Art Coffey, former CEO of Red Lion Hotels Corp. and now president of Able Label, says the Spokane label-manufacturing company has seen consistent strong growth since he and his wife, Kaleen, bought it and moved it to larger quarters.

The company is located at 310 N. Haven, in a 24,000-square-foot facility Coffey developed on the east edge of the Playfair Commerce Park.

Able Label moved there last year from leased space in the Spokane Business & Industrial Park. Coffey says the facility has more than twice as much space as Able Label occupied before moving.

Able Label has 20 employees, up from 12 employees when the couple bought the company almost three years ago.

Coffey says the company’s rate of annual revenue growth is in the high single digits.

“We gain customers every day, primarily through word of mouth,” he claims.

Able Label manufactures mostly blank labels of all sizes upon which customers print characters, barcodes, and images.

Manufacturers use the labels for a variety of purposes, including putting model and serial numbers on products or labeling boxes in warehouses or labeling parts bins, Coffey says.

Customers include wineries, distilleries, cosmetic companies, hospitals, and laboratories, he says.

Coffey says only a fraction of 1 percent of Able Label’s customers are based in Spokane.

“We have clients and repeat customers in every state and 27 other Canadian provinces and countries,” he says.

He declines to divulge customers’ names.

“We have a wide range of types of customers,” Coffey says. “There probably isn’t an industry that we don’t have customers in.”

Dick Shanks founded Able Label in 1985.

“I bought if from him when he was 90, and he was still working every day,” Coffey says. “He worked for me for a year afterward.”

Coffey says Shanks developed one of the first graphics libraries of nuts, bolts, and screws.

“When you go to the hardware store and see graphics of bolts on bins, he created that and sold it all over the world,” Coffey says.

He has no plans for additional locations. “We’re just growing out of the Spokane plant,” he says.

Coffey, retired from Spokane-based Red Lion eight years ago after a 27-year career there.

“I retired from Red Lion, but not from business,” says Coffey, who’s 60 years old.

Coffey says he was often on the road when he was with Red Lion.

“I always wanted a business in Spokane,” he says. “I have six kids. Being able to spend time with them and have a business here in the local area is a joy for me.”

Although he’s dabbled other entrepreneurial ventures, he says, “My main focus is Able Label.”