TSC Auto ID Technology, a global presence in the AIDC bar code printer industry, has announced its acquisition of Diversified Labeling Solutions, Inc. (DLS).

Headquartered in Itasca, IL, USA, DLS was founded by Bob Hakman in 1985 and has since grown into one of the largest B2B label companies in the country. Today, DLS is a labeling solutions provider with over 200 team members; four locations: Illinois, Georgia, Texas, and Nevada; and over 320,000 square feet of production space.

Under this acquisition, DLS will remain a separate entity, retain its name and brand, and maintain all of its current employees and executive leadership – including its current CEO, Jim Kersten. All four major locations will run and operate as usual, serving distributors and value-added resellers.

TSC’s John Otott, the global general manager of the consumable products business unit, will oversee DLS operations from a TSC standpoint in partnership with Kersten.

“This is an extraordinary fit, and we’re excited to bring the advantages and benefits of this union to our partner base,” Otott says. “Bob has built a wonderful company based on a foundation of exceptional business integrity, best-in-class product quality, and a laser focus on customer needs. We will faithfully adhere to, and build upon, this excellent foundation as we continue to serve both our OEM and legacy DLS distributor partners.”

The DLS acquisition will greatly benefit TSC’s value-added reseller partners in several ways. TSC now has the ability to offer truly competitive pricing on a huge variety of labels and other media distributed from four strategic locations throughout the US.

“We are very excited about the new offerings we are going to be able to provide our partners, and we could not have found a better company to acquire than DLS,” says TSC president Sam Wang. “They have a great reputation in the industry for quality and integrity.”

Moreover, with this acquisition, TSC joins its largest competitors in the US market as a company with its own printer manufacturing and labeling converting facilities.