TLMI ILLUMINATOR January/February 2008 A NEWSLETTER FOR MEMBERS OF THE TAG AND LABEL MANUFACTURERS INSTITUTE, INC. TLMI Celebrates 75 Years of Dedication to the Industry By any account, 1933 was a pivotal Cleveland, Ohio at the invitation of year. The year started off with E. M. Anderson of the American Tag construction beginning for the Company. Two weeks prior to this Golden Gate Bridge in San Fran- meeting several prominent industry cisco Bay, Adolf Hitler was ap- members gathered in Manhattan to pointed Chancellor of Germany, and discuss the viability of inviting tag the first airing of The Lone Ranger manufacturers in the United States appeared in theaters. As the centu- to organize a trade association. The ries have long demonstrated with minutes from that first meeting the unfolding of time, some histori- three-quarters of a century ago cal markers have staying power and state, “It was unanimously voted by others do not. That same year the roll call to immediately organize a Blaine Act ended 13 years of prohibition in the United States, Franklin Delano Roosevelt was sworn into the oval office, and Wiley Post became the first person to fly solo around the world traveling 15,596 miles in seven days, 18 at the time to ensure compliance hours and 45 minutes. under the then newly approved National Industrial Recovery Act, On June 15th of that year, 21 men which authorized the President to convened at the Hotel Cleveland in regulate businesses in the interests of promoting fair competition. In 1958 at the association’s Silver Anniversary meeting, then associa- tion director Frank Baxter submitted an anecdotal synopsis of what some of the initial objectives were in 1933 trade association to be known as amongst TLMI’s (at the time TMI) Tag Manufacturers Institute,” and founding members. He states, “I the TLMI was born. think it is fair to state that from the Spring of 1933 until the Spring of The industry seventy-five years ago 1935 every trade association in paints a very different picture every industry concerned itself however than the dynamic one we almost exclusively with the creation know as the narrow web market- of, and learning to comply with, an place today. In 1933 prominent tag NRA ‘code of fair competition’ for executives were resistant to starting the industry it represented. The Tag a trade association and only did so Continued on Page Three I L L U M I N A T O R January/February 2008 Dear Fellow Members, TheThe Chairman’sChairman’s Report Report I would like to open my first Speaking of commemorative occa- I would like to remind our converter Chairman’s Letter sions, this year marks TLMI’s 75th members that judging for the annual of the year by anniversary. The front page editorial TLMI Label Awards will once again discussing what is piece in this issue of the Illuminator be occurring mid-year, and I urge you undeniably the takes us back in history to the to keep watching www.tlmi.com for most important association’s founding as TMI (Tag award details and downloadable trade show in our Manufacturers Institute), the entre- entry forms. industry – preneurial landscape of 1933 the Labelexpo. TLMI year the association was conceived Lastly, I would like to draw your has recently been and founded, and the integration of attention to pages 4-7 of this Illumi- informed that Labelexpo Americas label printers into the institute. What nator where you’ll find TLMI’s 2008 taking place in Chicago this an incredible 75 years it has been for Strategic Plan. 2008 marks the third September, will be a three day show our industry and I’m sure I speak for year TLMI has been working on the instead of a four day show as initially all of us when I say that I am proud to strategic plan and our membership planned. The show will open at nine be an entrepreneur in what is will be able to view the association’s o’clock sharp the mornings of undoubtedly the most dynamic niche goals, directives and the status of September 9th, 10th and 11th, of the global packaging sector. each in these pages. closing at five o’clock in the afternoon each day. The Label Awards Banquet Our special anniversary celebration Please make sure to keep watching is now scheduled for Tuesday will occur at this year’s Annual TLMI’s website for more information evening, September 9th. Meeting in October held at the on these issues, and I look forward to Breakers Resort and Hotel in Palm seeing converter members at the Tarsus Expositions has made the Beach, Florida. Event plans are Converter Meeting in Cabo in several decision to cut back a day (Septem- being finalized and we’re all working weeks time. ber 8th is no longer a show day) due hard on putting together what will be to the collective request of their a truly memorable meeting. John Hickey exhibiting base. I applaud Tarsus for TLMI Chairman making this decision, and