Q: Why do you relabel products?

EVER WONDERED WHY WE CANNOT WAIT TO LEAVE EUROPE? This is one small example.

We’ve been asked why most of our products are re-labelled when they are either decanted or sold in the original supplier packaging.

The EU, in its wisdom (not) has a very complex set of labeling regulations. The book we have to obey stretched to 300 pages of information relating to warnings, symbol size and placement, and the required font size and language. Every label we produce – we have over 360 – has to meet EU regulations in all languages. We ship Europe wide and further afield. On top of harmonised wording, some countries have specific requirements. For example, Germany requires labeling on potential birth defect or effect on the unborn. The products we get from abroad i.e. the USA, do not meet these regulations in the least. Even freight packaging regulations are extremely complex, and demand certain symbols and specific placement before goods are accepted for freight or shipment.

Large companies have dedicated staff for these requirements, we don’t. It all done in-house and hugely time consuming.

So that is why we relabel everything. We cannot afford to be caught – although we have been in Scandinavia where the warning was one line out of place and all our products were rejected. By the EU.