WILMINGTON — One of Wilmington’s newer light manufacturing companies — Tri-State Media — has broken ground on a second facility at its Davids Drive site.
In town since 2012, and in business since 2001, Tri-State Media is a manufacturer of pressure sensitive labels and tags. The new 10,500-square-foot facility will be used for shipping finished products and warehousing the raw materials.
With a workforce of about 18 people, the company makes products such as custom synthetic labels, pressure sensitive labels, drum labels, bar code labels, stock labels, tags and ribbons.
They produce a variety of labels and tags for the relatively harsh environments that can be found in industries such as the automotive, brick, petro chemical | drum, foods including frozen food, lumber, and rebar | steel sectors.
Because of the circumstances and temperatures that come with those industries, using the correct adhesive can be the difference between a label staying on or falling off.
While the firm produces labels for multiple companies connected to the automotive industry and its suppliers, “you got to be diversified,” said Tri-State Media President John Clary during an open house tour of the existing facility. For a couple examples of its diversification, the company makes patients’ wristband ID labels for Kettering Medical Center and labels for dairy goods producers Dannon and Yoplait.
Clary shared some of his thinking on employee relations and retention. He said he believes in taking care of the workers already employed.
Tri-State Media ships its products to 45 of the country’s 50 states.
It has a digital press which enables it to do prototype labels for customers to assess, said Clary.
Clary is a disabled veteran of the U.S. armed forces. He participated in Army ROTC during college and served in the Navy after college graduation.
For more information on Tri-State Media, visit www.tri-statemedia.com or call 937-366-6416.
Reach Gary Huffenberger at 937-556-5768 or on Twitter @GHuffenberger.
