Graphic Solutions now GSI Technologies after reorganization
Graphics Solutions International, a manufacturer of labels, industrial graphics and functional printing based in Burr Ridge, IL, USA, has reorganized, added senior management and changed its name to GSI Technologies.
“The new name, which is the final step in our rebranding effort, represents our commitment to our customers, as well as to the emerging print and converting technologies we have recently been exploring and developing,” says President/COO Jack Kraemer. “We retained GSI, the name by which we are commonly known, to symbolize our industrial graphics heritage. We introduced the word ‘technologies’ to highlight our investments and commitment to world class functional printing.”
Kraemer, a 20-year marketing and healthcare executive who joined the company in 2006, announced that the new tagline “intelligent printing” has been added “to identify what we have always done and will continue to do: provide all our customers with smart solutions to their printing needs.”
With the name change, the company has been organized into two divisions: Industrial Graphics and Functional Printing. The Industrial Graphics Division employs a variety of printing processes, such as flexography, hot stamping, web and sheetfed screen printing and photo-etching, aluminum nameplates, and polycarbonate panels. Division General Manager Art Bowers, former GSI sales manager, heads the group. Prior to joining GSI, Bowers served as VP of sales and marketing for Advanced Web Technologies in Minneapolis, MN, USA.
The Functional Printing Division produces medical electrodes, passive and powered RFID products, smart card inlays, and electroluminescent lamps. Company CTO and Functional Printing General Manager Adam Laubach, who joined the company in early 2006, brings 15 years of material science based product development, commercialization and B2B business management. He is well known in the field of printed electronics, and was co-founder and CTO of the Dow Chemical spin-off, Aveso Displays.
“The products we currently manufacture for the medical industry, along with our electroluminescence products, are each forms of functional printing, which GSI Technologies has been producing for the past seven years. It’s become one of our critical areas of expertise,” says Laubach. “Smart cards and smart labels, including RFID, represent a couple of the fast growing international opportunities we are focused on today.”
Originally known as Graphic Solutions Inc., the company was created in 1985 as a label and nameplate brokerage by siblings Suzanne and Bob Zaccone, who are still active in the firm. Since 2004 it has been a part of Thrall Enterprises, a family-owned holding company with corporate offices in Chicago.