How to Justify a Labeling Supplier Change to Leadership

Many procurement leaders reach a point where they’re ready to move on from their current custom label manufacturer. Whether they succeed in making that case with their internal decision-makers may come down to one question: Do they lead with their frustration, or do they lay out a documented pattern?

If you’re in the thick of trying to make a business case for changing your label vendor, this blog can help by walking you through four steps:

1. Validate the problem.
2. Put a number on it.
3. Vet a replacement.
4. Present your case to leadership.

Step 1: Is the Problem With Your Labeling Supplier?

Good procurement change management starts with validating the problem before you validate the vendor. Before building a whole case around a switch, find out what’s behind your current vendor’s problems. To be fair, it isn’t always the vendor’s fault. This order matters: A case built on an industry-wide problem falls apart the first time someone asks, “Won’t a new vendor have the same issue?”

Notably, the custom label printing industry has recently gone through a wave of consolidation, with private equity buying up smaller, family-run printers that built their name on close relationships. Those relationships don’t always survive the acquisition, and companies on the other end may start noticing slower responses with no explanation. That’s a vendor relationship management problem as much as a performance one.

There’s also a raw-materials issue that can impact the whole industry at once. Much of the paper, film, and adhesive label printers use comes from a relatively small group of major material manufacturers. When one of them has a problem, every printer downstream feels it.

Be aware that switching vendors won’t fix an industry-wide problem, and a trustworthy prospective vendor will tell you so up front. On the other hand, if what you’re experiencing is a service or quality issue specific to your current vendor, that’s a different conversation.

When the Issue Is Missed Deliveries

Start by figuring out whether the missed dates come from a capacity crunch, a post-acquisition shakeup, or a material shortage every printer is dealing with right now. You’re looking for a pattern of shifting ship dates with no explanation versus just one missed date.

A big red flag is a vendor who keeps handing you new ship dates without explaining why the last one was missed. A good vendor is transparent about what’s happening, including industry-wide issues, and lays out your options, such as moving to another material supplier. If you’re getting neither an explanation nor options, it’s likely time to consider making a case to switch.

When the Issue Is Recurring Quality Problems

One-off defects happen everywhere. But how these issues are addressed is what matters. If the same problem, such as color drift between runs or labels lifting on the line, keeps showing up after it was supposed to be fixed, you should be concerned.

Another cause for concern is if your current label manufacturer isn’t ISO 9001 certified (or, minimally, following another proven and robust quality management system) to provide for an effective corrective-action process.

Document the Issues and Related Conversations

It’s helpful to maintain a log of any discussions you’ve had with your current vendor about these problems, and how they responded. When you present your business case to your leadership team, they may ask whether the vendor had a chance to fix the problem. This log will proactively answer that question and ensure you can focus on the change you want to make.

Once you’ve confirmed and documented the nature of the problem, it’s time to put a number on it.

Step 2: Calculate the Cost of Inaction

When approaching leadership about changing vendors, it’s tempting to focus on your own frustrations with things like trouble getting your rep on the phone, slow answers on delivery dates, or slow responses to pricing requests.

Those frustrations may be real, and for some buyers they’re enough to prompt a change on their own. In many organizations, though, frustration alone isn’t enough to warrant a change, since leadership tends to hear it as an inconvenience for procurement and not a problem for the business. Instead, you need to look at the broader impact the vendor has on the business.

You can often make a stronger business case for change by focusing on the cost of not making a change. Start by tallying the costs tied to the vendor-specific problems you confirmed in Step 1:

1. Missed shipments and the effect on customer satisfaction or retention
2. Compliance flags and the fees that come with them
3. Internal time and money spent chasing and fixing problems
4. Hidden costs from missed deliveries and other mistakes that other departments absorb and never report up to leadership

These all reflect real business costs, and that tells a much stronger story. Aggregate these costs over time and project them out over one month, one quarter, and one year. That data is more likely to catch leadership’s attention.

Separately, it’s worth checking that you’re not simply overpaying today, whichever vendor you use.

Step 3: Properly Evaluate a New Label Supplier

With a cost in hand, anticipate leadership’s next question: Switch to whom?

Strong custom label manufacturers share a few things in common, and most of them are easy to check before you commit. Whichever vendor you choose, at a minimum make sure they meet these four supplier evaluation criteria:

1. Certifications: Some level of robust quality management certification should be non-negotiable – and ISO 9001 is the industry gold standard. Specifically, ISO 9001 Clause 8.4 requires certified companies to evaluate, monitor, and re-evaluate their own suppliers, so an ISO 9001-certified label printer holds its material suppliers to the same kind of scrutiny you’re applying now.
2. Materials: Your vendor should talk to you about testing face stock and adhesive against your actual container surface and application conditions before printing. It’s incredibly easy (and common) for companies to assume that the materials their existing label vendor uses can be matched one-for-one without testing. A capable vendor will test and proof before starting new work.
3. Volume and Lead Time: Your vendor should ask about annual volume, release quantities, and how your labels will be applied before quoting lead times. Getting how much and by when on the table early keeps expectations realistic on both sides.
4. Print Method and Color Matching: Ask whether they run digital, flexo (plate-based), or both, and how they handle color matching with premixed spot colors versus four-color process. That affects both how your label looks and what it costs.

None of this is meant to be a gotcha list, but it will help you distinguish between a vendor who can talk a good game from one who can actually deliver.

Once you’ve found a vendor clears those four checks, you have what you need to make a case for change.

Step 4: Make Your Pitch to Leadership

Once you’ve done the homework, the pitch itself can be short. Leadership typically wants to see four things:

1. What the current vendor is costing the business, projected out over time.
2. Evidence that the problem is specific to your vendor.
3. How your proposed new vendor measures up on certifications, material testing, and production capacity and capabilities.
4. A low-risk way to test the change, such as a trial run or a second-source arrangement.

That last point is important, because small tests are also a smaller ask and easier for leadership to agree to. Trial runs help establish proof that the proposed new vendor is a smarter choice.

It’s also possible you may not want to cut all ties with your existing supplier, in which case a second-source arrangement may be what you need. For example, you may be concerned about having your entire label supply resting on a single vendor, you may want access to more sustainable label materials that your current vendor doesn’t offer, or perhaps your current vendor handles today’s needs well, but you need a specialist for certain labels with specific certification requirements.

Ultimately, the point here is that switching labeling suppliers on a whim is rarely a good idea. But by doing your homework in a clear and intentional way, you can build a solid business case for change that your leadership will take seriously.

By: Lori Campbell, President

Lori Campbell is President of The Label Printers and a recognized leader in the printing industry, with more than 40 years of experience in sales leadership, operations, and strategic growth.

Since joining the company in 1982, she has advanced through roles across the organization, gaining a comprehensive understanding of customer needs, production, and business management. Appointed President in 2018, she helps oversee the company's strategic direction and long-term performance.

Lori has been a frequent speaker at industry events and served 14 years on the Board of Directors of TLMI, the leading trade association for the industry. She holds a Bachelor of Arts in Political Science from Eastern Illinois University.