Continued growth comes with a need for expansion

Rachel Sankey

Staff

July 1, 2024

TOWN OF LAWRENCE – The month of July brings many things – summer heat, cookouts, time on the water.

For Seaway Printing – a short-run book printer in the Town of Lawrence that has been family-owned since 1884 – it brings the opening of its brand new building.

The company’s 62,200-square-foot facility at 2812 American Blvd. is nearing completion – a project that Vice President Ian Heslin said was a crucial move to support Seaway’s growth.

“Moving into a new facility, we have more room to grow on the land so we can continue to expand,” he said. “And then it’s also about controlling those (growth) options as it comes up so we can add on whenever we need to. We’re no longer hindered by land availability.”

After seeing an annual growth rate of 20% for the last seven years, Seaway President Kevin Heslin said the building the company has been leasing at 1609 Western Ave. was no longer able to support operations.

“Essentially, we’ve more than tripled our sales in the last seven years,” he said. “We got to the point where we were out of room in our existing facility, and we anticipate continued growth.”

Ian said the printing company broke ground on the building last June, though the team started working on the project 18 months before that.

A building of its own

Though the new building isn’t fully finished yet, Ian said all that is left to complete is the upstairs office space.

“We moved all our operations from the (current) building to the new one,” he said. 

Some of the equipment, Kevin said, took a longer time to move than others. 

“Our large press was a six-week move – our business cycle is seven days,” he said. “We purchased another press to get us through the move, and then we made changes to the configuration of one of our other presses. That essentially gives us roughly twice the capacity we had on Western Avenue.”

Kevin said Seaway also added new equipment – including the Contiweb CD-N Non-Stop Unwinder.

According to Contiweb’s website (contiweb.com), the machine adds efficiency to the printing process by taking away the step of manually changing the paper reel – saving production and labor hours.

The overall layout of the American Boulevard building, Kevin said, is more conducive to the company’s workflow.

“We can get a better layout on the shop floor (in the new space),” he said. 

Ian said the new facility has 20-foot ceilings versus the previous location’s 15-foot ceilings, as well as brighter lights and white walls.

With more room, new machines and a fresh start, Kevin said he anticipates hiring in the future.

“At this point, we still have open roles we’re trying to fill,” he said.

Ian said the expansion is “representative of our continued growth” overall.

“It’s a representation of our continued investment in the area and our continued focus on growth,” he said. “We like the location we found because it allows us to access both Green Bay and Appleton. So, now you look at adding new employees and that gives us access to (a talent pool from) both sides of the Fox Valley.”

The expansion, Ian said, was also about providing a space that benefits Seaway’s employees.

“We are committed to building and bringing in equipment needed to serve both our customers and make life easier on our employees – and this building is a big representation of that,” he said. “Our place on Western (Avenue) – we’ll call it highly functional (for what we’re doing) – (it) was not exactly the nicest building.”

Ian said the response from employees confirms a new building of its own was the right move.

“We have fans in the ceiling to help air circulation for the employees to keep a comfortable temperature on the shop floor,” he said. “We’re trying to make sure the new building is functional but also is a more appealing place to work at.”

With 140 years under its belt, Kevin said Seaway has “been in the Green Bay market forever.”

“I think a lot of this represents our continued commitment to both the industry and the market and trying to create good jobs for employees in this marketplace,” he said. 

To learn more about Seaway Printing, visit seawayprinting.com.