OMNI Systems
701 Beta Drive, Mayfield Village, OH USA 44143
www.omnisystem.com


Adam DeFrancesco recognized a need in the market, and that foresight set the stage for what has emerged as one of the country’s largest, privately-owned label converting businesses. While businesses today are recognizing the value of automation and compliance, DeFrancesco began planning for this reality during the 1980s.

At that time, DeFrancesco noticed that major retailers were beginning to request that suppliers barcode label all of their incoming shipments in order to improve supply chain efficiency. “The mandate was simple,” notes DeFrancesco. “If you didn’t comply by the required date, then these collective retailers were going to start applying chargebacks of either $10,000 or 10% of the value of the incoming shipment – whatever was higher. It was one thing to develop a better mousetrap, but here you had someone with a hammer looking at their watch saying, ‘Get it done now.’”

While many suppliers viewed these demands as bluster, DeFrancesco felt he had identified a trend and was intent on testing his theory. He reached out to a major CPG manufacturer and announced that his company would specialize in helping suppliers meet retailer compliance through automatic data collection (ADC), as this was soon to become a mandatory requirement from most retailers.
“The supplier bristled and said, ‘We are ABC company...nobody tells us what to do,’” recalls DeFrancesco. “I assured him this was the case and that I would send him my contact information and be available should he need me to assist him with retailer compliance intricacies. A few weeks went by, and I remember receiving a panicked call stating that they just got a letter from their largest retailer customer, telling them they needed to barcode label products by October 1st or face chargebacks. If the manufacturer didn’t complete the project within the allotted time, they would lose their shelf space to other suppliers that complied with the labeling mandate. The conversation quickly turned to how fast I could get down to their headquarters and start the project.”

OMNI Systems, which was established in 1989, built its brand on this strategy. In a few months, OMNI had automated all of its plants in both the United States and Mexico. The major retailer heard about its successful project implementation for this manufacturer and provided OMNI with a list of 12,500 of their other suppliers and asked it to do the same. The rest was history. However, DeFrancesco also realized the value in each label, as opposed to the barcode printer.

“When you sell a printer, you won’t see your customer again for another 5-7 years,” says DeFrancesco. “When you apply a label to every product they sell, you have a dedicated business partner, long-term product demand, and a business plan that can grow over the long haul. Other companies were selling label solutions in the market, however, they positioned themselves as high quality and equally high priced. The concepts and materials were still new, and savvy marketers took advantage of the ‘smoke and mirrors’ to get lucrative premiums for ADC supplies.”

DeFrancesco recognized that the label’s selling price is predominately composed of the substrate’s raw material costs. The only way to achieve better raw material costs was through volume purchases. Instead of joining the ranks of fellow marketers offering products at lucrative prices, DeFrancesco saw the market need for providing the highest-quality products at the lowest price.

“This was not a unique concept, as Henry Ford and others successfully demonstrated this concept in the past,” he notes. “Still, it was unique in the ADC industry at the time. As a result, OMNI’s volume purchases ensured that it benefited from the absolute lowest raw materials costs. Combine inexpensive raw materials with a fully automated production platform operating 24 hours a day and a debt-free operating environment, and we have a very successful value-added proposition that allows us to sell below our competitors, maintain a fair margin, and fuel year-over-year growth to where it is now.”

Business is booming for OMNI Systems, which recently celebrated its 30th anniversary. The company is seeing over $100 million in sales, growing double digits per year. “Our growth has been 100% organic, and I am incredibly proud that we financed the tens of millions of dollars of capital expansion and automation through cash flow and not long-term debt,” explains DeFrancesco. “OMNI’s management philosophy has uniquely positioned us to be the supplier of choice for those requiring a high-quality, low-cost producer of high volume/long-run thermal labels.”

This growth has not led to DeFrancesco to rest on his laurels. To celebrate the anniversary, OMNI just purchased a state-of-the-art manufacturing headquarters in Mayfield Village, OH. The 144,000 square-foot space is home to more than 175 employees, and the engaged workforce is churning out products for partners like Amazon, Tyson Foods, and other leading Fortune 500 companies.

OMNI Systems’ expertise has always been – and continues to be – high volume long runs of limited SKU thermal labels. Many of its clients have requirements in the billions of pressure sensitive labels – not millions. OMNI serves most of the beef, pork and poultry producers with thermal weight scale and box-end labels. OMNI has routinely saved its customers 15-40% on their thermal label needs over current costs.

“We also service leading national supermarket chains, traditional brick and mortar retailers, and the largest online retailers,” states DeFrancesco. “In fact, in just about every vertical market, OMNI is servicing the top companies in those segments. We want to expand our presence in both the logistics and distribution markets. However, our current customer base has continued to fuel our organic year-over-year growth. It is not unusual for us to commission five or more new production lines per year.”

OMNI Systems has also attained Brand Reputation Through Compliance Global Standards (BRC) certification for packaging and packaging materials. BRC certification, in turn, complies with guidelines established by the Global Food Safety Initiative (GFSI). GFSI is the universal gold standard of recognition to specific food safety audits, signifying that the certification holder operates with a structured, comprehensive and effective food safety program. According to the company, certification by renowned third-party organizations validates excellence and adherence to the food processing industry’s most stringent quality standards.

