Getting Fresh

Webb Company keeps its cool with custom mints and lip balms that delight the senses.

With 30 years of promotional products business under its belt, Webb Company is certainly no flavor of the month. It is, however, a purveyor of thousands of hard goods and consumables, including tasty mints and delectable beeswax-based lip balms that keep clients coming back time and again.

“We produce over 40 flavors of our natural beeswax lip balm, including root beer float, Dreamsicle, green apple and beer,” says Dan Ball, MAS, vice president of sales and marketing for the Eagan, Minnesota-based supplier. The multitude of beeswax balms is joined by a two-in-one balm that comes in six flavor combinations, as well as retail brand SOFTLIPS, an exclusive offering from Webb.

“SOFTLIPS, which was introduced in January, will become a top seller over time. This high-end retail lip balm was voted the most popular retail lip balm by over 50,000 buyers,” he says.

Moving over the lips and past the gums are Webb’s other U.S.-made taste sensation: its custom mints. “Our mints are all manufactured in our Eagan facility, including our golf ball-shaped mints—we are the only company that manufactures these, both in our industry and in general. We also manufacture our mini mints, football-shaped mints and imprinted mints here,” says Ball. “With the variation of mini mints, golf ball shaped mints and imprinted mints, the mint category offers diversity and is a top seller in our line.”

Webb employees measure and mix all the ingredients for its mints in the Eagan facility. “We then add the mixed ingredients to a mint press, which compresses these ingredients into tablets that are then shaved into the final mint we sell,” says Ball.

Ingredients are compressed to become solid, individual mints.

Employees receive extensive training to ensure the mint manufacturing process runs smoothly, completing GMP training and learning the ropes alongside senior mint-press operators. “Our mint press operators are required to have lot-number experience as well as experience handling FDA-required paperwork,” he says.

Webb employees Michel Trinidad (left) and Francisco Guevara-Meza take a break from working on a batch of custom mints.

Founding date

1986

Principals

Alan Webb, owner, Dan Webb, president

Number of orders filled per year

Over 13,000

Notable accomplishments

Introducing exclusive products such as SOFTLIPS lip balm to Webb Company’s catalog, as well as products unique to the promotional industry and to U.S. manufacturing

Size of production facility

Over 60,000 square feet between two facilities

Number of employees

65

Types of specialized equipment

Indigo press

Gateway flatbed printer

Pad press

Customized lip balm machinery

Coasting On A Solid Promotion

Of the thousands of non-edible items Webb offers, its line of coasters has seen “a huge increase” in popularity over the past few years, Ball says. “We offer coasters individually and in sets crafted of steel, granite, marble, bamboo and sandstone. “This is a great product and is the best ‘cost per impression’ product in our industry. It offers great longevity and visibility.”

Other best-sellers in the Webb Company line include: a square window tin packed with mints, gumballs or candy; a golf ball-shaped container filled with mints; a tissue to-go cup with absorbent car coasters.