The winners have been announced for Top Metal Builder for Tonnage & Top Metal Builder for Square Footage. In 2024, Keller, Inc. ranked #6 in the nation for Tonnage and #6 for Square Footage. Congratulations to all employee-owners on this incredible accomplishment!
Great Lakes Label, located in Comstock Park, Michigan USA, is the very first installation in North America of the new Mark Andy DSiQ-R ‘powered by Domino’ digital retrofit module.
The new Mark Andy DSiQ-R was installed onto an existing 10-color 13” Mark Andy Performance Series P5 flexo press. The DSiQ-R is a digital retrofit module, designed & built by Domino, for converters to add digital printing capability onto an existing flexographic press… without adding additional footprint.
Utilizing the industry-leading Domino N610i digital UV inkjet print engine, the DSiQ-R is a compact retrofittable 3-in-1 flexible hybrid solution, allowing Great Lakes Label to maximize productivity for full hybrid printing, digital-only printing, or flexo-only printing. It is a compact, flexible solution without the need for additional space, delivering excellent print quality and production flexibility, while taking advantage of quick turnaround and non-stop production for multiple SKU jobs. (This retrofit is available from Mark Andy as the DSiQ-R, and from Domino as the N610i-R).
We caught up with Tony Cook, Founder & CEO of Great Lakes Label to learn more about the business, and the drivers for adding the Mark Andy DSiQ-R. Our visit was captured in this VIDEO: Great Lakes Label.
Great Lakes Label has built a reputation for providing high-quality, innovative label solutions across industries including food, beverage, household goods, automotive, and horticulture. As customer demands shifted toward shorter runs, increased customization, and faster turnaround times, the need for digital printing became clear.
“We have always been focused on innovation,” said Tony. “With growing demand for shorter production runs and variable printing, we knew digital was the next logical step. But we wanted to do it in a way that complemented our existing capabilities without compromising efficiency.”
Great Lakes Label explored various digital printing options over the years but was drawn to Domino’s technology for its superior quality, reliability, and ability to seamlessly integrate with their current flexographic operations. The company was particularly interested in a solution that would enhance productivity without requiring a complete overhaul of its press lineup.
“Our relationship with Mark Andy played a key role,” said Tony. “When we learned that they were collaborating with Domino on a retrofit solution, it was exactly what we had been hoping for—an innovative, hybrid approach that would allow us to maximize our existing press investments while adding digital capabilities.”
The collaboration between Great Lakes Label, Domino, and Mark Andy exemplifies the power of industry partnerships. By installing the Domino-powered Mark Andy DSiQ-R onto an existing P5 flexo press, Great Lakes Label can now offer its customers greater flexibility, enhanced print quality, and improved turnaround times while maintaining the embellishment and finishing capabilities of their traditional press setup.
Mark Andy, a long-standing partner of Great Lakes Label, played a crucial role in bringing this integration to life. With decades of experience in flexographic press manufacturing and innovation, Mark Andy provided the necessary expertise and support to ensure seamless implementation. Their continued collaboration with Great Lakes Label underscores their shared commitment to driving advancements in the label industry.
“We were thrilled to be the first North American label converter to implement this technology,” added Tony. “This partnership is a game-changer for us, enabling us to better serve our customers with high-quality, high-efficiency digital printing while maintaining all the benefits of flexo production.”
The digital retrofit module delivers vibrant print with CMYK+ W digital UV ink, crisp detail, and exceptional durability. Combined with Mark Andy’s expertise in flexographic printing and finishing, this investment positions Great Lakes Label as a forward-thinking leader in the label industry.
“Domino has been in the inkjet game for years, Mark Andy in flexo for years, and the reputation of both companies for quality and service made them the ideal partner for this transition,” said Tony. “With this new capability, we’re not just keeping up with industry trends—we’re setting them.”
Great Lakes Label has been a trusted provider of high-quality, innovative label solutions for 30 years. Serving industries from food and beverage to automotive and horticulture, the company is dedicated to advancing label technology and providing unparalleled customer service. For more information, please visit greatlakeslabel.com
As the world’s leading printing and labels solutions company for over 75 years, Mark Andy provides smart, cost-effective, high-quality products and 360-degree service and support to the printing industry and converters – large and small. From pre-press to finishing, Mark Andy is committed to helping its customers grow through solid technology, a complete line of parts and supplies, and a strong portfolio of brands, including Rotoflex, Arpeco, Comco, Kluge, Presstek, and A.B. Dick. Based in Chesterfield, Missouri, Mark Andy serves customers in over 90 countries with the same vision: Your Growth is Our Growth. For more information, visit www.markandy.com.
