Medical Device Link.

Originally Published PMPN July 2004

NEWS

Eva Gottscho, president and chairman of Gottscho, took over the company in 1971 and has grown the business into a multimillion-dollar company.

Adolph Gottscho Inc. (Union, NJ) is currently celebrating its 100th anniversary. And while one wouldn’t necessarily know it, Gottscho pioneered the package coding and marking industry back in 1904. In fact, its successful products have arguably made the company one of the leaders in its field.

“We only build quality machines,” says Eva Gottscho, president and chairman of the board for the privately owned, independent company. “After 100 years, we still haven’t learned to build obsolescence into our equipment,” adds Charles Geraldi, Gottscho’s director of sales and marketing.

Ever since Eva’s late husband Ira invented the first automatic imprinting machine in 1937, Gottscho has continued to develop an array of equipment, from the Rolacoder for marking cases to last year’s Gottjet line of digital printers. In the process, the company has become one of the world’s largest manufacturers of in-line coding, marking, and imprinting machinery and related supplies for use on cartons, bags, jars, cans, and bottles.

And Gottscho shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, some might say the company is just getting started. “We are experiencing a rebirth,” says Geraldi. “We’re hiring new people and developing new machines and looking forward to the next 100 years.”

Gottscho has come a long way since 1904, when founder Adolph Gottscho began marking A or B grades on eggs with a rubber stamper from a cramped lower Manhattan loft space. That hand rubber stamp business soon grew into automation when Adolph’s son Ira developed the concept and the equipment to “print as you package” in 1937. The technology enabled food packagers to use automated, in-line imprinters on generic webs. 

A Gottscho Rolacoder is shown in action. The company offers a wide range of printing and coding machinery.

Since that time, Gottscho has introduced a wide variety of machines: the Rolacoder side, end, and top coders for marking cases; Rolaprinter flexographic printers for web stock; Markocoder bottom and top coding machines for rigid and semirigid containers; and Wrapartina hot-leaf-stamping machines, which produce a dry, opaque mark. 

In addition, Gottscho manufactures flexographic and hot-stamp printers for graphic or supplemental information marking, code dating, numbering, pricing, or ingredient marking. The line also includes an array of rubber, photopolymer, brass, steel, and magnesium printing dies, custom-formulated inks and solvents, and the Darka-Marka preinked cartridge.

That such a diverse product line has evolved is even more impressive when you consider that Eva Gottscho wasn’t exactly known for her business acumen when she took over the company after Ira’s death in 1971. “I was someone who knew nothing about the business,” she says. “But I knew about organization and management.” Under her watch, Gottscho has grown into a multi-million-dollar company that now contracts and sells to the biggest pharmaceutical companies in the world. It currently holds more than 100 patents. 

Any conversation about the company’s history, though, must start with its people, says Gottscho. From employees to customers, its achievements owe more to the human element than the technological one. “We’ve had wonderful, long-term employees,” she says. “A worker retired last year after 49 years with us. It’s like a family environment. We just don’t have turnover.” In addition to Geraldi, Gottscho praises Paul Jancek, who was coaxed out of retirement last year to become Gottscho’s senior vice president. “We’re lucky to have them both,” she says. 

Gottscho is also committed to adding new talent, according to Geraldi. “We’re still adding people and continuing to grow,” he says. Gottscho is particularly excited about the recent hiring of packaging engineer Alan Ng, a recent graduate of the Rutgers University Engineering School’s packaging program. “We think he’ll help put us a cut above the competition,” says Gottscho. Ng’s hiring is also significant because Ira Gottscho established a packaging library at Rutgers in the 1970s. Last year, Eva Gottscho pledged $1.5 million toward construction of a teaching laboratory at Rutgers, to be named the Ira Gottscho Packaging Engineering Laboratory. “You can get great help from a packaging school,” she says. “The students are trained beautifully. In fact, we’re hoping to hire more of them.”

