125 Years Young

Research suggests that people who live past the age of 100 do so partially because of fortunate genetics, but primarily because of favorable lifestyle choices. When companies achieve comparable levels of longevity, it could be said that a similar mix of factors helps them endure. One case in point is Keller Crescent, a Greensboro, N.C.-headquartered printer and converter of healthcare secondary packaging that is celebrating 125 years in the industry. For Keller Crescent, which currently enjoys a strong market presence in pressure-sensitive roll labels, package inserts and outserts, and folding cartons for the pharmaceutical, medical device, and healthcare packaged goods industries, longevity is a product of a solid financial and infrastructural foundation and, most significantly, a long history of smart strategic choices.

"We have seen many changes and have repositioned the company many times to provide the products and services –required by a changing customer base," explains Bill Mitchell, CEO of Keller Crescent. Founded in 1885 as an Evansville, Ind.-based letterpress printing shop by steamboat captain and Civil War officer William H. Keller, the company made its first strategic market decision with the advent of World War II, when it shifted its founding focus on steam book and job printing, bookbinding, and blank book manufacturing to government work, including the printing of rifle targets and rifle operation manuals.

The next pivotal strategic market choice the company faced arose in the early 1960s with the decline in the traditional letterpress market; in response to the trend, Keller Crescent instituted a large-scale retraining program to facilitate entry into the board specialty, packaging, and point-of-purchase businesses, while preserving jobs and optimizing employees' existing skill sets. In 1989, the company chose to transition to a sole focus on the production of pharmaceutical packaging and labels—a decision that has spurred significant growth, even in the turbulent economic climate of recent years.

Concurrent to these market-driven shifts has been a series of organizational changes aimed to establish the optimal financial and management foundation for Keller Crescent's long-term success—including the 1968 sale of Keller Crescent to American Standard; the subsequent buyback of the company by management in 1986; and more recently, the 2007 acquisition of Keller Crescent by global packaging manufacturer Clondalkin Group. Clondalkin went on to merge Keller Crescent's operations with those of pharmaceutical packaging manufacturer Pharmagraphics, which resulted in the shift of Keller Crescent headquarters from Evansville, Ind., to Greensboro, N.C.; the doubling of its facilities from three to six; and the creation of an expanded capacity to meet label and folding carton customers needs. This capability includes 25 presses (flexographic, offset, and letterpress), 50 folders, 15 glue lines, an assortment of diecutters, and more than 600 manufacturing employees. "Given our resources and the unique mixture of experience brought by these three converging operations, we have the potential to be so much more of a market presence together than we ever could have had apart," Mitchell observes.

Anti-aging strategies

As Keller Crescent marks the milestone of 125 years in business, its management team is already laying out a strategic framework for the company's next century and a quarter of operations—a plan that is anchored in keeping Keller Crescent forever young in its ability to adapt to the evolving needs of pharmaceutical companies, particularly as government legislation continually alters industry business models.

"Companies servicing the healthcare industry must remain financially stable to be able to reinvest in new technologies and systems that meet the needs of the end customer," Mitchell explains. He cites such emerging trends as larger format inserts designed to accommodate more information; the integration of more brand authentication, anti-counterfeiting, and other brand protection technologies on both labels and cartons; elevated specification and documentation of quality requirements on literature, labels, and cartons; and increased attention to packaging cost control.

Little more than a month of Keller Crescent's next 125 years may have passed, but the company is already making good on its mission to continually invest in technology for the ever-changing pharmaceutical market. In response to a need expressed by its customers, Keller Crescent is entering the digital printing market with the installation of a Xeikon 3300 digital label press. Ernie Chaplin, Keller Crescent's vice president of marketing, notes that digital printing capability is not only essential for the company to produce secondary packaging in accordance with the full array of volumes and SKUs emerging in the pharmaceutical market, but also will enable it to focus flexographic and letterpress printing equipment on print volumes most appropriate for those technologies.

