Profile: OMNI Systems

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

The foresight and innovation that led Adam DeFrancesco and his wife, Sally, to establish OMNI Systems in 1990 is every bit as present today, even as new leadership helps guide the company into the future. OMNI Systems, based in Cleveland, OH, USA, is regarded as one of the largest privately owned label manufacturers in the country. But despite OMNI Systems’ size, culture and a family atmosphere still serve as guiding principles for a company leaning fully into cutting-edge technology.

Today, Mike Murton operates as president and CCO. Murton joined the organization in 2019 and helped guide OMNI Systems through numerous challenges, from the pandemic to the supply chain. He took the reins of president in 2022. Adam DeFrancesco still serves as CEO and provides leadership and guidance on many of the large strategic decisions impacting the business. Meanwhile, Murton and his dedicated executive leadership team handle the day-to-day activities. This team consists of Murton and DeFrancesco, as well as Dave Campbell, CFO; Tom Murphy, CIO; Rob Matejka, controller; and Erik Majkrzak, vice president of operations. Together, OMNI Systems has enjoyed substantial growth.

Murton joined the company after more than a decade with Swagelok, a fittings and valves manufacturer located in Cleveland. In 2019, he was presented with an opportunity to join OMNI Systems, a move that held significant appeal.

“One of my final roles with Swagelok was leading their global procurement team on the direct materials side, so I got to work with various sized organizations and I really fell in love with the mid-market sized organizations,” explains Murton. “I liked the leadership styles and how nimble they could be with decision-making.  It created an environment where you felt like you were making an impact.” 

The same agility now defines how OMNI operates. In practice, that translates into flexibility, speed, and consistency of operations that have  paid big dividends in how OMNI supports its customers, helping them adapt to demand shifts and avoid supply disruptions. Since joining the company, Murton has seen the staff grow from 80 employees to north of 300. Growth has come both organically and through acquisition. And Murton has lofty standards for where the company is headed. In 2022, the executive team put a plan together to triple the size of the organization by 2030.

Acquisitions have played a big role for Murton and OMNI Systems. So, too, has a strong vision for the company’s roadmap. The year 2023 served as an inflection point for the business, as two deals ramped up company growth. In early 2023, OMNI Systems acquired ITW Labels and its two facilities. Then, later in the same year, OMNI Systems added a division of Honeywell Media, which used to be Intermec Labels. The acquisitions have given OMNI Systems additional footprints in Cincinnati, St. Louis, and Kansas City, KS. The company boasts nearly 350,000 square feet of space throughout the four locations.

“Those moves opened us up to a completely new customer base and broadened our offerings so we can engage our customers differently,” states Murton. “We’re driving measurable cost savings while improving supply continuity and bringing value in different ways.”

The acquisitions have been made with an open mind. “We’ve incorporated those other two organizations into OMNI, but we’ve never looked at it like just because we’re OMNI and we’ve always done it this way, that’s how they’re going to do it. We took what those companies did really well and took what we did really well and meshed them together. So, we were all greater coming out of the deals than we were going into them.”

DeFrancesco has remained a pivotal part of the organization. He engages on the larger strategic decisions impacting the company such as expansion or capital expenditures. He was instrumental in OMNI Systems’ acquisitions, too.

“One of the things I enjoy the most about working for Adam is he gives you space to do your job,” notes Murton. “If you have questions about an initiative or you’re deciding between multiple options, he’ll let you know what he thinks – but he’ll always let you do your job.

“His strategic acumen is more advisory and setting boundaries, but he understands the market better than anyone I’ve seen,” adds Murton. “Once he saw our vision for growth, he was the real driver for finding those opportunities.”

Murton has overseen an expansion of markets served, too. When he joined OMNI Systems in 2019, the company primarily produced blank labels and jobs with one or two spot colors. Since joining the company, OMNI has expanded its capabilities to include 4-color process and full gamut digital printing.

“We got into prime labeling for multiple reasons,” recalls Murton. “One, we had customers asking us to do it. Some of our largest customers loved what we were doing for their secondary labeling – the consistency, speed, and cost efficiency we provided – but they wanted to apply that to their prime side. Where we had gotten operationally, there was increased confidence that we could get into new technology that we weren’t doing before. And second, I think our customers were starting to change. There’s a lot of discussions in the industry about supplier consolidation. They don’t want to manage label programs with five different suppliers, they want to reduce complexity and consolidate where it makes sense, without sacrificing supply continuity. That shift pushed us more toward prime labels because our only other option would’ve been to outsource. In our mind, we thought we could do it better and at a lower total cost ourselves than to rely on someone else. We really want to control our own destiny and not put our destiny in someone else’s hands.”

OMNI Systems still predominantly serves the secondary labeling market with blanks and spot printing across the logistics, grocery, food & beverage and pharmacy markets. In the prime space, OMNI Systems has put its focus in the markets that have price sensitivity and where driving savings is important. This includes food & beverage, CPG, medical and pharmaceuticals.  

“We have similar markets that we serve on the secondary side, so we have nice synergies there,” says Murton. “We do both prime and secondary labels for our customers in those spaces. We don’t have to tell our customers that we don’t offer that service. We really support each side of the business. The core of our business will always be the secondary side, but we’d like there to be more balance between the two in the future.”

Technological Growth

OMNI Systems is a powerhouse of printing capabilities. The company boasts 33 presses at its Cleveland headquarters and 66 overall throughout the four facilities. The equipment spans flexo, UV hybrid, and digital printing presses to automated turrets and splicers.

For flexographic work, 95% of OMNI Systems’ presses are Mark Andy. In fact, after recently installing a 26″ Mark Andy Performance Series P9 press, the company decided to invest in three more. 

