Strategic Leader

Frank Gerace, president and CEO of Multi-Color Corporation, has guided the company to the upper echelons of the industry, earning him packagePRINTING’s 2008 TLMI Converter of the Year Award.

October 2008 by Tom Polischuk

multipage

Many of today’s leaders of package printing companies have spent their entire careers in the industry; not so with Frank Gerace, president and CEO of Multi-Color Corporation (MCC). A relative newcomer to the field, he spent the first 20 years of his career working for consumer products companies, learning and managing business operations from a different perspective.

Gerace has used his experiences to make a significant impact in the package printing community. Since taking the reigns at MCC, he has transformed the company into an industry powerhouse, with 10 consecutive years of record revenue growth.

This stellar business performance is well-recognized by his peers in the tag and label industry. “Frank has proven to be a leader for one of the premier growth label converters in North America and now he’s moving it international,” notes John Hickey, TLMI chairman of the board and CEO of Smyth -Companies. “He does this with his focus on execution and follow-through, which he also exhibits as a TLMI board member.” Hickey has worked closely with Gerace during their time together on the board of directors and recognizes him as “a wonderful friend and colleague, as he is a truly genuine person.”

For his impressive impact on the tag-and-label industry and contributions to TLMI, Frank Gerace is packagePRINTING’s 2008 TLMI Converter of the Year.

Rapid rise

Gerace began his career working for companies in the food processing industry. From 1974 to 1993, he held general management positions with Beatrice Foods Company and -ConAgra Foods, Inc. Included in the portfolios of these two companies were such well-known brands as Egg Beaters, Healthy Choice, Swiss Miss, and Hunt’s. This view from the “other side” would prepare him well for future success as a supplier to some of today’s most demanding consumer products companies.

In 1993, Gerace left the confines of the food industry and ventured into the world of printing and packaging. As plant manager of James River Corp.’s Wausau, Wis., folding-carton plant, he was introduced to a variety of printing and converting technologies. By 1998, he held the position of director of strategic business systems for Fort James Corp.’s Packaging Business—Fort James resulting from a 1997 merger of James River and Fort Howard Corp.

In April of 1998, Gerace first entered the tag-and-label industry, joining Multi-Color Corporation as vice president of operations. MCC was an established gravure label printer with a history of innovation, having introduced in-mold labels to the North American blow molding industry in the 1970s. However, in 1998, MCC was a $48 million company with one wide-web gravure printing plant and was in the throes of some significant financial problems.