While businesses everywhere are exploring the possibilities of AI, the jury is still out on whether they will use its capabilities to replace jobs currently done by humans or to enable existing workers to be more productive, thus boosting growth.
One company that sits squarely in the second group is Dill, developer of a next generation mobile food labelling platform that uses templates accessed via Android and iOS devices and wireless, driverless printing to automate and speed up labelling processes.
At Restaurant & Takeaway Innovation Expo, taking place at ExCeL London on September 30-October 1, it is inviting visitors to try out the latest enhancement to its platform, an AI Labelling Studio that allows users to create, design and edit a label by describing what they need in colloquial English.
Just type in what you want Dill to do, for example ‘please add our logo to our food to go template’ or ‘please add a barcode at the bottom of the label’, and Dill will instantly make the requested changes, automatically sizing text boxes and formatting the label to maximise clarity.
As Dill states in the promotional video, ‘It’s like talking to a designer, an operations manager and a labelling expert all at the same time’.
The Swansea-based firm is already using the AI Labelling Studio internally to slash the time it takes to create customised label templates for clients, from around one hour with its existing design tool to just two or three minutes. It is now looking to offer this capability as an affordable module on its platform as well, enabling customers to create new labels or modify existing templates via a simple chat function.
“We’re expecting a big uptake of our AI Labelling Studio, especially in the Food to Go retail sector,” explains Dill Co-founder Alex Coldea. “There, people want to design labels with different promotions, with barcodes, with logos – there are so many elements that need to be tweaked. The main value we see in AI is a reduction in the amount of time it will take to set up templates, but it will also allow us to reach end users in new industries. Our model is currently trained on food labelling, but we could easily tap into other industries like logistics, healthcare and manufacturing. Our wider vision is to let end users create their labelling infrastructure themselves to their precise requirements.”
Importantly, for a business that prides itself on its lean operations, the AI Labelling Studio gives Dill’s five-strong team the ability to scale without a big increase in headcount.
Automated food labelling
Established in 2022 by a group of software developers, Dill started out creating a cashless catering system for Swansea Council that parents could use to order food and snacks for their children to pick up from designated points in their school canteen.
Following the introduction of Natasha’s Law, which requires all pre-packed foods for direct sale to be labelled with a full list of ingredients, highlighting any allergens, Dill built a food labelling system for the Council that could also incorporate bar codes, QR codes, storage instructions, cooking instructions and other information.
Such was the success of this system that Dill decided to pivot fully into food labelling and extend its capabilities to other retailers and hospitality venues with the launch of an integrated, automated, all-in-one SaaS solution that, according to Coldea, removes a lot of time and complexity from labelling processes.
“Firstly, we provide the complete package – software, label printers and consumables. We also track usage, including how many labels are printed each day, who prints them and where, giving full traceability of label production. And because the system is fully autonomous, users don’t need our help – they can simply print the labels they need and reorder supplies whenever required,” he says.
To date, Dill has created five labelling solutions for specific needs:
- PPDS & Natasha’s Law Labelling, which ensures pre-packed foods clearly display full ingredients lists with allergens highlighted;
- Nutritional PPDS Labelling, which adds calorie counts and nutritional details to help customers make informed choices;
- Stock Rotation & Food Safety Labelling, which tracks use-by dates and storage information so food stays fresh and safe and is discarded at the right time;
- Automated Colour Coded Day Dot Labelling, which uses a simple colour system so staff can instantly see when prepared items need to be used or thrown away; and
- Retail Labelling, designed for price tags, barcodes and product details in stores.
In addition, Dill offers a Custom Workflow Labelling solution, giving businesses the flexibility to create tailored labels for any process unique to their food service, retail or hospitality operation.
Access from anywhere
As a SaaS solution, Dill’s labelling platform can be accessed via an iOS/Android app from any mobile device, in any location, making it particularly useful for multi-site organisations that want to create labels centrally but provide easy printing locally.
