The first surprising thing you learn about Matthias Vollherbst is that he doesn’t regard himself as a printer at all. Sitting in his Stellenbosch space – named THE CUBE – surrounded by wine labels, paper samples and packaging concepts, the fourth-generation head of German company Vollherbst talks about branding, consumer behaviour and wine with the enthusiasm of a marketer and the curiosity of a journalist.

For Matthias, printing is not the beginning of the conversation. It’s the final chapter.

Now, this philosophy is taking a significant step forward in South Africa with the launch of Label Intelligence, a new Vollherbst business unit designed to help brands think more deeply about packaging before the presses start rolling.

The first projects are already being piloted with selected wine and beverage brands, with Label Intelligence scheduled to open up to the wider South African market from the fourth quarter of 2026.

Origins

It represents an important evolution for a company whose roots go back more than a century. Vollherbst was founded in 1921 in Germany’s Kaiserstuhl wine region, close to the French border, when Matthias’ great-grandfather bought a small printing press and travelled from farm to farm selling printed material from a backpack. He was also a bookbinder and winegrower – an unlikely combination that perhaps explains the company’s enduring fascination with craftsmanship, aesthetics, paper, texture and wine.

Today, Vollherbst is one of the world’s leading specialists in premium labels for wine, spirits, cigars and luxury foods. But the company believes that the label has become too important to be regarded merely as the final decorative element of a product.

A label is where brand and consumer first meet. It is the handshake before the conversation, the promise before the taste. “Packaging should be thought about with the same depth as vineyards,” he says.

Label intelligence

That thinking is at the heart of Label Intelligence. Rather than asking simply whether a packaging design looks good, the new business unit examines whether it is actually working for the brand. What does it communicate? Does it differentiate the product in its category? Does it convey the intended level of value? Will the intended consumer notice it? And, crucially, does it support the brand’s strategic and commercial objectives?

The approach brings together market and category context, consumer intelligence, new technologies for objective validation and Vollherbst’s extensive production expertise. “New technologies are giving us access to insights that were simply not available in this form a few years ago,” says Matthias. “The opportunity is not to replace experience or creativity, but to combine these new possibilities with a deep understanding of brands, packaging and production. That creates a stronger basis for important packaging decisions.”

THE CUBE

South Africa will have a physical home for this thinking in THE CUBE at Bosman’s Crossing in Stellenbosch. Far from being a conventional showroom, the CUBE has been conceived as a working environment – a place where brand owners, marketers, designers and packaging specialists can sit around the same table and interrogate the role of packaging.

What makes the new initiative particularly relevant is that Label Intelligence is designed to complement established design and development processes, working alongside existing agencies while adding strategic insight, consumer intelligence and objective validation.

And behind the thinking sits a formidable production platform. Since 2020, Vollherbst has invested more than €7 million in digital and conventional printing, premium finishing and label engineering technologies.

In an increasingly competitive consumer market, packaging must protect a product, communicate its identity, differentiate it on the shelf, strengthen brand perception and influence the decision to buy.

For a wine industry facing changing consumer behaviour and increasingly crowded shelves, that is no small responsibility. “Your label is a story,” Matthias says. “It’s a strategic asset and a brand’s most valuable piece of real estate.”

With Label Intelligence, Vollherbst is asking South African producers to look at that real estate differently – not simply as something to be printed, but as one of the most powerful places where a brand can meet its consumer.

And sometimes, the smartest way to create a better label is to start by asking whether the label is doing its job at all.

Contact

VOLLHERBST | Jacqueline Olivier | marketing manager | 027 828978449