Commercial Printer Does Packaging

The commercial printing side of the print industry has been struggling with several issues in recent years. Increased mail costs mean less direct mail; increased use of electronic media to communicate means less is printed (what is happening to newspapers is an excellent example); and the costs of raw materials have become an issue. Many commercial printers have transitioned to being marketing service providers, with some even eliminating the word "print" from their company literature. Others, like Tepel Brothers, have entered into the package-printing arena. This printer, one of the top 400 printers in the United States, with sales of greater than $23 million, recognized the niche it could fill as a package printer, in addition to the variety of other products it prints for a client base that includes automobile and greeting card manufacturers, casinos, financial concerns, and magazine publishers. However, Tepel Brothers staff was quick to identify it as an area to exploit. "Once our sales staff recognized the potential of what our capabilities had to offer, it quickly realized that we truly are a unique source for specialized processes and product offerings that we can produce," says Jim Tepel, company president. "It also has an impact on our client base. No longer do they need to travel hundreds of miles for press checks because the closest printer with our capabilities is in Chicago, or even further."

Commercial start

Tepel Brothers was founded in 1989 by Jim and Harriet Tepel. The company specializes in high-impact work on plastic and synthetics for a diverse client base. It first got into packaging about ten years ago after buying a folder/gluer and a diecutter. "For a number of years we didn't make much more progress than just doing o-cards—pretty much straight-line folding and gluing and making boxes for DVDs," says Jim Tepel. "From there, some of the other clients we had would come to us with a consumer product like an air filter. They'd ask, 'Can you guys do that?' Well, yeah, we can. And it just slowly evolved."

Today the company employs 110 people on two shifts, with about 20 dedicated to the printer's packaging work. About a year ago, 10 percent of Tepel Brothers's business was in packaging, and it is now near 20 percent. Looking ahead five years, Tepel expects to print more and more packaging. "I have one person on board today that just joined our team about four months ago, and he is almost strictly a packaging sales person. And plastics is his specialty. So we are going pursue that nationally and work with as many resellers and other packaging companies as we can that have special packaging work. I do see us evolving much more toward that than back in the commodity print market," he says."

Competitive pressure is one of the reasons for this evolution, according to Tepel. "The commodity CMYK printers are battling daily for a piece of the ever shrinking print market pie," he remarks. "Unlike commercial print, there will always be a need for packaging and fewer printers can afford to make the major investment needed to produce packaging products."

Carving a niche with equipment

Tepel's pressroom features a variety of Heidelberg presses in almost every format size, including a pair of Speedmaster XL 105s, a six-color Speedmaster SM 74 perfector with inline coater, a two-color Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 74 perfector, a Heidelberg two-color perfector, and a Printmaster two-color press. But what Tepel is most proud of is the second XL 105 it purchased with an IST UV system. "With the purchase of our second XL 105, which is a UV press, we have nearly unlimited capability to offer our customers," boasts Tepel. "The full interdeck UV system allows us to print on most any substrate." The printer also claims to be the only sheetfed printer in Southeast Michigan that can print with inline UV capabilities.

The company also has an array of finishing equipment. "We also invested in the Bobst Spanthera LER106 high-speed diecutter with full stripping and blanking capabilities," adds Tepel, who considers this a "must have" machine for anyone who wants to compete in the packaging market.

"Together with our Bobst folder/gluer, we are able to print, diecut, and finish the entire job in house," he states proudly.

Synthetics and UV

Printing UV is an area Tepel Brothers is focusing on, and the printer hasn't been afraid to invest in equipment that will help it meet its goals, especially with its focus on synthetic materials. According to Tepel, the XL 105 is a $5 million press, and most printers aren't going to make that kind of investment in equipment and all the capabilities and experience you must have to print on synthetics and different APET materials. "So we're starting to try to find our market niche in that, and that's really our focal point today."

Most of the company's packaging work has been for the entertainment industry, but it also does a variety of different folding cartons for small- to mid-size companies to accommodate their products. But, where Tepel wants the company to go is into the boutique packaging markets that use synthetic substrates, along with special effects and inline UV coatings. "Our target markets are cosmetic, beverage, holiday promotional gift packaging, media/entertainment, and specific high-margin consumer products," he says. "We are currently exploring expanding our expertise in UV lenticular printing, to move toward lenticular 3D and morphed images on clear polyester folding cartons."

Do you need to worry?

Despite what some might think, there hasn't been a wholesale migration to package printing by commercial printers. To Tepel, it's because of the investment required. For example, he states that Tepel Brothers had to partially reinvent how it does many processes because of the complex nature of the product. And moving to UV brought the company into a whole new world, where Tepel claims the learning curve can be 3-5 years. But, it's the capital investment that is the clearest differentiator.

"I don't feel that the word 'wholesale' is an accurate description [of what's happening]. The required investment in order to produce packaging is prohibitive for many commercial printers and if the adequate capital is not in place, failure will be imminent," he asserts.

In fact, he thinks most commercial printers stay away from packaging printing.

A pleasure to be here

After all is said and done, Tepel is pleased to have gotten into package printing. "It is an area that we are glad we are working in today," he says. "It helps to be diversified. We're in the Detroit market, and you don't want to be classified under an automotive printing, or any segment per se, and I think the more diverse we stay, the better balance we have to our workflow, which complements what we do very well." And, for Tepel, the capital investment is paying off, as he says, "It's a nice area we're looking forward to growing."