1998 TLMI Converters of the Year

Family ties that first tested, and now bind Custom Tape & Label have created a new generation of tag and label talent and drive.

by Susan Friedman

James O. Buckley founded Custom Tape & Label Co. with a dream familiar to many: to provide a better life for his family. He didn't know then that business and family would eventually become one entity—or that the unexpected unification of home- and work-life would fuel a collision of wills. But the dust has long settled from past differences, and Buckley's venture has become a tradition that won't soon fall from the family tree or the tag and label industry.

James, along with sons J.P. and Randy, who now oversee Custom Tape & Label's operations, and daughter Susie, who handles sales, have collectively amassed nearly 90 years of experience in and commitment to the tag and label industry. In recognition of the dedication their family name has come to represent, the Buckleys are honored together this year as pP's 1998 Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute's (TLMI) Converters of the Year.

A classic entrepreneur

The story of Custom Tape & Label's success has all the trappings of an entrepreneurial classic—humble beginnings, strength in the face of adversity, kind fate and, ultimately, rich professional and personal rewards. James Buckley's fascination with the printing industry first took hold when he served as office manager at a flexo printing company. There, he met the owners of an engraving company, brothers Bob, Jack and Les Schreiner, who recognized that Buckley possessed the drive necessary to run his own flexo business.

With a $2,000 investment from each of the Schreiners and another $2,000 borrowed from his father, Buckley founded Custom Tape & Label in 1964 with 300 sq.ft. of rented space and nothing more than a phone, some label stock and a printing press made by a local machine shop.