1401 NW 78th Avenue, Miami, FL USA 33126
www.vistacolor.com

Vista Color Corp., a 100% family-owned and operated company based in Miami, FL, has emerged as a leading designer and manufacturer of paperboard folding cartons and flexible packaging for a wide range of markets. The company excels at structural designs and full-color prototypes for fast product launches.

The company serves an array of specialty B2B and consumer goods markets, including pharmaceutical, food, cannabis, cosmetics, nutraceutical and supplements, health and beauty, confectionery, and spirits. 

Vista Color’s quality has not gone unnoticed, either, as most customers have been with the company for between five and 20 years. It has specialized in servicing the geographic areas of the Southeastern US, the Caribbean, and Latin America.

Vista Color has come a long way from its humble beginnings as a trade provider doing film work for printers. Henry Serrano, CEO of vision, direction, financing, senior management and culture, has led the organization with an eye on culture, teamwork and integrity. His title serves as a reminder of his responsibility that spans three generations and establishes the ethos for the future.

“We are known for fast turnarounds, fast response and service, high quality, and personal service,” says Serrano. “It’s only possible with our people.”

The focus on people is evident, as Serrano explains, “Our employees know that we put an emphasis on them, but since the pandemic, we’ve taken it to a new level. We give recognition, promote it on social media, etc. There’s no question that our people are our priority.”

The focus on the morale and well-being of the employees goes beyond recognition, too. The company is striving to meet the scheduling preferences and the needs of its 140 employees. Vista Color is in the process of adjusting the work week to four 10-hour days with three days off.

“So far, it’s been great,” says Serrano. “Our employees are happier, productivity is up, and absenteeism is down. It has become part of our retention and recruitment process.”

Vista Color has leaned on its rich history when charting a path for the future. J.E. Serrano and his wife, Alicia Serrano, founded Vista Color in 1968. It started as a color separation trade shop, serving mostly printers. Its first location was an old house in Miami, where the couple turned the living spaces into darkrooms.

“They were making color separations using indirect screening in darkrooms until 1980,” explains Serrano.

In 1980, they acquired a scanner and started making scanner-generated color separations. As the company grew, a digital component was added, and by 1987 Vista Color offered digital imaging, color correction, data management, and stripping using a Scitex system.  With the advent of desktop computers, Vista Color became a service bureau in 1991, providing scan-to-disk and film outputs.

With even more changes, by 1995 the business became a commercial printer. “Shortly after that, in 1997, we purchased an in-house printing operation from a large pharmaceutical company and started producing folding cartons, flexo adhesive labels, and miniature inserts,” comments Serrano.

Vista’s Evolution

Vista Color has come a long way since 1968. Today it designs and produces folding cartons and also prints flexo on unsupported films. The company’s ideal run length is 50,000 to 500,000 units. For offset, Vista Color leans on Heidelberg XL 107 7-color high-pile presses with cold foil and double coaters inline for one pass. For flexo printing, there are Nilpeter 8- and 10-color presses. Meanwhile, Rotoflex and Karlville have been key partners for slitting and rewinding.

Typical materials and substrates used are SBS and TP paperboard for folding cartons, and flexo films for pouches and sachets. Special offerings include ornamentation for high-value work, inline foiling, embossing, coatings, UV, lamination, and specialty finishes such as zipper closures for flexo pouch-making. Vista Color also offers clear, reflective, metallic, matte, and film substrates; white ink; and specialty formulations for its customers.

Vista Color has seen significant growth since its days of operating out of that Miami house. Currently it boasts three locations in Miami: the headquarters and two other buildings. There’s 115,000 square feet in total, with 80,000 square feet devoted to production.

Current ownership includes the original two founders, plus the second generation: Jess Hernandez, president, and Henry Serrano, CEO, who started at age 17, just out of high school while attending the local community college.

In addition to the ownership team, the long-term vision always includes, of course, the employees. This has not changed throughout the years.

“We create a culture of honesty, ownership, approachability, transparency, with an open-door policy,” says Serrano. “This, in turn, builds an exceptional team and happy customers.”

Serrano says employees are key to Vista Color’s quality program, as well. He remarks, “For the highest quality, we want to control all the components for the customer, so we do it all: tooling, dies, prepress, plates, and laminating. Our quality systems are so robust that we have produced over 99.5% accuracy within the last three years.”

The company has G7 and FSC/SFI accreditation, as well as SQF. Vista Color is also a member of the Flexographic Technical Association (FTA) for flexo technical support, and ICG – Independent Carton Group – a buying group.