Domino is a leading manufacturer and distributor of digital printing and product identification solutions. Celebrating its 47 th year in business, Domino is a global organization with world headquarters in the UK, and North America headquarters in Gurnee, Illinois. Domino has 25 subsidiaries, representation in over 120 countries, and over 3,000 employees worldwide. For more information on Domino digital printing, please visit dominodigitalprinting.com
Media Contacts:
Domino
Bill Myers
636.751.2232
bill.myers@domino-na.com
Mark Andy LPC, Inc.
Andrea Richardson
469.231.3649
andrea.richardson@markandy.com
Agency Contact for Mark Andy:
LPC, Inc.
Jackie Kuehlmann
507.313.3243
jackie@lpcprint.com
We are excited to share an important update regarding our manufacturing operations and corporate office. To better align with our long-term vision, we will be relocating our manufacturing plant and corporate offices from Neenah to Appleton. The new manufacturing location is on Spencer Street near Apricity’s Women’s Treatment Center. This move is driven by our commitment to creating a unified campus that will enhance our ability to serve men and women in treatment for substance use disorders. Additionally, right-sizing our facility will allow us to operate more efficiently while continuing to provide meaningful employment opportunities for men and women in recovery.
Apricity’s mission is to provide individuals impacted by substance use disorders with a full spectrum of care, including treatment, employment, and support services within a safe, progressive recovery community. Your contact manufacturing business plays a pivotal role in the lives of those in recovery—offering job skills, stability, and the confidence necessary to maintain sobriety. As we transition to our new location, we sincerely hope to continue our valued partnership with you.
Thank you for your ongoing support. Please feel free to reach out with any questions or concerns.
Cheryl Fritz
Business Development
Email:cfritz@apricityservices.com
Phone: 920-215-2933
Mobile: 920-585-4765
Dan Haak
President-Contract Packaging and Recovery Support
Email: dhaak@apricityservices.com
Phone: 920-722-2345
Mobile: 9202099264
Dave Barr has over 25 years of experience in the paper Industry. Since February 2022, he has been serving as the Director of New Product Development with Biorigin SP
Dave’s career began in 1996 and he has held various roles including Process Engineer, Product Specialist, Account Representative, Technical Manager, Operations Manager, Mill Manager In both MG and Tissue, and also served as the Director of Secondary Fiber Development.
The Green Bay Innovation Group has spent the past three years breaking out the Converting industry in the State of Wisconsin by specific categories to better understand the industry!
Flexible Printing, Packaging and Converting is a large growing sector with an anticipated 9.8 – 12.2% CAGR through 2028. Wisconsin is a leader with multiple plant locations in Wisconsin. We will be doing a separate report on the number of plants and employment in upcoming issues of the GBIG NEWS. Wisconsin invented flexible packaging in New London.
Wisconsin has multiple large companies producing flexible packaging films for the packaging industry. Charter Next Generation is based in Milton, WI. CNG has fifteen state-of-the-art facilities across the United State with over 1,900 employees with four facilities in Wisconsin.
Breanna Van Nuland is a Senior Product
Development Engineer at Amcor focused on the AmFiber TM Portfolio, paper-based packaging solutions. While working in R&D, Breanna has amassed experience in both 2D and 3D fiber converting across a variety of consumer products. Her work with Amcor continues to investigate and explore both 2D and 3D paper-based packaging solutions.
Actively involved with TAPPI (Technical Association of the Pulp and Paper Industry) since 2019, participating in various technical committees, she is most honored to actively support the Women in Industry Division as Chairperson for the Solutions and Strategies for Career Development Committee.
Breanna completed Bachelor degrees in both Chemistry and Biology from the University of Wisconsin – Eau Claire. Prior to her roles in R&D, Breanna has 10 years of Quality Management experience crossing many related industries: starch manufacturing, flexible healthcare packaging and paper converting.
Chris Jansen is a Principal Product Development Engineer at Amcor, a position he has held since January, 2024. His focus is on the AmFiberTM Portfolio, specifically paper based flexible packaging structures that are recyclable in the paper stream and/or compostable.
Prior to joining Amcor R&D, Chris has spent most of his career in technical and product development roles related to specialty paper manufacturing as well as gas sterilizable medical packaging applications. Chris is a 1992 graduate of Paper Science and Engineering at the University of Wisconsin-Stevens Point.
Get links to the latest news, events, stories, and interviews from our 5P news members. Our goal is to remind the decision-makers in Wisconsin of the importance of our industry both historically, and more importantly, into the future.
Read the latest 93 Stories and Links on the Internet below.
Daniel Aronowitz, President Donald Trump’s nominee to head the Employee Benefits Security Administration (EBSA), recently laid out his vision for the agency.