to demon- CEO, Smyth Companies, Inc. strate their continued loyalty to the narrow web industry and dedication to their exhibiting customers. Officers Directors On the Labelexpo note, TLMI Chairman John Bennett Mike Martin (2007-2010) (2006-2008) recently polled its converting mem- John Hickey Vice President President bers as to the frequency they would CEO FLEXcon LGInternational Smyth Companies like to see Labelexpo held in the Cheryl Caudill Dave McDowell United States. More than ninety Chairman-Elect (2005-2008) (2005-2008) percent of those converters polled Frank Gerace Graphics Market Manager President/CEO Multi-Plastics responded that they would like to see President/CEO McDowell Label & Screen Printing Multi-Color Corp. Labelexpo continue to be held every Thomas Dahbura Michael Ritter other year. We appreciate the (2006-2009) (2005-2008) Vice Chairman Vice President Vice President majority of TLMI converters who Art Yerecic Hub Labels Superior Business Associates responded and gave us their feed- President back, and we’ll take these results Yerecic Label Jeff Dunphy Gary Smith (2004-2010) (2006-2009) back to Tarsus and to their base of President/CEO VP Sales Past Chairman Design Label Manufacturing RotoMetrics exhibiting suppliers. Scott Pillsbury President Michael Falco Randy Wise As most of us know, FINAT is Rose City Label (2006-2009) (2006-2009) celebrating its 50th anniversary this President President Topflight Corp. Century Label year and will be holding its anniver- sary congress in Paris June 18-20. Shahriar Ghoddousi Dominic R. Zaccone II All TLMI members are invited to (2007-2010) (2007-2010) Vice Chairman & CEO Executive Vice President attend the FINAT Congress in Paris, The John Henry Company GSI Technologies, LLC and for more information you can click on the FINAT link on TLMI’s Tony Macleod Legal Counsel links page at www.tlmi.com. 2 I L L U M I N A T O R January/February 2008 industry was born. TLMI Celebrates 75 Years of Service In 1962, the decision was made to Continued from Front Page cost control issues. Members expand the Tag Manufacturers Institute to include pressure sensi- Manufacturers Institute followed the recognized that future growth of their products relied on the readi- tive label manufacturers and the first general pattern and, in complying meeting of the newly formed Tag with the mandates of the National ness of potential customers to accept new design and applications and Label Manufacturers Institute Recovery Administration, the Tag was held in French Lick, Indiana in Industry Code Authority developed in tag manufacturing, in addition of the willingness to pay more as tag June of that year. The institute was forms for the creation of price lists organized into two divisions – a Tag that had not previously existed. sophistication levels rose. A direc- tive that rings only too true for TLMI Division and a Label Division. By 1964 the Label Division of TLMI The actual prices themselves were members today – profit margin preservation and margin growth was produced its first Glossary of Terms, submitted by members of the a 20-page publication crafted to industry. The Institute (TMI) also the foundation upon which the vast majority of association objectives become the foundation of a bur- concerned itself with code require- geoning industry. ments relative to assembling data were decided upon and approved. on the cost of doing business – During the association’s earliest The rest, as they say, is history. The including labor rates and other labor entrepreneurial spirit and drive of matters.” decades, while the tag industry was trying to expand its niche and the the association's membership TMI was trying to define and continues to grow and expand what The tag industry in the early de- has become a multi-billion dollar cades of the TMI was a foundering promote the interest of its members; a man named R. Stanton Avery was global packaging niche. And one. Minutes from association board throughout the decades, TLMI has meetings held during that time cited introducing the first pressure sensitive labels mounted by their been at the forefront, serving the the possibility of the industry as a diverse needs of its North American whole potentially reaching dissolu- own adhesive on a continuous backing. In 1946 Avery Adhesives converter and supplier members tion unless collective branding and and assisting these companies in marketing measures were taken. Incorporated became the Avery Adhesive Label Corporation. More charting a course for their own Small companies prevailed in the profits and business success. In its tag industry in the middle of the than 80 percent of the company’s output consisted of industrial labels 75th year, TLMI would like to thank twentieth century and R&D re- all its members and every single sources were extremely limited.