5447 NW 24th St STE 5, Margate, FL USA 33063
www.executivelabel.com
Executive Label was established in a garage in 1990, but the company’s vision goes back some time further. Rich Preiser and his wife, Peggy, both worked in the printing industry. Rich occupied multiple roles during his tenure at Webtron, and Peggy was a graphic designer. With Rich’s mechanical skills and Peggy’s knack for design, the Preisers set out on a journey to build their own company.
“One of my jobs at Webtron was working with customers who would buy label printing presses,” explains Rich. “It seemed like something my wife and I could do, so I went to the president of Webtron in 1989 and said, ‘I want to buy a press.’ He said, ‘Yes,’ but that meant I could no longer work with customers because of the conflict of interest. I agreed, and I watched my press go through the assembly line. Back then, we needed to raise about $45,000 to buy the press, but to us, it could have been $1 million.
“My wife and I didn’t have the education to go out and get a high paying supervisor’s job, but we did have determination and drive for hard work,” he adds. “We’re persistent in whatever we go after.”
Rich and Peggy went to great lengths to raise the funds necessary for buying the 3-color Webtron press. The first move Rich made was selling his Corvette that he had originally purchased upon returning home from Vietnam.
It was not as simple as just buying a press, though. The Preisers needed help along the way. Rich turned to his mentor, Ed Carr, for help in getting the Executive Label business off the ground.
“Ed had a big shop named Scranton Label, and I had known him for some time,” says Rich. “He helped me get started, and I would buy paper from him. Any time I had a question, he was there to help. Ed would always take my phone calls no matter how busy he was, and to this day I can call him to talk. We’re good personal friends and he’s a good man. He would always say, ‘You pay everybody else, and then you pay me last and pay me what you can.’”
At the time, the Preisers continued with their day jobs. When they returned home, Rich would head into the garage to print and Peggy would design Executive Label’s artwork. “I bought the press and put it in my garage, but I didn’t know how to print on it,” says Rich. “It took me about three months to get going before I got my first order. I still have the picture of that label hanging up on my wall from my first order in March 1990.”
The Preisers worked out of the garage for five years before buying out a small company that came with an old New Era press and a host of connections. That acquisition in 1995 brought with it a considerable amount of work. Rich then picked up his first pressman, Edwin Millet, who proved to be a key ingredient in Executive Label’s success and remains with Executive Label to this day. The Preisers also made the decision to move out of the garage and into a warehouse that same year.
Executive Label started out printing labels for foods and furniture, and then it expanded into a wide range of areas. The initial orders in the furniture market included protection labels, as well as those for polishes and cleaners.
Executive Label continued to add accounts, and Rich swapped out the original Webtron press for a 7-color Webtron. He also added four more employees. Today, Executive Label boasts 24 employees and operates out of a 10,000 square-foot facility. The company relies on four presses: two HP Indigo digital presses and two flexo presses from Nilpeter.
Rich’s deep ties in the printing industry helped facilitate the move to Nilpeter. As they rose through the ranks, Lenny DeGirolmo and Tom Clawson, currently with Nilpeter USA, and Paul Teachout, formerly with Nilpeter and currently with Anderson & Vreeland, all worked for Preiser. That made the transition to Nilpeter a seamless one.
“Nilpeter was an obvious choice, and they make a great press,” says Rich. “We ended up buying from Nilpeter, and I’m glad we did because the printing quality is great compared to the old presses that we had. But when you see the new equipment, you see how good it prints and how fast it prints.”
Executive Label has established strong partnerships with a host of suppliers. In addition to the two Nilpeter presses (a 17" FA-Line and a 13" press), Cyngient helps the company with its flexo business providing inks and coatings for new applications. Meanwhile, HP and A B Graphic have been integral to Executive Label’s booming digital business.
Rich and Peggy have been surrounded by a dedicated team to help make critical business decisions, as well. Jason Raye joined the company in 2011 as vice president and was instrumental in the decision to invest in digital. Meanwhile, David Costello runs the digital department after beginning in Executive Label’s shipping department. Plus, Millet has been with Rich since the company operated out of the Preisers’ garage and serves in a supervisory role over all production, both flexo and digital.
Executive Label’s sustained growth can be tied to the addition of Jason Raye, who joined the company in 2011. Raye emerged as a driving force in the decision to invest in digital printing – and other cutting-edge technologies.
“When I arrived here from Texas, there wasn’t a wireless network in the office,” explains Raye. “I told Rich that we had to get a modem so I could get online with my laptop. I came in the next day and there was a stapler with an antenna on it. So, I had a wireless stapler. But with that being said, he really got on board with digital, and that really changed the business so much. That’s why we continue to invest in new technologies.
“I joined the company to learn, build and grow the business, and I didn’t know a thing about printing,” adds Raye. “I didn’t even know what CMYK was, but I came in with a great team around me and got to work.”
In 2012, Executive Label reached a crossroads, as it operated three Webtron 750s. According to Raye, the company was faced with the decision of going with a wider-web flexo press or doubling down on the narrow-web marketplace with digital. The company performed its due diligence and made the decision to go digital.
“I was very reticent to buy digital because of the click charges and the maintenance fees that were associated with the press, but the move did pay off,” acknowledges Rich. “HP is a good company and they stand by their equipment and their service.”