Aronowitz’s experience includes time as a labor attorney and as president of multiple companies in the insurance industry. If confirmed, Aronowitz would head the agency, formerly led by Lisa Gomez, who resigned from the agency at the conclusion of President Joe Biden’s presidency. During Aronowitz’s confirmation process, the position remains vacant.
This article provides an overview of EBSA, key takeaways from Aronowitz’s written testimony and Senate hearing, and the potential impact on employers.
EBSA is an agency within the U.S. Department of Labor (DOL). The agency is responsible for administering, regulating and enforcing the provisions of Title I of the Employee Retirement Income Security Act of 1974 (ERISA).
While the agency is formally responsible for ensuring compliance with Title I of ERISA, the administrator drives key strategic initiatives and enforcement priorities for the agency.
Aronowitz’s testimony and Senate hearing focused on three key areas:
1. EBSA Enforcement
Aronowitz’s first stated priority is to “improve” EBSA’s enforcement of fiduciary law. In general, he has demonstrated an interest in expanding options for retirement benefits. During his hearing, he pledged to “end the practice of open-ended investigations that go on for years.” He hopes to end “regulation by litigation” and ensure that EBSA’s enforcement is “fair, even-handed and efficient.”
Specifically, Aronowitz advocated for ending “the bias against employee stock ownership programs (ESOPs),” claiming that the DOL has spent decades targeting firms that offer these retirement plans. An ESOP is a qualified, defined-contribution employee benefit plan designed to invest primarily in the stock of the sponsoring employer. It’s similar to a 401(k), but the company contributes shares of its own stock (or cash to buy stock) to the plan rather than employees contributing their own funds.
Large employers have faced class-action lawsuits in recent years over the administration of their ESOP plans. This new agenda could signal that litigation regarding ESOPS could be eased, possibly prompting more employers to explore more retirement options.
2. Regulatory Clarity
According to his written testimony, Aronowitz’s second priority for EBSA is to provide regulatory clarity so that plan sponsors have the proper incentive to expand employee benefits.
His statement identified nine key areas:
During his Senate hearing, Aronowitz advocated for clear communication as a standard for engaging with the benefits community. “We will end the era of regulation by litigation by providing clear and effective fiduciary guidance,” he said. He expressed an intention for the agency to avoid vague language, establish clear regulations and implement them fairly to encourage plan designers’ broader abilities for creativity.
3. Plan Sponsorship
Encouraging plan sponsorship is a third listed priority for Aronowitz, indicating support for expanding retirement and health care plan access to more independent contractors, including through association health plans (AHPs).
An AHP is a type of ERISA-covered group health plan sponsored by a group or association of employers (instead of a single employer) to provide health coverage to employees of the AHP’s employer members.
During the hearing, he advocated for unlocking the potential of the employee benefit system, including innovative types of plans like association health plans and pooled employer plans. “I want to work with Congress on anything that will allow independent contractors to have the dignity of retirement savings and health security,” he said.
Aronowitz has stated that the priorities are revamping EBSA enforcement, providing regulatory clarity and encouraging plan sponsorship. These priorities provide insights into what the agency could look like and how it could impact organizations that offer employer-sponsored health coverage and retirement benefits.
As of this writing, Aronowitz has not yet been confirmed by the Senate. Even if confirmed, these priorities may face opposition. Employers should continue to monitor any developments from EBSA and the current administration.
Contact us for more resources on employee benefits.
TAKE ACTION, any action is better than no action, even if it is wrong, as long as we learn from it. Anyone I have worked with in the last 25+ years of my career has heard me say this.
I saw a recent statistic that there are over 400,000 open jobs in the US that employers are struggling to find and retain candidates for. What if I told you I could show you how to reduce the demand for hiring people you struggle to find? I hear this from many of SPL’s clients, along with “We can’t find and retain new employees.” There are two central themes with this challenge. Employers need more employees because they need more capacity, and they need to develop strong training protocols.
Let’s unveil a solution to capacity. Often, as in the core topic of this article, employers address capacity constraints through additional equipment and hiring employees. Lean can create capacity and reduce the demand for employees!
Last week, SPL generated conservatively 880 hours of capacity for a client through Lean Processes. Another client had a new press on order and was facing the daunting task of finding and training three operators to run it. Through a setup reduction event, we created 5,200 hours of capacity in a single week! They ended up canceling the P.O. for the press and didn’t have to hire three people! Lean Enterprise is not a magic wand. It takes work, consistent follow up and leadership. But when led properly, it can make a significant impact on the challenge of hiring in today’s climate.