Equipment evolution
In order to meet demand for global customers requiring billions of labels, OMNI Systems has amassed a robust portfolio of equipment and software. This journey initially began just over 30 years ago with one 7" Mark Andy 820 press. Today, OMNI is nearing 50 Mark Andy narrow and wide-web presses that operate 24 hours a day.

“Having standardized on the Mark Andy platform has allowed us to build a homogenous press base that enables us to effortlessly interchange operators to various production lines and maintain replacement parts for all presses on site,” says DeFrancesco. “The result is increased efficiencies, uptimes and production redundancies.”

OMNI has not been shy about upgrading to the latest technology, either. Another milestone for the company featured the move from off-line to inline finishing via the implementation of ABG robotic finishing equipment.

“Previously, we had a considerable department dedicated to finishing master rolls that would come off the press,” comments DeFrancesco. “The ABG equipment revolutionized this process and alleviated a bottleneck by allowing us to go right from the printing presses into the box and out the door. The ABG robotics automatically glue the core, digitally count and inspect the labels, cut the web, print a customized inspection label, and automatically apply it as the tail tie.”

Over the years, OMNI has further complemented its processing efficiencies by adding Martin Automatic splicers. Martin’s technology allows OMNI to start a long-run job on Monday morning and have it run 24 hours a day for several days without ever shutting down the production line.

“That’s the type of efficiency we need to maintain daily to deliver the highest quality and lowest cost products to our clients,” he adds.

Of course, data and automation play a large role in the company’s operations. To satisfy this need, OMNI migrated to a full-blown ERP system: Radius by EFI. The real-time data provided by EFI’s custom modules allows OMNI to run its integrated businesses efficiently while utilizing e-commerce and EDI, as well as real-time production data. Press interfaces offer paperless order management, and management reporting seamlessly integrates into KPI dashboards that the management team uses continuously.

OMNI, when choosing its equipment and supplies, has made protecting the environment a top priority. In addition to benefiting the environment, the company is responding to the growing requirements of its customers. OMNI exclusively uses EcoSmart environmentally friendly certified ink products in the production of all its thermal label products. These inks have been certified to contain no more than 2% VOCs based on EPA Test Method 24, as calculated from accumulated data on the ingredients contained in the product. Additionally, these inks feature no more than 1% by weight of ammonium hydroxide while also meeting CONEG regulation for packaging, with a combined heavy metal total of less than 100 ppm of mercury, lead, cadmium and hexavalent chromium.

And the winner is…
Throughout the years, OMNI Systems has been the proud recipient of a host of awards and accolades for the manner in which it runs its business. Most recently, OMNI was recognized as one of the 2019 Best Employers in Ohio, which relies on a statewide survey, designed to identify, recognize and honor the best places of employment in Ohio, benefiting the state’s economy, its workforce and businesses. In 2018, the company was also lauded by Smart Business Magazine, as it received a 2018 “Cleveland Technology Award” for the second consecutive year. The award noted OMNI’s investments in technology, which have catalyzed significant manufacturing successes, with a 98% fill rate and 80% run efficiency.

DeFrancesco has gone to great lengths to instill a culture that places an emphasis on teamwork, empowerment and creativity. These initiatives have led to significant recognition.

“OMNI has developed a company culture of empowering individuals, giving them the necessary tools and training to be successful,” says DeFrancesco. “We were delighted to receive recognition by both Monster.com and Kununu.com for being tops in company worker satisfaction in the US. Additionally, we were recognized by Crain’s Business as a Best Employer in Ohio for 2019. I like to joke that OMNI was an overnight success – it only took 30 years and counting. We are very fortunate to have many great team members, many of which have been with OMNI for decades and share our entrepreneurial vision now and into the future.”

Inc. magazine has also recognized OMNI multiple times as one of the fastest-growing private companies in the US. Plus, OMNI has been named to the Weatherhead 100 as one of the fastest-growing companies in Northeast Ohio. Dunn and Bradstreet (D&B) has recognized OMNI as a financially sound company with a stellar credit rating of 12AA.

Navigating the ‘New Normal’
Rapid and continuous growth can pose a plethora of challenges to business owners. In many ways, however, the constant flux ideally situated OMNI Systems for handling the COVID-19 pandemic. As DeFrancesco did when establishing the company, he used his foresight and experience to plan for the awaiting challenges.

“When COVID-19 struck, many of our online retailers and supermarket clients saw their businesses and label demands surge more than 70%,” notes DeFrancesco. “Fortunately, we have always been forward-looking in our production planning and just finished a significant expansion that quickly absorbed this surging demand. What good is capacity if workers are afraid to go to work out of fear of contracting COVID? OMNI’s management team led the way in implementing the prescribed social distancing, hygiene, and screening requirements specified by the CDC for essential businesses.”

OMNI also went several steps further to ensure that a safe environment was created for all team members. The company installed advanced technology ion filtration systems on all of its new HVAC units. These units improve air quality by reducing airborne particles, including odors and pathogens, while saving up to 30% on energy consumption, thus lowering OMNI’s carbon footprint. Plus, the management team authorized a 50% wage incentive for hourly employees.

“The stimulus was meaningful in several ways,” states DeFrancesco. “First, it motivated employees that were fearful of leaving their homes to return to work. Second, it brought immediate financial relief to those associates who were impacted by the pandemic, perhaps by having a spouse who was not working at a business deemed essential or having to make alternative arrangements for child care. As a management team, our associate welfare is our priority. We take good care of the team so they can take good care of our clients.”