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Case Study
Durable Labels Supporting Tree Identification and Traceability Across Infinity Christmas Trees
Infinity Christmas Trees is a leading UK wholesaler of British-grown Christmas trees, bringing together a collective of experienced professional growers from across the country. Founded in 2017 by David Brown, a former Chairman of the British Christmas Tree Growers Association with more than 30 years’ experience in the industry, the business was established with a clear ambition: to provide customers with consistently high-quality, fresh Christmas trees grown here in the UK.
Introduction to Infinity Christmas Trees
Today, Infinity has more than 850,000 trees in production across more than 650 acres, with a network of farms throughout the UK helping the business supply fresh, regionally grown trees to its trade customers. Quality, sustainability and traceability are central to its approach, with growers working to the British Christmas Tree Growers Association’s code of practice and trees carefully nurtured from planting through to harvest.
Traceability also plays an important role in Infinity’s operation. Its trees are identified using Plant Passports and unique serial numbers, helping provide clear information about each tree while allowing Premium grade trees to be traced back to the plantation where they were grown.
Objectives - Creating a consistent system across multiple farms
Before Infinity was established, the individual farms used relatively simple coloured paper tags to identify their Christmas trees. These provided a visual means of identification, but there were no barcodes or wider identification system in place.
Bringing several farms together under Infinity created a need for something more robust and consistent.
The labels would need to remain with trees growing outdoors, exposed to the British weather, while providing a system that could be used consistently across multiple sites. Previous paper tags could become damaged when extremely wet, potentially tearing or coming away from the tree.
Infinity therefore needed a durable identification solution that could support its growing operation without complicating what remains a very hands-on process.
The Solution: Durable Colour-coded tree labels
Dura-ID supplies Infinity Christmas Trees with durable tags, designed to remain attached and clearly identifiable throughout the tree’s journey.
The labels are supplied in various colours, with each colour representing a different tree size. This gives Infinity’s team an immediate visual indication when working among large numbers of trees in the field.
Each tree is individually assessed, hand-picked and hand-labelled by the Infinity team. The label therefore becomes part of the physical process of preparing the trees for sale, rather than simply being applied later in the supply chain.
Importantly, the labels also carry site coding and serial information. This enables Infinity to identify the farm a tree originated from and drill down further to the individual field when required, creating what the team describes as ” full traceability.”
Plant Passport information is incorporated into the label, so the required information is part of the same identification solution.
From August to Christmas
Durability is particularly important because Infinity’s labels aren’t applied immediately before the trees reach retailers.
The tagging process begins from around August, meaning the labels can spend several months outside before the trees are eventually supplied to retailers during November and December.
Throughout this period, Infinity has found that the labels maintain their appearance and, importantly, their colour. This is a significant improvement on the paper tags previously used by the individual farms.
“They always look the same as when we put them on.”
Infinity explained that where its old paper tags could come off or rip when they became extremely wet, the current labels remain strong, attached and easy to see
Supporting Traceability Across the Infinity Network
For Infinity, the value of the label extends beyond durability.
Operating across several farms’ means being able to identify where individual trees originated is an important part of maintaining control and consistency across the business.
The coding incorporated into the labels means that if Infinity receives a query or experiences an issue with a customer, the team can identify the relevant farm before using the serial information to determine the field the tree originated from.
This provides a consistent traceability system across the different growing locations while retaining the simple, visual colour identification that works effectively for teams in the field.
A Predictable Supply Partnership
Infinity has worked with Dura-ID since the business was established, and reliability has become an important part of that relationship.
Christmas tree production operates to a clear seasonal timetable. The team has a relatively defined window in which trees need to be labelled, with stock figures then required to support the next stages of the process. Late delivery of labels could therefore have a knock-on effect on the wider operation.
For Infinity, knowing when its labels will arrive is particularly valuable.
“It’s predictable, which is good.'”
The team explained that when Dura-ID provides a two- or three-week lead time, the labels reliably arrive within that timeframe – and are often earlier rather than later.
When asked to sum up what working with Dura-ID is like, Infinity’s answer was even simpler: “Easy”
Growing for the Future
With shortages of Christmas trees currently affecting both the UK and wider European market, Infinity’s focus is on increasing planting where possible while continuing to refine its processes and maintain the quality of the trees it supplies.
The existing labelling system remains an important part of that process.
As Infinity puts it: “It’s working. It’s doing what we want.”
The business is also considering expanding its labelling further as other parts of its range grow, including potentially introducing an additional label for another increasingly significant tree category.
For a business managing trees across multiple farms, varieties, sizes and growing stages, the labels provide something straightforward but essential: a durable and consistent means of identifying every tree and tracing it back through the Infinity network.
