Steady Leadership and Dedicated Service

Tim McDonough | Credit: CJ Foeckler

Twenty-six years ago, Tim McDonough was at a crossroads. He had a steady career in the business forms and commercial printing sector, and he and his wife Mary were raising their young family in their hometown of Milwaukee. But when the company he ran operations for was sold and spun off, staying on board meant a relocation.

Not interested in uprooting his family, McDonough and his brother Mike set out in search of a Milwaukee-area company they could buy. That decision led the brothers to Flexo-Graphics, a label printing company in the nearby suburb of Butler, WI, where the two have remained since — Tim McDonough overseeing finance and operations, and Mike McDonough leading sales and customer service.

Since taking over the company more than two-and-a-half decades ago, Tim McDonough says Flexo-Graphics has experienced a significant evolution. Beyond overhauling nearly all of the company’s equipment, he says multiple additions have tripled the formerly 25,000-sqft facility to 75,000 sqft, and the company’s sales have quadrupled since 2000. But before all the growth, he says, transitioning from the commercial printing world to labels presented him with a steep learning curve.

“It might as well have been a whole other industry because flexo printing is so much different than offset printing,” McDonough says. “We had a big-time education ahead of us.”

Learning the Ropes

As a newcomer to the label segment, McDonough recalls his vendors pushing him to get involved with TLMI, network with the members, and become immersed in the nuances of flexographic label production. At the time, TLMI hosted a biennial Technical Conference in Chicago, so McDonough made the trip, coming away with a wealth of flexo knowledge and label industry contacts.

The timing of the Technical Conference was ideal, McDonough says, as his first two years of owning Flexo-Graphics proved to be a challenge. Having previously worked in offset printing, he says he had to start from square one with flexo basics like anilox rolls, ink transfer, and dots. And, in those days before servo motors and automation, the company’s seven Webtron presses necessitated a level of operator craftsmanship to ensure they stayed in registration.

“It was like a firehose to the mouth,” McDonough says. “But I met a lot of good converters at the Technical Conference and at meetings since then, and had a lot of good suppliers who would coach me through it and give me names to call out of market that would help.”

Once he got his feet under him in the label industry, McDonough says Flexo-Graphics entered a phase of growth and evolution. Though his involvement in TLMI was limited in the early years, McDonough says those initial meetings he attended and relationships he forged helped set the stage for the company’s expansion — and his impending return to the association as a dedicated leader.

Innovation and Expansion

A little more than a decade into McDonough’s ownership of Flexo-Graphics, it became apparent that the company’s 25,000-sqft facility wasn’t going to cut it for the long term. Tim McDonough recalls that on occasion, potential customers would visit the facility and despite liking the Flexo-Graphics personnel and culture, would take their business elsewhere, skeptical that the small facility could handle it.

“We’d bring customers in and they’d say, ‘You seem like great guys. You have a nice company. But I’m not convinced you could handle my business if I gave it to you,’” McDonough says.

So, the company multiplied its footprint, expanding first to 50,000 sqft, then to 75,000 in 2024, and invested in new equipment to support the growth. A combination of Nilpeter and Mark Andy presses brought Flexo-Graphics into the servo era, and faster rewinding equipment was brought in to complement the new presses. With the new equipment in place, however, it didn’t take long before a new wave of printing technology reached the company.

McDonough recalls participating in three consecutive RFPs that required HP Indigo equipment. Recognizing the shifting tides in label production, McDonough says the company installed the first HP Indigo 6800 in North America, bringing Flexo-Graphics into the digital printing arena. Along with the new digital press, he says the company built out a dedicated climate-controlled digital printing room and supplemented it with finishing equipment from Delta ModTech.

Tim McDonough (left) and Bob Giombetti discuss how well the company's Mark Andy Performance Series flexo press is running. | Credit: CJ Foeckler

Having fully acclimated to flexo label production, McDonough says that adjusting to digital printing was intimidating. But he adds that the company fully embraced the technology, and it did not take Flexo-Graphics long to fill up the 6800. Through a combination of shifting short-run work, jobs that took more than two hours to set up, and anything with variable information onto the digital press, McDonough says the company quickly recognized the benefits digital printing provided as a complementary technology to flexography. In fact, he says the company’s digital printing room is now home to two HP Indigo presses, with a 6900 having joined the fleet, and the possibility of an inkjet or hybrid press on the horizon.

“The HP has been great because any material we print in the flexo room, we can print on the HPs,” McDonough says. “No exception.”

