NARROW WEB Profile
By Steve Katz
Paris Art Label
Strategic acquisitions, experience and digital printing are keys to the success of this
expanding beauty label specialist.
Paris Art label co. inc.
217 River Ave, Patchogue, NY, USA 11772
www.parisartlabel.com
P
aris Art Label has been around since 1925, and while the company started forging its path to success in the 1970s, today it’s
reaching new heights. Leveraging an aggressive growth strategy
and the latest in digital printing, the Patchogue, NY-based company
mixes old-fashioned customer service with a personal touch, while
embracing the latest label and packaging trends and technologies.
The Paris Art Label leadership team
40 Label & Narrow Web
Paris Art Label operates from its 65,000 square foot facility in Long
Island, New York, about 60 miles east of New York City. A second location, a 48,000 square foot plant in nearby Ronkonkoma, houses the
company’s digital, shrink and label application contract manufacturing center. And sitting on seven acres in Princeton, NJ, there’s a third
facility, currently at approximately 20,000 square feet, with the growth
potential to reach 150,000 square feet.
In 1974, Ron Tarantino bought Paris Art Label for less than $10,000.
At the time, the company was comprised of one Shiki letterpress machine, one employee, and it was located in a loft in lower Manhattan,
in New York City. Soon after his purchase, Ron bought Colonial Label,
and with a handful of employees, moved the company to a small, 1800
square foot shop in Huntington Station, Long Island. He added a few
more letterpress machines, and from there the company began to grow.
After purchasing East End Label in 1982, a small flexo label printer
in Westhampton, NY, Ron began looking for room for expansion, and
in 1986 Paris Art Label moved into a 44,000 square foot facility in
Ronkonkoma. A year later the company acquired its first flexo label
presses – a Manhasset and a Mark Andy. Strong, steady growth followed – in ten years time, the Ronkonkoma
operation grew 400%.
Strategic acquisitions, as well as finding lucrative, niche markets have been linchpins to
Paris Art Label’s success. In 1980, the company
acquired Colonial Label Company, signaling
its entrance into the thermal label printing and
applicator markets, as well as establishing itself
in the oil and lube industry. Today, operating
as Colonial Label, the division specializes in
manufacturing the machines that print the
static-cling “return-for-service” oil change
labels. The application division grew further
with the 1994 acquisition on Tuck Automatic
Labeler, a specialist in label application and
assembly work.
More recently, Paris Art Label acquired
Princeton, NJ-based Princeton Label in 2006,
and Gemsom Liberty Graphics, in Albertson,
NY, in 2010. And in 2011, a strategic alliance
was formed with minority-owned Classic
Labels.
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November/December 2013
NARROW WEB Profile
While Paris Art’s acquisitions are indicative of Ron Tarantino’s commitment to reinvesting in his company, the moves have been instrumental in bringing in personnel with decades of invaluable label industry
experience.Today, with all of its entities, Paris Art Label employs around
220 people, and it’s also a family business. Running the company along
with Ron are his sons, Ron Tarantino Jr., vice president of operations,
Tim Tarantino, vice president of operations, and Jay Tarantino, vice
president of sales.
The next level
“We’re growing pretty quickly, and we’re trying to stay ahead of it,”
says Jay Tarantino, “We have always invested back into the company,
but we’re now taking it to another level.”
Dedicated salespeople, and retaining people from the acquired companies have been paramount to Paris Art Label’s success. “We have
the best sales force in the industry, hands down. With the level of the
experience, the knowledge of technology and just the access to clients in the markets that we serve, our sales force is just unmatchable,”
Tarantino says.
In the last five years, the company has ramped up its technologies
and capabilities. In 2010, Paris Art Label decided to invest in shrink
sleeve labels. Tarantino explains: “The writing was on the wall. Our
clients were constantly asking us about shrink, and it came to the point
where it just made sense. So we invested in presses and retrofitting
presses, and bought state-of-the-art equipment to seam, split, cut and
finish the labels. We saw that there was a lot of low-lying fruit – our
division went from zero to $1 million in sales in a year.
“We project that our shrink growth will one day outperform our
label sales. Sure, that’s a faraway projection, but there is so much potential there,” he says.
Tarantino adds that with all of the company’s recent growth, “we
realized we were getting a little too big, too fast, and needed some help.”
