www.smithcorona.com
www.smithcorona.com

Smith Corona’s roots trace back more than 130 years, and in that time the company has been an innovator in numerous fields. From mechanical typewriters to word processors to high-quality thermal transfer and direct thermal labels, Smith Corona has delivered for its customers. In fact, the company was founded in 1886 as a shotgun producer before shortly transitioning into a producer of typewriters.

Unlike traditional label converters, Smith Corona has manufactured PSA label materials in-house since its reinvention as a label producer. The company began with a simple coating/laminating machine, and today uses 20 integrated coating, printing, diecutting, and finishing machines.

Inventions have defined Smith Corona’s history. In the 1980s, Smith Corona invented the electronic grammar checker and word processors, the company notes. Then in 1994, the PDA. The company’s history in labels can be traced back to 2000, when Pubco Corporation purchased Smith Corona from its second bankruptcy and reinvented the company as a label producer. In 2000, Smith Corona established its first generation of thermal silicone and water-based adhesive coating equipment, and then in 2010, the company purchased its first four ETI Cohesio coating, laminating, and diecutting equipment.

“I wish customers purchased labels from my company because of our branding, like buying Nike sneakers or a Louis Vuitton bag, but the reality is a 4″ x 6″ is a commodity supply item,” explains Carl Kanner, vice president, Smith Corona. “Customers only buy from us for three reasons: We are often the lowest priced, in stock, and lean on our robust knowledge base, which includes articles, videos, and actual customer support experts. Typically, customers save 15-20% on thermal labels switching to us. We have over 200 in-stock items that ship the same day. When customers call in, they get the same sales representative who is an expert in labels and thermal printing. These are the value propositions of SC, and it has allowed us to grow and take market share.”

Smith Corona has been aggressive in driving growth. It commissioned an adhesive factory in 2015, achieving vertical integration in hot-melt adhesives production. By the end of 2023, Smith Corona’s third reactor will be operational, tripling its 2015 production.

“We continuously innovate our adhesive formulations to improve product performance and expand our offerings,” explains Kanner. “Since the launch of our general-purpose adhesive, we have added a freezer, a removable, and an easy-release print-and-apply formulation.”  

The growth continued in 2022, as the company spent $1.5 million to fully air condition and dehumidify its 330,000-square-foot manufacturing facility, enhancing product quality and production efficiency. Smith Corona’s growth can be attributed to its dedicated workforce, which boasts a long and storied tenure with the company.

“Much of our success is due to our incredibly dedicated employees, including multiple employees with 50+ years of tenure and several multi-generation families,” says Kanner. “Our highly diverse workforce of refugees, non-English speakers, and formerly incarcerated individuals includes representation from 14 nationalities and seven languages. We recruit individuals with no prior printing or converting experience and train everyone from the ground up. Despite pandemic challenges, we stayed open throughout, and ownership elected not to make any layoffs, even during peak uncertainty in April 2020. Instead, we utilized the slow period to perform preventative maintenance.”

Smith Corona’s equipment approach has been modeled after Southwest Airlines. The philosophy allows Smith Corona to create a robust parts and maintenance department, where machines are nearly identical with interchangeable parts and common designs for easy training and redundancy. This enables operators to switch presses without retraining.

“Our philosophy is to have excess equipment capacity and keep the presses set up for a particular type of job,” notes Patrick Mitchell, vice president of operations, Smith Corona. “If there is too much production of 3″ wide labels, we shut off the press and move the operators to an asset configured for a different size. Never change the press. While some may say this is capital inefficient, we believe this is a massive advantage as we can rapidly flex production up and down without hiring additional workers. These changeovers produce downtime and extra scrap.”

Smith Corona has developed strong partnerships with equipment and material vendors. The company’s goal is to operate as a good customer and work closely with them, provide feedback, and serve as a beta site for new technology and products. Equipment is not static but requires continuous investment.

Most recently, Smith Corona has developed an aggressive freezer adhesive for challenging applications like cold storage and blast freezers. The company relied on a friendly neighbor, a regional ice cream manufacturer, for beta testing these adhesives in their blast freezer. Its success has let us grow more in the food distribution markets.

“We also offer a full range of inkjet printable labels in gloss and matte on paper and film substrates,” says Kanner. “With the recent addition of four Domino single-color inkjet lines, we significantly expanded our offering of pre-printed barcode labels and increased our service level with shorter turnaround times. Our online store has ballooned from 200 SKUs to now over 20,000.”

In the future, Smith Corona will expand its inventory to sell printers, making the company a one-stop shop for customers’ labeling needs. Smith Corona will also highlight Pinnacle Labels, a new brand targeted at grocery/deli counter weigh scale labels. Pinnacle Labels presently has 40 items in stock but plans to grow these offerings in the near future.