For digital runs, OMNI Systems has a strong relationship with Domino. Over the years, the company has added multiple Domino K600i digital UV inkjet printing units. Most recently, in the last quarter of 2025, the company went with a Durst-Omet digital hybrid press to serve new markets. 

Martin Automatic has served as the backbone of OMNI Systems’ splicing technology, and ABG has provided the majority of the company’s turrets. Additionally, OMNI Systems is expanding with automated turret technology from LemuGroup.

“We expand and branch out with different suppliers because they fit different needs,” remarks Murton. “We worked very closely with Lemu when we brought in the first Mark Andy 26″ P9 Performance Series press. We’re working with them on the next presses we’re bringing in as well. We’re going to continue driving that model of getting wider and faster, so we can increase throughput and continue driving down costs for our customers.”

As OMNI Systems has grown into new prime labeling markets, the company has relied on new substrate suppliers. OMNI Systems continues to source substrates from Green Bay Packaging and Ricoh. Meanwhile, Avery Dennison has been a great asset in positioning the converter for growth in prime. “Avery Dennison is growing with us,” remarks Murton. “If you look across the industry, Avery Dennison probably has the widest breadth of product offerings, and they can handle our size volume on the secondary side.

“Going into prime has changed what we’re asking for and how we’re asking for it,” Murton continues. “On the prime side, we’re buying much smaller quantities and wait on customers to place orders before we produce. A lot of our secondary stuff we’re going to inventory, picking from inventory, and then replenishing. These are two models that require fundamentally different supply chain strategies.”

Automation and AI are critical for this forward-thinking converter, as well. “We’re working with equipment manufacturers on predictive maintenance, where the machine is telling you what you need to do,” explains Murton. “We’re trying to leverage technology and find out how it can help us become faster and more efficient in our operations.”

Culture Driven

OMNI Systems’ culture is what initially drew Murton to the business. Upon sitting down with DeFrancesco, the decision to join the company was an obvious one. 

“When I got the opportunity to interview with Adam, his passion and energy for the business was just contagious,” Murton recalls. “I care more about the company culture. I’ve worked in sales and customer service roles, and manufacturing, so I’m fairly agnostic to it. It’s about who’s leading the organization and what can I learn from them. And conversely, what can I bring to the organization so that I’m bringing value? It’s all about the company culture and the vision.”

The results are tangible. More than 65% of the employees with OMNI Systems boast a tenure of 10-plus years. Leadership is also open-minded, which has served the company’s culture well. “Organizationally across our leadership team, we don’t have emotional attachments to ideas and thoughts,” comments Murton. “In some organizations, people will say, ‘It’s my idea so I can’t say it was wrong.’ All the time, we’ll base our decisions on the data and understand maybe something was a good decision at the time but things have changed, or it was a bad call on someone’s part. We’re not going to keep running down the hill to a bad idea. We just pivot and change, which helps us be successful. No one is afraid to say it was a bad idea or we need to pivot.”

In addition, Murton has prioritized the company’s culture at each of the acquired facilities. The benefits have been mutual, as OMNI Systems and the other three locations enjoy shared knowledge. 

“We’re not just going in and saying it’s the OMNI way,” states Murton. “We’re allowing them to keep the processes and procedures they did well, and it lets the culture evolve where it’s not just the OMNI culture. We have a different culture today than we did pre-acquisitions because there are things we kept from those organizations’ culture and incorporated into ours.”

OMNI Systems also saved jobs throughout the acquired companies, specifically in the case of Honeywell. “Honeywell announced they were closing that facility, so all those people thought they were out of jobs,” Murton says. “We wanted to keep the facility going and retain the staff, so they were all about it. That move has been great from a culture standpoint. OMNI came in and helped those employees keep their jobs – and both sides were open-minded.

“We were competing with PE-backed companies for ITW,” he adds. “Our plan was not to shutter a facility, but to expand and build. We moved the St. Louis facility and tripled the size of it, and that’s ultimately what won us that deal. Same thing with Honeywell. Yes, they announced they had closed because they were trying to sell, but other people called just to buy the book of business. For us, the book of business was secondary. We wanted the people, the equipment, the know-how – and we think that’s a fit for us.”

OMNI Systems’ strong culture is also based on promoting from within. “If you go to our middle leadership group, almost everyone has been promoted from within. Our shop floor leaders ran the equipment that they’re now leading today. People who are in our middle management roles, like our estimating manager, started out running equipment or working in a support role. Our distribution manager started out doing rework for the company. So, we’re huge on developing and growing from within.”

Independence Day

OMNI Systems has benefited from both its size and a localized feel that allows it to remain nimble and quick. There have been considerable benefits to remaining independent. 

“We make decisions for the long term,” remarks Murton. “We understand that if we make a decision, it might not be the best in the near term, but in the long run we think it’s going to be best for the organization and ultimately serve our customers better.”

The recent decision to invest in multiple Mark Andy presses serves as the perfect example. “That was a 30-minute meeting,” notes Murton. “We sat down with Adam, and it was approved. It’s not going to happen that quickly with PE-backed companies. Our ability to outmaneuver our competition is what’s allowed us to grow in the marketplace. Anyone can buy a press, run it fast, and produce labels – but we are going to do it strategically. And we can pivot, adjust, and change to all the things that have happened in the last five years in the world. We can adjust quickly and adapt to those challenges.”

OMNI Systems sees additional benefits to retaining independence. “There’s definitely a sense of pride being independent – 100%,” states Murton. “I think when you look at our size, we’re probably the largest out there that’s still 100% privately-held by the family that founded the company. And even though we’re large, we still have that family-run organizational feel. People will still email Adam about various things. When we have family days, people have pride in showing their families the facility and what they do on a day-to-day basis.”