Enter John Hovanec, Paris Art’s senior VP of operations, and formerly of CCL. “John was hired a year and half ago with the sole purpose of taking us to that next level,”Tarantino says. “That is our whole
vision – to get to that next level – to be that $100 million company
that can still provide the highest quality service at the right price point,
that’s not run by shareholders. We are sensitive to smaller and larger
clients, and still provide both the best service and the best quality. If
someone comes to us with an idea or new project, there aren’t multiple layers of fat to get through. That’s a huge benefit, and we see our
growth coming from being able to provide personal attention to our
clients,” Tarantino says.
Lean Manufacturing has also fueled the company’s growth, and
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November/December 2013
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Label & Narrow Web 41
NARROW WEB Profile
Paris Art Label’s digital printing facility
the process for continuous improvement is spearheaded by Paris Art
Label’s VP of quality assurance, Tom Southworth. Southworth, who
brings 30 years of manufacturing experience to the company, is SME
Lean Bronze Certified, and an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality and
Organizational Excellence.
There is more to Paris Art Label than superior customer service,
there’s also the technology behind it. When Hovanec joined the company, he spearheaded the its foray into digital printing. “With John
coming on board, a lot of changes took place,”Tarantino says,“foremost,
our partnership with HP and AB Graphic. We purchased and installed
three HP WS6600 digital presses and two AB Graphic finishing units
in less than nine months.”
By going digital,Tarantino emphasizes the advantage Paris Art Label
has in now being able to offer its clients cost savings and superior quality. He says, “You can only bid on a label so many times – how much
cheaper can you get the material? How much cheaper can you get
the inks? Eventually you are going to run out of options and variables.
So going to digital and saving thousands of dollars a year on printing
plates is an easy, soft cost savings that we can immediately pass on to
our clients and say, ‘Not only can we improve your quality, lead times
and accuracy – here are your immediate savings’.”
Today, Paris Art Label has more than 25 printing presses – flexo,
letterpress, silkscreen and digital. For flexo, the company has made
recent investments in new Mark Andy, Comco and Nilpeter presses,
and platemaking is done in-house.There’s also an HP-trained graphics
department. Some clients demand the highest quality labels, sometimes
with complex constructions, and Paris Art can deliver. Capabilities
include 4-color combination printing, hot stamp, silkscreening, embossing, debossing, extended content labels, booklets, onserts, peal & seal,
holographic printing, and soft-touch feel labels. The company also has
new equipment for multi-color shrink sleeve printing and application
and shrink sleeve specialty converting.
Personal care, personal touch
While Paris Art Label’s client list runs the gamut – for both short
and long runs – the company is heavily immersed in the beauty and
42 Label & Narrow Web
personal care markets. Explains Tarantino, “We have more than 90
health and beauty accounts, among them the biggest brands in the
business – Coty, Estee Lauder, Revlon, L’Oreal, Avon, Shiseido, all the
way down. We do a lot of high-end work, but also a good amount for
mass market. It’s a really good mix.”
For Paris Art Label, being in the New York metro area is an asset, as
many of the beauty industry’s biggest players are located in New York
City. Establishing relationships with its customers is key, and Paris Art
Label is an active member of CIBS, the association for the Cosmetics
Industry Buyers and Suppliers. “CIBS has helped a lot with bringing
people together within the beauty market,” Tarantino says. “A lot of
people I know are from the same industry, and the golf outings, various events, and just being involved in CIBS has been a great forum for
networking with clients.”
Paris Art Label’s salespeople are busy. “We hustle,” Tarantino says.
“Part of our strategy is gaining face time with our customers – being
around the industry, organizing events, word of mouth, cold calling
and making presentations are all part of what we do. We get involved,
and we get in front of our customers. But, if you don’t have quality,
service and price, you’ve got nothing. We like to get to know our
clients on a personal level, and we know they are only as good as we
make them look.”
Image is everything in the beauty market, and lately, Paris Art
Label’s clients are evolving in the way they like their products to look.
Tarantino says, “I would say our clients today are heading more toward
shrink sleeves and textured packaging, along with high end decorative
labels. Extended content labels have also been a huge area of growth,
with all of the requirements for legal information that’s needed today.
High-end silkscreen printing has also become prominent.”
As for the future, the plan for Paris Art Label is to continue on its
path – growth by acquisition, equipment, and as Tarantino says,“hunger
and hustle.” He concludes, “Our sales team hustles, we all hustle, but
we try and do the right thing, and it’s worked out well for us, when
the customer knows you care about them. Since we bought Paris Art
Label our goal has been to be the best. We don’t want to be the biggest – just the best.” lnw
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