The other important people at Gottscho are, of course, the customers, which include companies as diverse as well known blister packaging machine manufacturers, major pharmaceutical producers, food and beverage producers, and even the Department of Defense. “The customer always comes first,” says Gottscho. Geraldi notes that Gottscho is known for its obsession with customer service. 

The company also keeps up with current technological advances. “One of the things we do is to redesign our traditional printing solutions (platen printers) , making it easier for our partners to add onto them without making huge investments in new machines,” says Geraldi. 
“Our goal is to respond to our customers and the industry’s needs with new equipment every few years,” says Geraldi. “Last year, for example, we embarked on a new initiative with Hewlett-Packard (HP) that involves new technologies for imprinting.” That collaboration gave birth to the Gottjet, a product that marked Gottscho’s entry into digital printing. The AGI Gottjet is a line of printers that print in up to 600 ¥ 600-dpi resolution and at speeds up to 500 fpm. They can be configured to handle anything from a complete line to a simple lot number on a primary or secondary box. The HP cartridge system allows print nozzles to be replaced with each cartridge change, so there is little maintenance.

The Gottjet inks are water based and nontoxic, according to Geraldi, and the printers can be programmed individually or linked over a network. “There are so many new regulations in the pharmaceutical, medical, and food/beverage industries that call for more variable data on packages,” he says. “That has created the need for programmable, flexible systems with high resolution, like the Gottjet.” The system allows printing with variable data and bar codes and enables packaging professionals the ability to print lot numbers and date codes on a secondary box. It also allows for printing SKU numbers, bar codes, and contents on a carton. 

While both Gottscho and Geraldi view the 100-year mark as one worth celebrating, they’re excited about the company’s future. “We really want to continue to move forward and create new products,” says Geraldi. “There are so many important things going on in the pharmaceutical packaging industry right now, and Gottscho has solutions for them.”

One of those is something Ira Gottscho seemed to foresee back in the 1930s. “He once said, ‘There’s a code in your future,’” says Gottscho. “And now here we are in an era where bar coding is now done in many formats that require new and improved products to implement them. We are well prepared to respond to all the regulations FDA is enacting.

Counterfeiting is another issue that will be addressed by Gottscho’s technologies, adds Geraldi. “It’s becoming a huge concern, one that we’re prepared for. We can print security codes in a UV-readable ink just before it’s punched out of the die, for example.”

Gottscho is heading into the next century with eyes wide open, ready to tackle its customers industrial printing challenges as well. “The key customer issues we will address relate to equipment speed and scannable codes,” he says. “We’ll also make sure our equipment fits in as part of a packaging system or line and will definitely continue to look at new technologies to achieve those goals.” 

“We have made a great investment in the future,” adds Jancek. “An investment in people and in equipment. That includes putting money into our older machines to bring them up to date.” It also means staying relevant. “We’re not a stagnant company,” he says. “The next 100 years will be even better.”

That’s a promise that will be easy to achieve, says Gottscho, as long as the company sticks to its mottos. “Our equipment is great, and our price is always fair,” she says. “We pride ourselves on our tradition of quality and service.”

More Than Machines

A list of some of the organizations Gottscho is affiliated with: 

The Ruth Gottscho Kidney Foundation – This nonprofit group, founded by Ira and Eva Gottscho after their daughter Ruth’s death from renal failure in 1960, operates strictly through volunteers. The foundation currently provides subsidies for patients needing emergency transportation.

Frost Valley YMCA Camp – The Foundation established a dialysis unit at the Oliveria, NY–based camp in 1975. The camp itself allows children with renal failure to enjoy an overnight camping experience. 

Packaging Machinery Manufacturers Institute – Eva Gottscho sits on the organization’s board.

Packaging Education Forum – Gottscho also sits on this organization’s board.

Rutgers University Packaging Science and Engineering program – Cofounded by Ira Gottscho in the 1960s.

Ira Gottscho Packaging Engineering Laboratory – currently under construction at Rutgers.

Copyright ©2004 Pharmaceutical & Medical Packaging News