Wise (Label Division)

601 Vanguard Road, Anderson, SC, USA, 29625

www.wbf.com

Wise has emerged as a role model for growth. This family business, deeply rooted in the printing industry, is a powerful example of how to pivot to maintain success. The company has made multiple significant pivots – from newspapers, to commercial printing, to being a trade printer of business forms and then prime and durable labels – illustrating how to expand, reinvent, and succeed as the market changes around you. 

Wise’s Label Division, now one of the leaders in short- and medium-run digital labels, has come a long way from the company’s newspaper roots dating to 1903. The Wise family still owns the 25,000-subscriber Butler Eagle (Butler, PA), as it has for generations. However, David Wise, the uncle of current Wise president and CEO Bill Prettyman, took the Wise family in a new direction by purchasing the paper’s commercial printing arm, the Eagle Printery, in 1964.

David Wise operated the commercial printing business for several years, but with hundreds of commercial printers operating in the Pittsburgh, PA, area, Wise recognized that, if he wanted the Eagle Printery to grow, he needed to take the business in a new direction – one that wasn’t saturated and that had growth potential. So Wise Business Forms was born as a trade printer in 1969. 

Welcome to the Pivot

Today, Wise – which remains a trade-only printer – has an employee count of 200 to 250 at any given time. In addition to Bill Prettyman, Wise’s executive team includes Will Prettyman, Bill’s son, the general manager of the company’s Label Division in Anderson, SC; Bob Saunders, VP of sales; and Holly Martin, the CFO and VP of finance. When David Wise retired in 1994, Wise moved the headquarters to Alpharetta, GA, and Bill became CEO. 

“At the time, there were several hundred other commercial printers in the Pittsburgh, PA, area,” recalls Bill. “So, David decided to find a product that would help the company grow. He settled on business forms, purchased a Didde Tandemer roll-to-sheet press and a collator, and the company has been growing strong ever since.”

Wise now has four regional forms production facilities in Georgia, Indiana, Maine, and Pennsylvania, as well as two industrial/prime labels and tags production facilities in Indiana and South Carolina. The company, which manufactures for resale only, is expressly focused on growing its customers’ business and driving a successful corporate culture. The company boasts a dedicated team of employees who are focused on achieving Wise’s goal of developing customized support programs that address specific customer requirements. 

Plus, the company is ranked among the top five independent forms manufacturers in the US in sales volume, and it is among the leaders in short to medium-run custom forms. 

Over the years, Wise has been quite active in utilizing M&A to grow its business. In 2001, Wise purchased the Piedmont, SC, plant from Continuous Forms and Checks, and then in 2003, it purchased EPX in Portland, ME. This plant remains in operation as Wise’s Maine plant. Then, in 2005, it purchased Woodbury Business forms. 2017 served as a landmark year – not only did Wise enter the label business with its acquisition of Brandmark, but the company also added Datatel in Pittsburgh, PA.

“The purchase of Brandmark was a major turning point for Wise,” states Bill. “Brandmark specialized in custom industrial label applications, primarily in the Southeastern United States. This acquisition launched Wise into the label market.”

Brandmark emanated from Label Rite, which started in 2000. In fact, Wise’s current production manager was the first press operator at Label Rite. Brandmark bought Label Rite out of its stake in 2015, paving the way for Brandmark to commence operations.

Wise relied on the technical know-how of Brandmark’s employees following the 2017 acquisition. “Instead of taking the wrong approach, we decided to go in there and leave Brandmark as it was and not mess around with it,” explains Will. “We wanted to learn the business and understand the products and how they’re made. I learned the business that way.”

The growth was almost instantaneous. “We took a small label business, where we went from a 5,000 square-foot building with two or three presses in it, to moving here to our 35,000 square-foot building and added more machines and an MIS system from CERM,” says Will. “That was the first step – implementing a proper MIS system –
in 2018.”

Wise’s supplier partners have been key in building a successful label business. In addition to CERM, Wise has numerous pieces of capital equipment. Mark Andy presses are still utilized for flexo printing, and Wise added a GM finishing unit to complement its new HP Indigo 6K digital label press. Wilson Manufacturing, along with substrate suppliers Avery Dennison and Spinnaker, a Mactac Company, helped Wise immensely in the early years.

“Wilson has been a great supplier to us,” states Will. “Avery Dennison and Spinnaker have also been very helpful to us. Materials are a huge aspect of the business, so the paper suppliers are critical for Wise. We basically learned the business from the Brandmark team and our press manufacturers, as well as Wilson, Avery Dennison, and Spinnaker. And we’re constantly having to educate our distributors on how to sell labels. We still need to be there as a label subject matter expert for our distributors. We’ve learned a lot from our suppliers and passed that on to our distributors.”

In the same way Wise’s supplier partners were instrumental in fostering success, the printing company takes that exact tact with its customers. Wise has a culture of problem-solving, especially on the labels side. 

“We want to help our customers, and the benefit is that we build customer loyalty,” says Will. “We’ll put together samples of liner, facestock, and adhesive to make sure we find the right combination for their application.”

Wise also conducted NPS (Net Promoter Score) research several years back to ensure the company’s culture was where it needed to be. Customers cited Wise for its reliability and dependability, along with excellent customer service, quality products, and competitive pricing. Customers value the long-term partnerships they have established with Wise, as well.

The company has developed a host of resources for its customers. Wise provides case studies, white papers, vertical market sell sheets, and videos, among other assets, to work in tandem with its customers. Additionally, the company has WiseLink, which is an online and mobile-enabled distributor support website that allows reseller customers to manage their orders, plan order pickups, and access detailed, real-time reporting to monitor inventory.