Members of Keller Crescent's management team evaluated several inkjet and liquid toner-based digital press technologies before selecting the Xeikon 3300. According to Keller Crescent vice president of technology Dave Brown, leading factors in the decision included the Xeikon 3300's print quality, user-friendliness, efficiency, and cost to operate. In addition, Brown notes that the Keller Crescent team was particularly drawn to the benefits of Xeikon's dry toner-based system. "The dry toner used in the Xeikon digital presses is 100-percent free of VOCs, meets FDA guidelines for direct and indirect contact with dry foods, and has been proven to achieve a superior color match of most PMS colors," he explains. Another compelling benefit of the dry toner technology, says Brown, is that it does not require pre-treatment of substrates. He further relates, "Virtually every substrate we have tested on the Xeikon has not been an issue, with the exception of shrink film materials and polyethylene substrates," adding, "We do not see this current limitation as an issue for us since these materials are typically not used in pharmaceutical label printing."

Xeikon 3300 press specifications note the accommodation of 7.9˝ 13˝ substrate widths, a capability to print at speeds up to 63 feet per minute, and a maximum capacity of 2,300,000 feet per month. Brown maintains that Keller Crescent's typical run length on the press remains to be determined, as the investment marks the company's first foray into digital printing. "However," he states, "we project run lengths up to 400,000 square inches will be cost-effective in comparison with the traditional flexographic process."

The Keller Crescent team found that the addition of digital printing technology to specifically support short-run, fast-turnaround jobs also necessitated changes to related systems in order to avoid production bottlenecks. For instance, the digital printing of pressure-sensitive labels led the company to also upgrade its converting equipment to more efficiently deliver the diecutting capabilities and full range of water-based and UV coatings required by pharmaceutical customers. The upgrade was accomplished with Grafisk Maskinfabrik (GM)'s DC330 converter unit, which is designed to operate in-line with the Xeikon 3300, and can transition to an off-line converting solution to manage bottleneck situations that may still arise.

The addition of digital printing has also prompted Keller Crescent's upgrade of its prepress software and hardware, in order to confirm compatibility with customer files and assure suitability of color profiling tools for matching PMS colors with CMYK process colors. Finally, entry into digital printing has necessitated the involvement of Keller Crescent's quality assurance staff, to ensure proper integration of the quality systems, such as current good manufacturing practices (cGMPs), required for pharmaceutical companies to comply with FDA guidelines.

Hip to pharmaceutical needs

For Keller Crescent, a digital printing investment not only conveys its commitment to keeping in touch with today's pharmaceutical packaging needs, but also lays the foundation for it to stay on top of emerging market trends for years to come. In the short-term, Chaplin notes that digital printing capability will play a pivotal role in Keller Crescent's ability to assist pharmaceutical customers with answering the needs of several key high-interest areas, including the adoption of improved inventory management initiatives; implementation of product authentication on printed materials, particularly in product serialization applications; and utilization of 2D bar codes for unit-of-use packages and pedigree tracking of packaging. Chaplin also expects digital printing to function as a core customer solution for navigating the continued growth in specialty pharmaceutical packaging, which will require pharmaceutical planning and purchasing personnel to meet heightened demands for reduced inventory levels, shorter lead times, and increased obsolescence management.

As the Keller Crescent management team takes the long view on accomplishing the company's mission to maintain adaptability, the Xeikon 3300's modular, upgradeable platform could serve as a fountain of youth of sorts, by continually enabling entry into emerging applications. For instance, Brown notes that the company could conceivably opt to upgrade its digital printing technology to enable production of both labels and folding cartons, once a cost-effective method for in-line application of coatings to carton substrates is developed. In the meantime, Keller Crescent's continued track record of sustainable financial decisions and pinpointed focus on serving pharmaceutical packaging requirements bode well for many more years of wise strategic choices and subsequently ageless appeal to its customer base. pP

Keller Crescent focuses its efforts on the ever-changing pharmaceutical and healthcare markets.

For Keller Crescent, investment in the Xeikon 3300 digital printing technology lays the foundation for the company to stay on top of emerging pharmaceutical market trends for years to come.