When it comes to sales and production, Vista Color’s sales are handled directly with its B2B customers. There are no online or distributor sales.

“We are structured for continuous improvement, tracking our quality, and being known for fast turnaround, response, and service,” says Serrano. “Of course, that’s great for the customers, and it’s also good for us internally. We target our customer base to match our capabilities. They have high expectations, and we love fulfilling them.”

Training and Innovation

Vista Color has also taken advantage of the newest trends to advance the business. The company maintains a strong online presence with social media, and Vista Color focuses on quality, innovation and value-added messaging.

“We talk about how our innovation sets us apart from the competition,” Serrano says. “Single-pass technologies, for example, as well as color controls, which we have on all presses, and
workflow management.” 

The presence online and in the media isn’t designed only to attract customers.

“Through our photos and stories, we want to communicate what it’s like to work for us,” says Serrano. “That’s such a big part of who we are, so it’s important how we attract qualified press and equipment operators. We want to set the right expectations so new employees appreciate how we do things and are eager to work hard with other great people.”

He continues, “We strive to find people who are flexible problem solvers in this environment of supply chain interruptions, delays, and issues with availability. I hope those external issues won’t last long as we continue to seek team members who handle challenges gracefully and with respect for each other.”

Vista Color has a retention and recruitment team, and it trains from within. Serrano says speed and throughput are critical to be profitable in today’s competitive markets.

“We practice the theory of constraints, focusing on the bottleneck resources,” says Serrano. “If employees haven’t been exposed to that operational philosophy before joining the company, it’s part of
their education.”

Having a remarkably skilled and customer-focused staff is essential to give customers the depth of knowledge their complex projects require.

“High turnover would damage the trusted relationships we have with our customers,” observes Serrano. “We are a highly-trained team, ready to implement within the strict packaging and regulatory requirements of their sector.”

Vista Color does this by fostering an atmosphere of honesty, approachability and transparency. “We put a major emphasis on empowering employees to make decisions,” Serrano says. “Our strategy is to partner with our customers and be an extension of their business by offering them a complete packaging solution with a single provider, under one roof, so to speak.”

While Vista Color has three locations currently, its goal in the next few years is to bring all operations back under – literally – one roof again.

Sustainability and QC

Another area of employee training is sustainability, as environmental friendliness is a core principle at Vista Color.

“This is an area where we practice continuous improvement,” says Serrano. “We engineer our technology and manage jobs to reduce the use of materials such as in our proofing process.”

There are segregated paper handling streams, especially for FSC and SFI procedures. The company uses recycled materials and recyclable materials. It has a waste reduction program and uses environmentally-friendly processes.

“We’re always looking for ways to help customers with their sustainability goals,” says Serrano, “And we’re continually educating ourselves in all phases of customers’ environmental needs. We rely on our research, trade and scientific journals, trade organizations and events, and training from our vendors. We keep our finger on the pulse, listening to customers and the market.”

Serrano says one way to do that is to invest regularly in new equipment that can handle the rigorous requirements and tolerances for quality control.

“No machine in our plant is older than five years,” Serrano notes. “In fact, we’re in the process of adding a 26″ flexo press right now. Our processes and equipment absolutely must support our customers’ needs. We must meet the top end of the most stringent requirements, and all of our customers benefit from that excellence. For example, most of our work is pharmaceutical or food. We have to comply with FDA regulations as they pertain to the labeling of food and pharma.”

The company is able to offer full traceability, accountability and documentation throughout the entire process. Vista Color is experienced with working with Current Good Manufacturing Practice (CGMP) Regulations and is extremely knowledgeable about FDA requirements.

“We adhere to strict cGMPs to ensure that customers get the consistent packaging they need – all the time, every time,” says Serrano.

Looking ahead

As a third-generation family-owned and operated business, Vista Color continues to set the pace for high-quality, fast turnaround products for its B2B clientele.

“It’s an exciting time to be in our industry,” observes Serrano. “As you can see from our history, we enjoy adapting and mastering what’s needed to meet the needs of our customers.”

For the future, Serrano says the executive team has a master plan focused on continued growth, new revenue targets, and centralizing operations for optimal quality control, throughput, and evolving
customer needs.

Designing the Vista Color of the future is always about creating an environment where employees can flourish and excel. “Being a family-run business with an excellent group of people – ultimately that’s our highest achievement,” says Serrano. “I am proud to be the next generation bringing value to the industry and making a difference for our employees.”