105 Years Young

As it continues during its second century in ­business, Steinhauser Inc. is a “nimble ­partner” to its customers.

Steinhauser Inc. (Newport, Ky.) has come a long way in its 105-year history in the printing industry. Although it was founded by Albert Steinhauser in 1905 as a commercial printing operation, it has evolved into a business that, today, focuses solely on labels and packaging. It is owned and operated by Tara Steinhauser Halpin, president, and Trevor Steinhauser, vice president, the fourth generation of the Steinhauser family to run the business.

The company's evolution was slow and steady. In the 1950s, it branched out into label printing, primarily laminated cut-and-stack paper labels. In the early 1990s, it perfected an in-mold label process using waterless offset lithography to print on plastic film, reports Steinhauser. It added flexographic printing in 2005 and then, in 2008, the company sold its commercial printing segment to concentrate on package printing.

Nimble partner

Today Steinhauser Inc. produces pressure-sensitive (p-s) labels, in-mold labels (IMLs), flexible packaging, and shrink sleeves for markets including health and beauty, personal care, household, and food and beverage. It prints on a variety of p-s films and paper, HDPE and PP IML films, shrink film materials (both OPS and PVC), and multiple flexible packaging films.

The company has one facility with three presses and 19 employees. Its flexographic capabilities include UV and water-based printing using Mark Andy (www.markandy.com) Comco presses. Earlier this year, the company installed an HP Indigo (www.hp.com) ws6000 digital press to support its growing need for effective short-run printing.

According to the company's Strategic Foundation, its core strength comes from being "a proven nimble partner caring about our clients' brands." Steinhauser says the company uses its small size to develop close relationships with its customers, while providing large-company capabilities. "What makes us distinctive is that we have the technology of our larger competitors, but we are a small company that is nimble and able to turn on a dime to serve all of our customers' requests," he says.

Short-run trends

In recent years, Steinhauser Inc. kept a close eye on the developing trend for smaller order quantities, along with the role that digital printing would play in this endeavor. "We researched digital technology for four years," reports Steinhauser. "We made the decision to make the investment to satisfy current customer needs, as well as to secure new business. Digital technology is a perfect complement to our flexo workflow. Many customers are going to a JIT (just-in-time) philosophy and digital technology allows us to produce these small orders."

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