www.crisray.com
By Lisa Rouh

In 1971, when Ray Marro Sr. left his longtime employer to start his own label printing business, he didn’t have money for an office, a desk, or any employees, much less equipment to bring his entrepreneurial dreams to life. What he did have was a network of people who valued his work ethic and saw his potential.

An acquaintance introduced Marro to a retiring print shop owner ready to sell what he had built. With just a handshake agreement, Marro was in business with one printing press in Freeport, NY. He named his new venture Cris Ray Printing after his sons, Ray Jr., then 8, and Chris, 5 – changing the spelling of his younger son’s name because he thought the combined phrase looked better without the “h.”

Among the clients who followed Marro was Nature’s Bounty founder Arthur Rudolph, and they built a decades-long relationship based on mutual respect and gold-standard service. The Marro and Rudolph families still have a very strong business relationship. Vitamins remain Cris Ray’s top market, followed by over-the-counter drug labels, food and beverage containers, and health and beauty products.

When he was 12, Raymond Marro Jr. started working at his father’s company and stayed his entire career, helping his father grow the business from letterpress sheet printing to roll labels using flexographic printing to digital printing. After earning his college degree in landscape design in 1987, Chris Marro began helping his dad and brother in the evenings, and he soon joined the company full-time as well. 

Today, Cris Ray Printing is based in a 20,000-square-foot facility in Farmingdale, NY. While the company still prints millions of labels every month, its specialties now also include folding cartons and its latest services, shrink sleeves and flexible packaging such as pouches.

One of the first local companies to venture into the digital narrow web world in 2006, Cris Ray was also named the first GMI-certified printer for both flexographic and digital printing.

The shop runs three 10-color flexo machines from Mark Andy and Nilpeter, two digital HP 6800 laser jet printers, and one HP Indigo 25K digital press. Rounding out its capabilities are three ABG digital finishers, a Prati DigiFast digital finisher, a GM Mini finisher, a 30″ Gonderflex press and laminator, a Mamata pouch maker, and an Accraply aquaponic shrink sleeve seamer.

“Our strong relationship with HP includes training for our staff and expediting maintenance, and HP often brings potential clients here for a tour to show them what this equipment can do,” says Chris Marro, the company’s current CEO. “What I find amazing is our efficiency, which HP has ranked #2 in the country and #5 in the world. That’s all thanks to the hard work, experience, drive, and caring of our team – the people we work with every day.”

As Cris Ray continues to expand and set its third generation up for success, the company stays true to its foundation of building deep relationships. One of its favorite tactics is sending potential clients sample products printed with the prospect’s company name.

“My nephew, Joseph Marro, has been in the business for three years, and he’s now our vice president of operations,” Chris Marro says. “Joseph recently bought flip-flops made from recycled materials, but they came in a shoe box inside a shipping box. That’s a lot of corrugated boxes. We sent custom pouch samples, and now this flip-flop company ships its products in our beautiful, high-end, zippered pouches that can be used for other things, with a significant savings in shipping costs.”

It’s just one example of how, from start to finish, Cris Ray literally works to complete the package for its customers with innovation and care. “We started with high volumes of folding cartons,” Chris Marro explains. “Now, instead of using commercial offset printing, we’re printing folding cartons on a web, then spot-coloring them on a conventional flexographic machine. We like to find creative ways to stay in our comfort zone, where we’re the experts and still meet evolving demands.”

The elder Marro brother, Raymond Jr., embodied that spirit of innovation as well. Before he passed away in 2021, he and Chris had worked side-by-side for more than 30 years, and he had sparked exciting innovations in both the company and the industry.

“I had so much to learn when I started, but Raymond always treated me as an equal,” Chris Marro recalls. “He was a true pioneer. He was one of the first to screen print on a flexo machine. He also created an ultrasonic tank that uses heat and a custom solution to clean dried-on ink from anilox rolls for consistent color. We still use that tank, and so do many others.”

As Cris Ray moves into its third generation of operations, Chris Marro is keenly aware that the odds are stacked against his family business.

“We’re all like family here, and we take care of each other, but statistics suggest that only about 10% of family businesses will last into the third generation,” he says. “My goal is to ensure our business is sound enough to succeed. We’re always meeting with our HP reps and asking what’s new. We surround ourselves with ethical, honest, caring vendors, customers, and colleagues.”

And, of course, they nurture the relationships that have kept the business thriving for more than half a century. “My dad, affectionately known to everyone here as ‘Pops,’ still comes to work every day and handles the finances,” Chris Marro shares. “Joseph often says, ‘Who has it better than me? I get to have lunch with my grandfather every day and learn from him.’ Like my nephew, even after all these years, I couldn’t picture myself doing anything else.”