6001 Brent Drive
Toledo, OH, USA 43611
www.bollin.com

Bollin Label boasts a rich history that spans more than a century. In fact, the first iteration of this thriving label converter did not involve labels at all. Gilly Bollin opened a neighborhood grocery store in 1912, where his sons, Harry and Jerry, oversaw the grocery business until 1969. It was then that the “a-ha” moment came to expand the company’s operations. 

After recognizing the multitude of pricing systems used by retailers, Jerry established Bollin Distributing Company in 1969. Bollin diversified its services to better meet customers’ needs by adding labels, tags, and label guns to its product distribution in 1973.

What originated as a grocery store slowly ramped up into a full-scale label business. The company invested in its first label press, a Tickopres, in 1978, to print labels on pre-diecut stock. Four years later, Bollin added a Mark Andy 820 press to its arsenal. The company was well on its way to carving out a niche for itself in the North American labeling landscape.

Bollin’s success is still a family story, one built on culture and work ethic. The company is undergoing a transition from second to third generation, as Heidi Bollin and Kristin Younkman currently occupy the office of president. They have amassed a strong team of 60 employees, who work diligently across the company’s 100,000 square-foot facility in Toledo.

“We’re an entrepreneur family,” states Heidi. “My grandfather started the business, but his children – my aunts and uncles – started with him. That made for a smoother transition since they all started together. At the end of 2021, the third generation, which includes me and my cousin, Kristin, purchased a sizeable portion of the second generation’s stock. We are moving through that transition, not only the purchase but with leadership. That’s been a really big deal for us.

“My dad, Mark Bollin, holds emeritus status, and he’s in the office fairly regularly,” Heidi continues. “He’s slowly working toward retirement. My aunt is currently working here full-time, but she’s also looking toward her future and starting to plan her next steps for retirement. Kristin and I hold the office of the president currently, and we’re working on restructuring that title, but we’re both owners and sit on the officer board.”

The pair is accompanied by a strong leadership team, with Jeff Hierholzer serving as CEO, and Pat Kitz wearing many hats as the operations manager. Meanwhile, Helen Darrah, executive director of sales and marketing, has been instrumental in the company’s sales initiatives.

Bollin and Younkman, who were named president in 2017, entered the business with their eyes set on establishing a strong company culture with defined leadership. While working in human development, Heidi opted to return to school to attain her master’s to better understand how to run a business. That experience paid off for her when she returned to Bollin Label.

“I went back and got my master’s in business, and during that time I interned here at Bollin,” notes Heidi. “I ultimately chose to come back here. It was an organic change, but it’s been great and I’ve been able to use my past life in human development to work on the culture and how we work together to get better products out and make our customers happy.”

In addition to culture and leadership, Bollin Label’s brass has been focused on installing the latest technology to help boost its customers’ businesses. Most recently, Bollin installed a brand-new Nilpeter FB-350 press. The company is also no stranger to digital printing, as it made the move in 2017 with the addition of a Xeikon 3500 digital label press.

Bollin Label has four flexo presses on its facility floor, highlighted by the new Nilpeter. The company has also added a Rotoflex unit to provide a diecutting station, where the company can produce varnishes and laminating.

Digital printing was on Bollin’s radar for more than five years, and its due diligence led to Xeikon. “The Xeikon press has been a big addition,” explains Kitz. “We work really efficiently on small runs, especially 3- or 4-color. We had a meeting with Xeikon at Labelexpo Americas 2016, and then we had it installed in 2017. We had a lot of samples, different artwork, and ran a cost analysis between Xeikon and the other vendors. So, we went in the right direction for us – and the look of the print is great.”

Bollin has been very active in the food and beverage, and grocery segments of the labeling market. “We continue to work with grocery supply and industrial paper distribution companies that are in all of those segments, and we can offer labels to their customers that go on top of items like meat film,” explains Darrah. “We also have a very large stock offering of food ingredient and merchandising labels that a lot of companies do not stock. Our growing distribution helps our small mom-and-pop businesses that need labels. We market to a lot of groceries and delis that are small and local. That really sets us apart with what we can offer and in terms of responsiveness to customers. Our business has just grown and grown over the years.”

“We really like to leverage our small size to be agile,” adds Heidi. “We pride ourselves on this ability to serve all of our customers. We will do whatever we have to do, because we don’t have 5,000 employees and six plants. But we don’t move slowly.”

In the move from second to third generation, Bollin Label is also now a majority woman-owned company. “We are actively working toward setting up those certifications at the state and federal level,” explains Heidi. “And we’re starting to go after markets that favor those minority and women-owned businesses.”

Bollin Label has also been a leader in equal opportunities and charitable endeavors. The company is working with the state of Ohio to gain formal recognition for employers that are inclusive. Bollin has demonstrated that it goes above and beyond in creating an inclusive and diverse atmosphere, where employees can enjoy working each day. Heidi was also recently nominated as an outstanding University of Toledo alum for Bollin’s social work with vulnerable populations in its local community. She was also nominated for “20 under 40” in Toledo for Bollin’s social justice work.

“We try really hard to make a social impact on our community, including at least three times a year having charity events that include all of our employees,” says Heidi. “We prioritize working with different programs for vulnerable populations in our hiring, but also providing internships and job shadowing for children who are disadvantaged. We try to be good social citizens here at Bollin.”

