GOING THE DISTANCE (Diemaker/Diecutter of the Year)

Amid World War II, in 1944, Marbach Co.'s building was all but destroyed by Allied forces bombing, and the company retreated to the nearby city of Unterheinriet. Once the war subsided in 1946, operations returned to Heilbronn. "Faced with a postwar-controlled economy," relates Allen Gurka, president of Allen Die Cutting Consultants, "it was an uphill battle working against a shortage of raw material, power cuts, lack of manpower, and transportation problems. Still the Marbach Co. persisted and grew."