U.S. Display Group (CONT’D FROM PAGE 50)
factor in our success. Having him leading our manufactur- ing team here has been great.” Knowing that more than 90 percent of everything this new facility converts is digitally printed, Perez would be drawing on his broad experience working with the Barber- an press from his time at Bay Cities in California and at the U.S. Display plant in Corona. “The Tennessee facility had a Barberan digital press, an Automatan laminator, and some other equipment, but we really needed to be able to produce more displays in our existing space, and we knew we needed new equipment to be able to do that. Perez knew that he needed a high-speed, flatbed die cutter to take things to the next level. Enter Young Shin The company needed to replace an outdated Post fold- er gluer that was brought in from a plant U.S. Corrugated closed in New Jersey in 2013. But what the company really
moting the premier of the summer’s next blockbuster. We were hurting right off the bat.” The former GCC facility, however, was still open for business: about 50 employees were ready to operate con- verting equipment that included a Young Shin die cutter, two Stock laminators, a three-color flexo, and some other older pieces of equipment. “The Young Shin die cutter was the best piece of equip- ment there and we knew we wanted another Barberan just like the one we had in Tennessee, but the building was not big enough to house everything. “We knew we weren’t going to be able to stay in that building, so we leased one east of Buena Park in Corona and moved the business out there.” Then there was the problem of securing a sheet suppli- er. As any Southern Californian box maker knows, if you’re not part of a sheet feeder consortium or do not own a cor- rugator, you’re likely out of luck getting a regular supply of sheets. “Even when we could get sheets, the prices we were being charged made doing jobs unfeasible,” says Moore. “We realized we could make our customers’ prod- ucts in Tennessee and ship them to California cheaper than we could make them in California. The cost of buy- ing sheets, the higher labor rates and the other excessive costs of doing business in California ultimately led to us selling that facility in 2024.” While Covid was ravaging the businesses of display manufacturers in California, the “Covid years” turned out to be very good for U.S. Display Group in Tennessee. The company was deemed an “essential business” because of its customers in the bottled water and food industries and says Moore, proudly, “the company continued to operate throughout, never missing a day and in fact, was as busy as we’ve ever been.”
needed was a new flatbed die cutter. Moore and Perez were familiar with Young Shin and its high-performance machinery but needed to perform due diligence. “I sent Bryan Dodson, our Plant Manager, to see the Young Shin running in two or three plants and he said, ‘I loved what I saw. I watched this thing running all day and it never stopped.’ Then when Moore and Perez went to SuperCorrExpo in 2024, they met with Young Shin’s Mark Caffery and agreed to a deal on a Young Shin Zenith 210S Plus high-speed flatbed die cutter.
Gabe Perez
With its California facility sold, the company’s sole fo- cus was once again on the business in Tullahoma. One of the positive things that came from the facility in California was the hiring of industry veteran Gabriel Perez, who was the Operations Manager of U.S. Display Group in Califor- nia and who agreed to make the move and hold the same position in the Tennessee facility. “We appreciate the com- mitment and trust Gabe had in us to move his family here to Tennessee to stay a part of the U.S. Display family. They have been here for about a year now,” says Moore. “With his operations experience, he quickly became a critical
Designed to accommodate a wide range of applica- tions, the Zenith 210S Plus can handle a maximum sheet size of 82-inches by 59-inches (2100 x 1500 mm) and can produce up to 5,000 sheets per hour. It can run single and double wall corrugated board, solid substrates like micro- flute, as well as litho label and single-face laminated board.
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October 20, 2025
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