Elgin, Illinois

What do the labels and tags industry and Daniel E. "Rudy" Ruettiger (of Rudy fame) have in common? If you said, "neither is a very good football player," you'd technically be correct, but that's not the answer we had in mind.

Elgin, Illinois-based Continental Datalabel (CDL) has expanded its line of oversized wafer seals to include 28 new products, including the 1½" seals mandated by the U.S. Postal Service (USPS) to tab booklets. The expanded line also includes labels in various sizes in rolls of various sizes to meet the needs of customers, both large and small.

Headquartered in Elgin, Ill., Continental Datalabel president Tim Flynn's fascination with the printing industry started, interestingly enough, while students were taking a spin on the dance floor.

In a world where technology takes precedence, labels continue to reinvent themselves and thrive. The BFL&S 2003 Top 100 Distributors' survey reported that label sales rose to $247 million from $218 million in 2002—a 13.3 percent increase—and the Top 10 sold $149 million in labels and tags that year. What does this all mean for the labels industry? Suffice it to say that labels are a force to be reckoned with. In an effort to find out just what gives labels their staying power, two executives provided some much-needed insight into the profitable world of labeling. "Labels will always have a niche