Steinhauser printing

Label & Narrow Web, Oct, 2008 by Jack Kenny

Steinhauser Printing is 103 years old. Since 1905 the company has produced top quality sheetfed offset products--including quite a few labels--from its plant in the Cincinnati, OH, USA, region. A few years ago, when the company was 99 years old, a major customer made a change to its product packaging, and Steinhauser found itself facing a change that its owners suspected would become reality sooner or later: Go flexo.

Steinhauser Printing has annual sales of $7 million. Today, 60 percent of that revenue comes from flexographic printing.

"Getting into the flexo market solidified us in the label game," says Trevor Steinhauser, vice president. "Flexo can offer more capabilities than sheet fed printing can. We still print a portion of our labels sheet-fed."

Trevor and his sister, Tara Steinhauser Halpin, who is president of the company, are fourth generation owners. The business was founded by Albert Steinhauser in Cincinnati. In the early days a big part of the business was devoted to printing government bonds. One of Albert's sons was to be the successor, but was killed in the line of duty during World War II. His other son, Wilbur, got involved and took over.

"At one point the company was probably going to go out of business, but then Hank Williams died," Trevor says. "My grandfather didn't even know who he was, but a friend of his had an idea for a hillbilly book about the country singer. We produced it and it was a raving success, with print runs in the tens of thousands. That got the company into commercial printing, mostly of smaller publications, and away from government printing. It was a second wind."

In 1983, Wilbur's son Robert bought his father out. "We had a printing division producing general commercial work, but we also had customer for whom we printed soap and lotion labels," Trevor says. In 1995 Steinhauser entered the in-mold label field, printing labels for lotions and other products on HDPE. "That got us into packaging," says Trevor "We printed the labels offset until we got into flexo."

In 2005, when the foray into flexo had begun, Robert Steinhauser named his daughter president of the company. A week later he was diagnosed with brain cancer, and died not long afterward. The siblings found themselves at the helm of a company in transition.

"We had worked there during summers when we were young," Trevor recalls. Tara's been with the business for 12 years, and I've been here for seven. We have been involved with every facet of the company, such as estimating, customer service, and marketing. We've had a taste of everything." Tara's focus today is on operations and administration. Trevor handles sales and new business development.

The change to flexo happened this way: "For years we printed soap packages, then paper and laminated labels, and then sheet-fed in-mold labels. In 2004, a long-time customer--one that we have had for 60 years--changed its graphics and litho could not produce what they wanted. That's when we moved into flexo. We had been conducting R&D on flexographic presses for several years, because we knew that we would eventually have to make the switch," Trevor says.

The team at Steinhauser looked at many press brands and models. Their choice was a Comco ProGlide, a 10-color UV press for production of pressure sensitive film labels.

"It was a very successful transition," notes Trevor. "The people at Comco said that it's easier to make the transition with offset operators as long as they are willing to make changes and move to a new process. It can be unsuccessful if the operators are not willing to change because it's a completely different machine, and if they have preconceived notions about flexo. They will be extremely successful if they take the high end printing mindset into flexo. We have the guys to do that. We have been printing some amazing graphics, and a lot of people have said they have never seen that type of quality in flexo."

[ILLUSTRATION OMITTED]

In July of this year the company took delivery of its second Comco press, an eight-color, 16" ProGlide with UV and water base print capability. "These presses have so many capabilities," Trevor adds. "They are amazing."

Steinhauser Printing has 30 employees, about 10 of them working on flexo projects. On the offset side, the company has Komori and Heidelberg presses. Flexo plates are jobbed out, but Trevor says that prepress improvements for flexo are in the company's three-year plan.

Does Steinhauser see digital printing in its future? "Absolutely," Trevor declares. "We are currently researching several digital presses for future investments, as the technology would be a perfect complement to our business."

STEINHAUSER

The Fine Print.

Steinhauser Printing

207 East 4th St.

Newport KY 41071 USA

859-491-7900

www.steinhauserinc.com

Founded:       1905

Annual Sales:  $7 million

Employees:     30

Management:    Tara Steinhauser Halpin, president Trevor
               Steinhauser, vice president

Presses" 5:    three offset, two flexo