Most people are looking for specific items when they enter a grocery store – carrots, soft drinks or cheese. That’s not the case for Alan Shipman. He’s looking at labels and the printing of expiration dates.
“I go in and I’m looking at everything but the products there,” he said. “I’m looking at labels, product codes, everything and saying, ‘We did this one,’ ‘I wonder who did this one?,’ ‘We could have done this label better.’”
Shipman is CEO of Fort Worth-based ID Technology, a ProMach product brand that works on labeling, coding and marking solutions. ID Technology’s products and services help companies increase efficiency, ensure compliance and improve product traceability, he said.
Now celebrating its 30th anniversary, ID Technology is rapidly expanding both nationally and internationally.
The company’s headquarters is doubling its facility footprint, enabling expanded production capacity, enhanced manufacturing capabilities and adding more customer support.
Meanwhile, expansions of its sites in York, Pennsylvania, and Edmonton, Alberta, have been completed.
Shipman said ID Technology has seen a more than 20% compound annual growth rate over the last 30 years, driven by customer demand for innovative, high-quality labeling and coding solutions. He pointed to increases in Amazon and other vendors shipping products directly to consumers.
“Every one of those boxes needs a label and companies need a way to track that product,” said Shipman. “That’s our market.”
But it is not just letters, numbers and symbols on packages. ID Technology also has the ability to “print” RFID tags, which are basically chips that can track packages.
It’s a long way for a company started in Fort Worth in 1995 with just eight employees and $1.8 million in revenue in its initial year. It was doing well, but it was hardly printing money, he said.
It was founded by Bob Zuilhof, who retired in 2014. According to company legend, Zuilhof maxed out his credit cards to purchase the machinery to start the company.
If he did, it proved a good investment. ID Technology now has 1,200 employees and expects to top $450 million, most likely hitting $500 million, this year.
Shipman, then working for Accenture Consulting, met Zuilhof and thought it was an interesting business model with both products and service to sell.
That mix proved effective with INC. Magazine recognizing ID Technology as one of the fastest-growing businesses in the United States in 1997 and 1998.
Shipman said the company’s history features several key moments, but the one that set it apart from competitors was in 2000 with the introduction of its own printer applicator — the Model 250.
“We set a goal to sell 250 units in 2002 and ended up at 275,” Shipman said. “Within just a few years, we became the leading printer applicator manufacturer in the United States.”
That also made ID Technology a fully-integrated company offering businesses printing solutions they could use on their own or providing it as a service. The company also sells the consumables used in its printer products.
“That really set us apart,” Shipman said.
At ID Technology’s customer center in north Fort Worth at 5051 N. Sylvania Ave., customers can receive a quick demonstration of the various services the company can provide.
“It’s been really helpful because we have multiple technologies we can demonstrate here,” Shipman said. “We bring in customers almost weekly, and they invariably say they didn’t know what all we did.”
Alan Shipman, CEO of ID Technology, in front of some of the company’s equipment. (Fort Worth Report | Bob Francis)
While printing a labeling seems pretty by-the-book, Shipman notes that each product and packaging requires a different label or code.
“It can be challenging, but that keeps it interesting,” he said.
And it is not just printing. There is laser etching, which the company also does.
The company’s location has proven an advantage for customer visits as well, Shipman added
“Now they all want to see the Stockyards, and we’re not far, so that’s been great for us,” he said.
Shipman joined the company, then just ID Technology in 1995, initially as a regional manager before becoming vice president of sales. He was named president in 2013.
In 2002, ID Technology was acquired by Cincinatti-based ProMach, a company that provides packaging and processing solution brands for manufacturers. ID Technology is part of ProMach’s labeling and coding business line.
That gave ID Technology the ability to expand its footprint and also to make acquisitions, as it did recently adding Cincinatti-based KelCode Solutions.
Shipman said most people don’t think about who prints those labels, product codes and expiration dates that we use everyday.
“It might look like a mundane business to some, but it’s changing all the time,” Shipman said. “Innovation is a key part of what we do and why we’ve been successful.”
Bob Francis is business editor for the Fort Worth Report. Contact him at bob.francis@fortworthreport.org. At the Fort Worth Report, news decisions are made independently of our board members and financial supporters. Read more about our editorial independence policy here.
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