Q&A: PPC Talks To Hilda Murray Of TPC Printing & Packaging On Cusp Of Centennial On the cusp of TPC Printing & Packaging’s centennial, the Paperboard Packaging Council sat down with Hilda Murray, the company’s Executive Vice President and Owner, to learn the company’s history, how they have overcome numerous obstacles, and how they are staying competitive. The independent, family-owned folding carton converter has adapted to market changes, gen- erational shifts, new technology, and much more during its 99-year history. Here’s a closer look: PPC: Let’s dive into the history of TPC Printing & Packaging. What motivated your family to start their own independent carton converting business? How have you changed over the years? HM: My grandfather, Joseph Schmissrauter, Sr., started the business in 1924 when he purchased used printing equipment for $250. We started out with letterpress and making labels for the textile industry, thus the name: Textile Printing Company (changed to TPC Printing & Packaging in the late 90s). Back then, there was a huge concentration of sock man- ufacturers in our area, and we produced pressure-sensitive labels that wrapped around socks. This was the majority of what we did until my dad, Joseph Schmissrauter, Jr., came into the business in 1955. My dad was a super salesman. He could sell ice to Eskimos. When he joined the company, he went to New York City and brought on some busi- ness from a major women’s hosiery company in the textile industry. With that business, we then transitioned into a “converter” and added a cutter and a gluer to our printing operation so we could begin making hosiery envelopes. That was kind of our bread and butter in the 1950s and 1960s. In the early 70s, we moved into a much larger facility and multi-color litho-offset presses, and we were a wide format manufacturer. We had 55-inch equipment throughout the building. Again, we were mainly fo- cused on the textile industry. PPC: What challenges did you and your family face when growing your business, and how did you overcome them? HM: When the North American Free Trade Agreement was established in the mid-80s, the textile industry pretty much evaporated, and, with it, went its need for paperboard packaging. We had to go into survival mode and reinvent. We ended up working with Kmart and Walmart through a third party, and we also started manufacturing DVD sleeves. We manu- factured millions of those, and we also produced cartons for Fujifilm, ce- real cartons for McKee Baking, OTC pharma packaging for Chattem Drug, photograph carrier envelopes for the Olan Mills company, and even hair care display pegboard cards for Goody products. In the early 90s, I managed our Prepress department. That was also the time that digital imaging and workflow were born. It was a total tran- sition from what we were used to in a traditional darkroom environment. We purchased our first Raystar digital image setter from Scitex in 1992. This technology was the beginning of a completely new and efficient workflow that transformed our entire industry. As technology advanced and much of our traditional business like the Fujifilm, DVD, and traditional photography went away, we had to reinvent again. We had to find a new niche, and that was when we got into spe- cialty and luxury lines of packaging. Hilda Murray
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July 31, 2023
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