“After doing the research and hearing what some of the customers were saying and asking for – and seeing the quality of digital – we made the decision that the fastest way to scale the business was going to be to invest in digital,” states Raye. “That is when we purchased that first HP Indigo 4500 press. Not only did we get that 13" wide press, but we were able to almost double the number of jobs in a shift. I would say that decision that we made was a key milestone for the company. That really changed the business tenfold, because there were a number of customers we weren’t able to do business with, but now we could. We could work with double the customers and do double the jobs every single month, so it really changed our business quite a bit. And we were doing it in less time and with less waste.”
Executive Label has trusted its digital journey to HP. Following the investment in the HP Indigo 4500 digital press, the company traded up for an HP Indigo 6800 in 2016. Most recently, Executive Label has added an HP Indigo 8000. Despite its new arrival, the 8000 has already helped Executive Label add business.
“We’ve only had the 8000 for about two or three months, but we have one longstanding, existing customer that – with the additional speed we’re getting from the 8000 and the fact that they’re mid-size runs with multiple SKUs – we’ve already been able to pick up quite a bit of business that we were losing to another company,” says Raye.
Costello has also been an integral part of the digital side of the business. Originally in shipping, he approached Rich about learning the inner workings of the company’s new digital press back in 2012.
“David proved himself in shipping and then one day asked if he could take the digital books home and read them,” recalls Rich. “I didn’t really think he was going to read them, and then about a week later he came in and started asking me questions because I used to run the digital press and went to school for it. We then sent him back to school, and now he’s in charge of both of our two million-dollar presses.”
In the future, Executive Label’s goals extend beyond digital printing. The company has already taken steps to automate the facility, and management plans to further its capabilities in new applications such as flexible packaging and shrink sleeves.
“We started some automation initiatives late last year that have turned out really well,” says Raye. “We also are doing more work with shrink sleeves and flexible packaging. We see a lot of growth potential in those markets that we’ll be diving into. We’re always going to keep growing the business and investing in newer technology.”
“There is a ton of room for growth and places we can go,” adds Rich. “We’re just scratching the surface.”
Executive Label has built a foundation that places a premium on the customer and the employee – and that mantra starts at the top. Rich Preiser has gone to great lengths – literally – to take care of his customers and employees. An avid flyer and award-winning plane restorationist, Rich once hopped in his plane to personally deliver labels to a customer in need.
“We had a job that required printing a million watermelon labels for a farmer on the other side of Florida,” he explains. “The labels got stuck at a trucking company, and they wouldn’t deliver to him because they weren’t working those days, and then the weekend was approaching. The labels were on the dock but he couldn’t gain access to them. So what we did was – in the morning – printed about 300,000 labels. I took them to my plane and flew these labels over to our customer on the other side of Florida and handed him the labels. I didn’t charge him a penny extra, and he then asked me about paying for the fuel. I said, ‘Don’t you worry about it.’ That’s what we would do for a customer.”
In order to best serve its customers, Executive Label has a full-staffed art department and makes all of its plates in-house. With a tagline of “Your Partner on the Road to Success,” Executive Label has enjoyed growing with many of its customers.
“We want to make it easy to work with us,” says Raye. “We’ll work Saturdays and stay late. We’ll bend over backwards to get orders out. Our philosophy is to work hard and be that company that will always say yes. We really look to build those long-term relationships with customers.”
Excellent customer service has emanated from the company’s culture. Whether it be holiday parties or simply offering support to his staff, Rich has taken lengths to ensure the happiness of his employees.
“I’m a firm believer in taking care of the employees. As small as we are, we give a lot back to them,” he says. “I pay for 100% of their healthcare and put 3% into their 401(k), whether they put in a penny or not. And if an employee is in trouble, they know they can come to me and get help if they need it, for whatever it may be. I like to keep my employees happy and safe. If somebody has a problem, hopefully they come to me.”
This philosophy has been on full display during the COVID-19 pandemic. In March and April, Executive Label split its team into two groups. The “A” group would work Monday, Wednesday and Friday one week and then Tuesday and Thursday the next, and then the other group would work the opposite days. Rich and Peggy paid the employees for 80 hours despite the downtime simply to ensure their safety.
“We’re very fortunate and thankful for the team and our ability to make it through without laying off or furloughing any employees,” notes Raye. “By splitting the team into two, we were able to manage the workload while cutting the amount of people in the facility by half every day. We were able to set some people up to work remotely. It was a very big adjustment, but I would say that we’re very proud of the way the team stuck together and communicated with each other. We were able to keep production running smoothly out of here and on-time.”
Executive Label has also pivoted into new markets. Many of its clients in the food and beverage, cosmetics, and CBD label markets began producing hand sanitizers. As business waned in some segments, the company produced millions of hand sanitizer labels for other customers.
This creativity and foresight will continue to propel Executive Label into the future. “We had 12 employees when I got here in 2011, and we were doing upwards of $2 million a year. We tripled the revenues, and today we have four presses and 24 employees, but we have six employees who have been working here for more than 15 years with a couple that have been here over 20. That does speak volumes to the company culture, and we see it as an extension of our family.”
April 14, 2021 at 12:03AM
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