The second theme pulled from this statistic was the barrier of not having effective training practices. Often, significant effort is put into hiring the person, and then we assume they will be trained on the job. Earlier in my career, I joined a company that was a turnaround and we were experiencing 50% annual turnover. On my first day, one of the department managers came to me with a requisition to sign approving 4 new hires. I asked him about our training protocol and who the trainers were. We didn’t have a documented process and the manager was the trainer for that department. I asked him how many people he realistically thought he could train at one time. We agreed that training four at once was not realistic and I approved two. I also gave him the responsibility to document everything he trained them in as he trained them. This became the first step in developing a robust training protocol. We formalized the training process over the next couple of months and our turnover dropped from 50% to under 15% in six months!
These examples highlight two approaches to address hiring challenges facing many of us today. The first sentence in this article about taking action sums it up. If you don’t take action and do something different, how can you expect to change the outcome?
If this resonates with your company’s challenges, Take Action and reach out to schedule a conversation on how we can apply Lean and improved training protocols to move the needle in your business.
Do you have a mission and values that people can rally behind – something greater than making more $$$ (we still need to make $$$). Build community
Brian Van de Water
CEO
SPL Consulting, LLC.
brian@splconsultingllc.com
Key Highlights:
A Six-Year Streak Without a Lost Time Injury. HMI has reached 2 million consecutive work hours without a single lost time incident—an achievement that sets the company apart in an industry where injuries are common.
A People-First Safety Culture. Led by Safety Director Cory Delwiche, a 30-year safety veteran and former first responder, HMI fosters a trust-based culture where daily check-ins and personal connections keep safety top of mind.
Award-Winning Safety That Boosts the Local Economy & Protects Families. Clients routinely award contracts based on their safety reputation, recognizing that safer crews reduce risk and downtime.
The achievement follows another high honor: On April 14, 2025, the Wisconsin Safety Council awarded HMI the Wisconsin Workplace Safety Award, recognizing it as one of the safest medium-sized construction companies in the state.
Green Bay, WI – July 22, 2025—Hurckman Mechanical Industries (HMI), a leader in mechanical contracting across Wisconsin, has reached a significant safety milestone: 2 million consecutive work hours without a lost time incident, a feat that took over six years to accomplish. “Zero lost time” means employees have not experienced any injuries or illnesses that result in them missing work.
“This kind of milestone is rare in our industry,” said Safety Director Cory Delwiche. “It shows that the safety culture we’ve built works. When workers go home safe to their families every night, that’s the only reward that really matters.”
HMI’s Experience Modification Rate (EMR) currently stands at 0.68 (as of July 11, 2025), well below the industry average. Their Total Recordable Incident Rate (TRIR) is just 0.46, which Delwiche describes as “phenomenal” for a medium-sized contractor with operations in HVAC, piping, fabrication, mechanical and industrial services.
“Safety wins us work,” said Delwiche. “We’ve been awarded multi-million dollar bids—even when we weren’t the lowest bidder—because general contractors know they can trust us to keep their sites safe.”
Behind the numbers is a system that combines technology, training, communication and trust. Every foreman receives daily Job Hazard Analysis (JHA) forms, weekly Toolbox Talks with key reminders and ongoing training. The company partners with Packer Fastener for all protection and PPE to ensure no one is ever short on safety equipment.
“Safety has always been one of our business foundations,” said Jake Warden, President of HMI. “We invest in our workers and their gear to keep them safe.”
Delwiche added, “We tell our team: do what you say you’re going to do. With safety as a core value, we practice what we preach. That promise-keeping builds the kind of trust where employees call me with concerns. It’s not about policing. Safety here is about being a teacher. And I do a lot of listening.”
HMI has never received an OSHA citation and plans to join the Wisconsin SHARP (Safety & Health Achievement Recognition Program) this fall—an elite program for companies with exemplary safety records.
And with this achievement, they’re setting their sights even higher.
“We’re going for 2.5 million hours next—and we’ll have an even bigger party,” Delwiche said with a smile. “But the real reward is making sure no one gets hurt. That’s our why.”
Founded in 1953, Hurckman Mechanical Industries (HMI) has grown into one of Wisconsin’s premier providers of industrial and commercial mechanical systems. As the first full-service MEP (Mechanical, Electrical and Plumbing) contractor in Northeastern Wisconsin, HMI delivers complete mechanical solutions through a unified team. With specialties in HVAC, plumbing, design/build, fabrication, insulation, piping, refrigeration and electrical, Hurckman simplifies complex projects with expert coordination and craftsmanship. The company continues to lead the industry through its commitment to quality, innovation and customer satisfaction. For more information, visit www.hurckman.com.
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