In the future, Wise will continue investing in the label market and reaching out to other distribution channels, such as commercial printers, label converters, and contract packagers, to grow its business. Wise is primarily working with clients who don’t own label equipment.

“Wise’s position is that commercial printers, label converters, and contract packagers can grow their revenues without additional capital investment,” comments Bill. “By learning to sell durable labels and business forms, they can grab more share of the customers they already have. Wise has a variety of resources, such as vertical market sell sheets and brandable marketing collateral, that helps our customers enter new markets more easily. Wise also has a teaching culture, offering tremendous support for learning new markets and products so customers can broaden their revenue base more easily.”

“Our business is evolving,” adds Will. “We look at how we can continually reinvent our reseller network. Nowadays, it’s all relationships, and that’s what it will be moving forward. There’s that transformation going on of a changing customer base and how we reach our distributors. The plan is mostly to grow organically within the label business and continue to implement label printing throughout our plant locations and infrastructure that we’ve built up for more than 50 years.”

Growing with digital

Even though Wise is relatively new to the label space, it did not take long for the Prettymans to recognize the value of digital printing.

Wise, which has been in the prime and durable labels market since acquiring Brandmark, saw the trend toward short- and medium-run labels. And most of Wise’s customers are small- to medium-sized brands, which further necessitates the need for short-run capabilities. 

“We’re selling to medium and small companies through those medium and small company distributors,” remarks Will. “They need a value-add to offer the end user. We can be a one-stop-shop, where whatever your needs are we can source it for them. We’re managing someone’s print and finding solutions for customer scenarios, where we’re engineering a specific label for a particular need. We have a solution, and our goal is to come up with the best solution for our customers. From a lead time perspective, we can deliver in 3-5 days.”

After a considerable period of time researching the various digital label printing technologies available in the market, Wise selected the HP Indigo 6K digital label press.

“Although there were many options in the digital label market, we felt that HP had incredible quality, and that is what we were looking for,” says Will. “We wanted to be able to produce prime labels, and we felt that liquid ink was better than dry toner. Inkjet held some promise, but at that point, we decided to go with HP because of their level of expertise and support.”

Wise had previous experience with HP, as well. Years back, Wise owned an HP Indigo press when it was operating its NextWave digital printing division, which focused on commercial printing. “We had a good experience with HP then,” says Will. “Plus, their national demo center is only one exit south from us.”

NextWave ran for seven years. However, Wise’s customer base wasn’t ready to sell the digital printing programs required to be profitable in a resale environment. “Distributors aren’t going to sell 100 brochures,” explains Will. “In order for digital printing to be profitable, they had to sell long-term digital printing programs, and at the time they weren’t ready to do that.

“We went with HP for a number of reasons, and it’s a combination of extremely proven technology and also the print quality,” adds Will. “The press can do things other digital presses just can’t do. There’s no other digital press that you can put a spot color in, for example, or switch out an ECG color like orange for violet or green. There is no better print quality. You get the tightest tolerances, and the color-to-color registration is perfect. The word ‘game-changer’ is often overused, but in this case, that’s exactly what this press is.”

Digital printing has also been advantageous for variable data printing, which has been a substantial focal point for Wise. “We’re typically adding numbering or barcoding, as well as image changes, and digital has been very helpful with that.”

Embracing Lean

Wise has also been a strong proponent of Lean Manufacturing. While Wise’s philosophy dates back decades, Lean Manufacturing serves as a pivotal tool as the company drives efficiency. Lean processes and procedures also assist with workforce challenges, streamlining production in the absence of employees. Wise can also assign mission critical tasks to employees where they’re the most valuable.

“Part of our success is due to the embracing of Lean principles,” states Bill. “It’s how our company maintains a high level of efficiency, keeps costs down, and also engages employees and reduces turnover by valuing team members and improving their work environments.”

Wise consistently strives to improve, and Lean Manufacturing serves as a way to ensure productivity in all aspects of the business. “The biggest thing for us is tackling continuous improvement every day,” notes Will. “We’re always looking to find something that we can improve upon. What pain points do our operators and customer service people have? We want to find what’s not working as well as we wish it was, and that makes it easier to get your work done. We’re always training our people about Lean processes.”

Wise originally began its Lean Manufacturing journey in 2006, but it was not until after the recession in 2008 that the company went all-in on adopting these processes. Bill observed the successful results at other companies, prompting him to embrace this manufacturing style.

Lean Manufacturing is so valuable to Wise that the company has hired a director of continuous improvement, Sally Spurr, who travels around to all of its plants to implement best practices. This level of consistency ensures that all Wise facilities are on the same page. Spurr served as the general manager of Wise’s Indiana plant for 10 years before assuming this role. Efficiency gains enable Wise to redeploy employees throughout the plants and cross-train them for various roles. The company has also been able to significantly decrease waste in setup – both in time, materials, and effort in performing tasks. 

“That’s always the challenge when you have multiple plants,” explains Will. “If we don’t have one person consistently checking in on our operations, it would be a challenge. In addition to the trends and transformations, labor is another key challenge. Finding skilled labor is difficult, so we have to make the best of what we have.”

The benefits have been numerous, as Wise has experienced a decrease in waste, as well as faster turnarounds on quotes and improved lead times. Lean Manufacturing has also helped with employee retention. By creating a Lean culture, Wise has also transformed its employees’ way of thinking. This has led to increased job satisfaction and fulfillment, and, ultimately, happier employees.