Currently, Dill’s solution is used by more than 100 customers, including well-known names such as BrewDog, Atis, Busaba, Nisa and The Sushi Co., for label printing in over 300 sites across the UK. These range from service stations, like Shell, BP and Esso, to QSRs, bakeries, fine dining restaurants, retail stores and more.
“Our system lets you create labels for all your products once and keep them in a central product database, which you can share with all your sites,” explains Coldea. “We work with many multi-site businesses that do not have time to create labels specially for each site or do not have time to go to each site, plug in a laptop and upload a CSV or an Excel document onto the printer. They need a system that allows them to manage multi-site operations seamlessly, without any driver installations and without any additional setup. They can create their labels from one location, and members of staff, wherever they are located, can then print those labels.”
He adds that Dill’s is a true plug and play solution: “End users can download our app from Google Play or the App Store, and don’t require any technical or design skills. They don’t need to install drivers or design templates or maintain firmware.”
Brother at its side
In this context, a key component of Dill’s solution is its exclusive partnership with Brother, which enables it to provide customers with a label printer to suit any requirement, including liner-less models, plus consumables. Dill does provide some non-Brother labels to meet certain specific needs, but it only uses Brother hardware.
“We have an amazing relationship with Brother that we’ve developed over the last three years. We maintain the full range of their printers, and they’re all fully integrated into our system, so customers aren’t restricted to a specific model. If they have lower volume or higher volume requirements or need a liner-less system, they can choose the best Brother label printer for their needs.”
Coldea adds that the tight integration between Dill’s platform and Brother printers is fundamental to the success of the company’s automation-focused business model as it removes the need to send a technician on-site to set up devices and minimises on-going support requirements.
“A huge benefit of our system, compared to many competitors, is that we perform remote diagnostics on the customer’s printers. If you try to print a label but can’t because the lid of the printer is open, we can tell you exactly when the lid was opened and what the end user was trying to print. We have a complete log of all those printing requests. And because we display error information on the customer’s tablet, they don’t even need to call us to ask what’s wrong.”
If there is any fault with the hardware, Brother offers the reassurance of three-year-plus warranties and a dedicated UK Service Centre.
“On that side of things, we’re so happy that we have them as a partner,” says Coldea. “They’re very reliable, both in supplying the hardware and in maintaining it long-term.”
A momentous year
This year is already shaping up to be a momentous one for Dill. The company was named Wales Startup of the Year and AI Startup of the Year at the 2025 UK StartUp Awards and, as a regional winner, will go on to compete at the national finals on September 11. In addition, Alex Coldea has been nominated for AI Entrepreneur of the Year at the 2025 Great British Entrepreneur Awards, taking place in London in November.
Of more long-term significance, Dill is expanding into North America, partnering with Brother USA, which will be demonstrating its solution at VARTECH 2025 in the Bahamas on September 15-16. This will enable it to meet the needs of new customers in the US and Canada as well as existing customers with operations in the region.
Coldea points out that Dill’s AI Labelling Studio system will be a big help as it moves into new territories, by making it quicker and easier for Dill and its customers to comply with local labelling requirements.
“Just as we have trained our AI Labelling Studio on Natasha’s Law, which is proprietary to the UK, we can also train it on FDA regulations that are proprietary to the US. This is extremely helpful in the direction we’re heading, which is that no matter where you are located, you can buy our software and a Brother printer and create labels that are compliant with the laws of your state, country or location.”
Meanwhile, Dill is continuing to explore new applications of its food labelling technology. It has already diversified into retail labelling and is now developing a QR code-based production tracker system that has applications not just in food preparation but in any multi-stage production process.
“We’ve been building a production tracker that allows a business to sign off each stage of the production process with someone’s name and a timestamp, which we’ll capture in a dynamic QR code printed on packaging labels. If there’s something wrong with a certain batch of products, they can be recalled in a much simpler way, just by tracking the QR code,” explains Coldea.
With all these developments, he is understandably bullish about the future.
“We perfected our system in the hardest industry possible and now, with our great base and the vision we have to minimise the time users spend adjusting templates or creating new ones, we are well placed to expand into other sectors and accelerate our growth. We’re extremely excited about what the future holds.”
