SPIRITED COMPETITORS OF GCI CONVERTING (COVER STORY)

For starters, employees don't have titles. Each is cross-trained in several areas of company operations to ensure expedited production orders. In a further effort to provide customers with quick-response, personalized service, incoming calls are always directed to a "live" person, not voice mail.

GCI was founded in 1982 as a small converting operation outfitted with cutting and gluing equipment, located in a Bridgeview, Ill., half-bay warehouse. The company moved into its current 122,000-sq. ft. facility in Bolingbrook in 2000. That same year, Robert W. Ruebenson took over ownership from the founders of the company—his parents, Robert F. and Shirley V. Ruebenson.