Culture building

Upon taking over the role of president in 2017, Heidi Bollin and Kristin Younkman emphasized the need to establish a strong company culture. Part of the learning curve upon taking over as president was understanding the culture that was currently in place, and where it could be improved upon.

As Heidi notes, culture is not something that is ever truly completed. It is an ongoing process built on continuous improvement. “I have always been under the impression that we strive to have a company culture of customer service, whether it be external customers or our internal customers,” she says. “We like to go to the market touting our service. I want to improve our culture and build upon that, making sure the internally-facing department understands the external customer but also the internal customers they serve.”

Customer service has been a staple of Bollin’s emphasis on culture. When dealing with customers, communication is at the forefront of the business. “We’re always in constant communication with our customers,” says Darrah. “I was at an event recently talking to several other label converters. From what they’re telling me, their lead times are so much more significant than ours are. We’re very up front with our customers, and most of our customers have been good at working with us – like ordering sooner. The sales teams have been sitting down and identifying how much customers typically order and splitting the orders up. Compared to others in our niche, I think we’re faring out much better.”

According to Darrah, working with customers is one of the most rewarding jobs at Bollin. “We rarely say no to anybody,” she explains. “We bend over backwards to grow with the customer and make their problem our problem. I’ve sat with customers where they’re a husband and wife team selling a product at a farmer’s market, and now they have this opportunity to get into a retail grocery store chain, but they have to have a barcode and a label. Often times, they don’t even know what the label would look like. We sit back and ask them about their product, and you hear so many amazing stories about grandma’s recipe. A lot of the best regional products in this area started that way, and the really cool thing is they have a Bollin label on it.”

The company’s culture was on full display during the Covid-19 pandemic. Not only did Bollin work tirelessly to adhere to local and national mandates, the Ohio-based converter instituted several unique business offerings that went a long way with the staff.

“Culture is something you work on every day, so we work on it every day to try to get better at it because you’re never done,” adds Heidi. “It’s continuous improvement, and I think that reflects in the way we operated during Covid.”

Empathy is a key trait at Bollin Label. As an essential business, the label converter remained open. However, many employees have young children, thus requiring them to work from home. That did not go unnoticed on Heidi and Kristin.

“Many of our employees’ spouses were sent home or they had hybrid learning for their children,” notes Heidi. “How do you work and teach a 5-year-old in preschool? Understanding what our employees were going through led us to add to the environment. We sent gift cards to people who worked from home so employees could feel included in our in-office celebrations. We also had a program where we had a tutor come in on certain days so all these hybrid learners had a place to do their homework so the parents could work, and the students were here, safe in the building with a teacher. We wanted to establish a culture where since we’re all going through this, let’s try to do the best we can.”

“As an employee who utilized that service – I had a senior in high school learning very complicated math – I could bring her in and we’d be in separate parts of the building and I didn’t have to worry about her falling behind, so it was fantastic,” adds Darrah. “She could get help and ask questions. It was a teacher in there, not just someone trying to help. It was a great gesture by Bollin. I appreciate it, and I know the other employees who took advantage of it also appreciated it.”

In order to better operations around the plant, Bollin Label has also been quite active with numerous industry associations, from FLAG (Flexo Label Advantage Group) to TLMI. These associations have provided Bollin Label with valuable resources that it can utilize on a daily basis.

“FLAG has been a great resource because we can bounce ideas off of other converters in similar positions as us, dealing with similar challenges,” explains Kitz. “It’s given us, as a smaller company, a little more buying power. It’s also good for catastrophic planning since we do only have one plant. If something were to happen, we have resources to help us until we’re back up and running. They have our back in case something happens – and we have their back too.”

TLMI has been instrumental from a leadership aspect, as well. “I work on the leadership groups and attend those meetings,” comments Heidi. “It’s great not only to meet other leaders who are experienced working in much larger organizations, but the educational sessions they offer are often very valuable. I sit on the workforce committee, where I was the chair. Working with people in your industry from all over is incredible. You really get to know somebody when you’re working on projects together versus meeting them every once in a while at dinner. This is actual collaboration and teamwork to help solve industry-wide concerns.”

Expanding efficiencies

Part of Bollin Label’s success can be traced to Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma. The process of efficiency and continuous improvement is woven into the company’s culture.

“It’s about labeling and sustaining practices, and making sure tasks are easy. But it’s also a cultural change,” states Heidi. “It doesn’t have to just be the operators. We can improve operations inside with our processes and procedures or even at our desks, in sales and in the office. We’re identifying all of those bits and pieces and the processes we are changing. The question is always, ‘How are you going to improve and be more efficient, meeting our customers’ expectations in a standardized way?’ It’s cultural, and we’re asking those questions all the time.”

According to Kitz, Bollin Label has implemented a number of Lean principles. From preventative maintenance to avoiding clutter, the label converter has analyzed each area of the business, looking for ways to further improve. And the process is ongoing.

“It never ends because you’re always trying to perform better,” says Kitz. “You also don’t want people always looking around for things and wasting time. So, if the item is right where it’s supposed to be, you’re going to get the job done faster.”

Bollin Label is also confident enough to repeatedly ask questions and change what isn’t working. The management team has also empowered its employees to have a voice at the table, too.

“We try to have a culture where you can ask those questions,” remarks Heidi. “Having frontline employees be able to ask these questions, that’s the cultural piece that drives Lean and Six Sigma. There are a lot of company cultures where that’s taboo, and you shouldn’t question your boss. Having a culture that allows that sort of candor is really important.”