Repacorp Celebrates 40th Anniversary

Repacorp Inc., Tipp City, Ohio, the label supplier known for its 760 stock labels and tags, announced that October 2014 marks the company's 40th year anniversary of its founding.

Forty years ago, Repacorp's co-founders, Jim and Pat Adams, set up Repacorp in the bedroom of their home as a company representing printing corporations (thus the name "Rep-A-Corp"). Today, Repacorp is a $35 million company, housing two wide-format digital presses, two RFID presses, 23 flexographic presses and five digital presses with laser cutting, in three manufacturing facilities located in Ohio, Wisconsin and Arizona.

Rick Heinl, CEO of Repacorp, explained how he got into the label industry:

"When you graduate from high school and even college, I don't think many people really know what profession or career they are going to be in. I majored in accounting because one of my roommates was in it and his advice was to always talk to the professor about cash flow. Not really knowing what that was, it made me look a little smarter when professors asked what was important to pay attention to in business.

"I hated accounting, so I took a job with Keebler Cookies in sales, as an elf, for a year and a half, and then was offered a sales job with Repacorp. I was given an Ohio Industrial Guide and told to go find people that used labels in Ohio and Indiana. We had no copier or fax machine and everything happened much slower than today. Crazy thing was I loved selling and the challenge of selling labels."

"Wow, forty years! So many things have changed in the label business, from typesetting to rubber plates, to Cyrel plates, to computer-to-plate, and now to digital," Heinl added. "One of the most amazing changes to me has been the digital revolution and laser die-cutting."

"I recall Lamboy Unique in Terre Haute, Indiana buying a Packard press to run pinfeed labels. I believe it was 24" wide and would run 1000 feet per minute," he said. "They had one heck of a time getting a die that wide to not bow in the middle and expand as it got hot, causing the die to cut too deep and have matrix everywhere. I think about the wonderful and crazy people I have met in this business: Don McDaniel at MPI, Lon Decker at Graphic Resources, Ken Kidd at Superior Tape & Label, Jim Withrow at Lamboy Unique, Don and George at Data Label, and Jerry Abbott at Metro Label. I could go on for hours thanking so many people that helped my company-Kanzaki, MACtac, Raflatac, Green Bay, Wilson Manufacturing and way too many to name them all," he continued. "Many of these companies have changed names, as have suppliers of papers, presses, dies and so on."

"Repacorp has truly been blessed to be in business 40 years and I am so grateful that my career was in this field," Heinl concluded. "I would highly suggest to young people if they are not sure what to get into, they should consider a profession in the label industry."

For more information, visit www.repacorp.com.