhaps one day they’ll also be labelled in the same way!”
Caroline Wilson is Sinclair’s sales executive in the UK, who works with the company’s local client base.
Label demand rocketed in the early 1990s with the arrival of PLU codes. Supermarkets needed to ensure that checkout assistants would ring up the correct price at the till. Since then of course it’s become a lot more clever, and now a label can carry all kinds of information.
“Retailers have become very sophisticated in the way in which they use labels nowadays,” explains Watkins. “In fact, you’ll be seeing some more changes when the new top-fruit season kicks off later on this summer.”
It seems no special promotions featuring new label designs are planned for the Diamond Jubilee. But the fact is the Union Jack is already flying the flag for British produce every day of the year. -
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