With the additional space, a versatile fleet of equipment, and an impressive book of business spanning industrial and CPG segments, Flexo-Graphics made another major transition in 2019 when it was acquired by Inovar Packaging Group. McDonough says being part of the Inovar network, which spans 14 facilities across the country, has been a beneficial transition for Flexo-Graphics. He and Mike have both remained with the company, as has Mary McDonough, who has led the company’s billing department for 20 years.

Tim McDonough shares that the Inovar organization has been very supportive of the company’s equipment investments and has allowed the plant to maintain its family-driven culture with the McDonoughs remaining at the helm. Plus, with each location boasting distinct specialties and capabilities, customers can be assured their needs will be met.

“We share ideas,” McDonough says. “We have a call every Monday and we give a quick update and if anyone needs help, they can ask for it.”

Meeting the Moment With TLMI

Though Flexo-Graphics and Inovar Packaging Group have been longtime members of TLMI, McDonough says his initial involvement was limited during his early years with the company. But around 2015, he says, TLMI’s then-President Frank Sablone convinced him to increase his involvement with the association, which led McDonough to join the board of directors.

One of the first major contributions McDonough made to TLMI was the work he did as chairman of the finance committee. He recalls leading improvements to the budgeting process, the association’s financial statements, and how it invests its foundation money.

McDonough’s financial leadership and acumen are among the many qualities his TLMI colleagues state make him such a worthy Converter of the Year. Mark Glendenning, CEO and owner of Inland Packaging, and the current chairman of the TLMI board of directors, says when McDonough joined the finance committee, he was instrumental in making sure TLMI meetings that once lost money became at least a breakeven endeavor, if not profitable. Additionally, McDonough’s leadership in reconfiguring how TLMI utilized its finances has put the association in a strong position.

“We weren’t very creative in how we were handling our endowment dollars,” Glendenning says. “Tim took control and we got to an even better place through a process Tim started a decade ago.”

Dale Coates, TLMI’s CEO and president, shares that McDonough is a quiet leader, but offers a steady hand and a clear vision to any initiative he spearheads. She adds that McDonough is always willing to provide his guidance and shares that even though her taking over the association’s top job coincided with the end of McDonough’s term on TLMI’s board, he was among the first to reach out with a message of support and an open invitation to reach out if she ever needed help.

Coates says she visited the Inovar Packaging location in the spring and recalls how touring the company revealed it to be a reflection of McDonough’s leadership style.

“He’s a quiet, respectful individual [and his employees] see the same things we do in Tim the volunteer,” Coates says. “It felt to me like a family-run company. Yes, it’s part of Inovar, but the long-time employees I met are clearly dedicated to Tim and Flexo-Graphics, as well as the larger company’s success.”

Since McDonough joined the board more than a decade ago, TLMI has seen several changes. There have been four presidents of the association since Sablone’s retirement, and McDonough is quick to laud the leadership of Lori Campbell of The Label Printers and Craig Moreland of Coast Label, who preceded McDonough in the chair position.

“Lori was never afraid to dig in and really question something and not let it go until she felt we got it to the point where it needed to be,” McDonough says. “Craig was dealing with a lot. There was a lot of leadership change during his term, and I respected the way that he handled it. From a leadership standpoint, they really showed me a lot.”

Beyond the stabilization of the association from a financial and leadership perspective, McDonough cites multiple TLMI achievements he is proud to have contributed to. The launch of the Label Leaders of Tomorrow and liner recycling initiatives are key among them, particularly as sustainability pressures bear down on the packaging industry.

“I think it’s important to make all those efforts politically so when somebody comes to the industry and says, ‘You’re a dirty industry, we really need to shut you down,’ we can say, ‘No, these are all the things we’re doing that you’re not aware of,’” McDonough says.

Outside of work, McDonough says he and Mary have been overjoyed watching their three children grow their own families. They relish spending time with their two grandchildren and are anticipating two more on the way. They’re also both passionate sports fans, enjoying a round of golf and rooting on their hometown Milwaukee Brewers.

Looking back on his tenure with TLMI, McDonough says that beyond the initiatives he has helped lead, he is also proud of the association’s openness. Despite the competitiveness of the label industry, he says that at any TLMI meeting, members are always willing to help each other and support the industry’s success.

“It’s an amazing association in that you can get together, learn things, and ask your peers anything,” he says. “I always say, ask us anything and more than likely we’ll share.”