Total

Total Label USA

Total Label USA

Casey Kyler-West
Main Street Montana, Fall 2008

Accessibility, reliability and velocity; three words Don Farris, Chief Executive Officer of Total Label USA, uses to describe his business philosophy. “You need to be accessible to your customers, be reliable so that they trust you to get the job done, and be able to meet or beat your customer’s deadlines. If one of our customers calls and says we need labels first thing tomorrow morning, they know we can do it,” says Farris.

Located in Whitefish, Montana since 2004, Farris had been based in Tennessee for the previous 34 years. Farris says, “We moved because we had a fundamental belief that American industry was at a watershed point of change. It used to be that industry was located wherever the workforce was; what’s happening now in this more mobile society is, I believe, that you’re going to have to locate your facility where the workforce wants to be-not where they already are.” Farris became interested in the label industry in the late 1960s, when he went to work for a label company after leaving the Army. “Labels are everywhere, food, pharmaceuticals, health and beauty aids, chemicals; even your car has 300 labels in it.” Farris started his own small shop in 1970 and the rest is, as they say, history. He’s even responsible for inventing the booklet label that you see on chemical and pharmaceutical products.

With its headquarters in Whitefish and two plants in Tennessee, Total Label USA designs, produces and ships labels around the country and the world. Farris says his clients are always surprised when they hear he’s based in Montana and when they ask him why, he invites them for a visit. He says once they come and see the facility, the area and the quality of employees, they understand. “We want to be a family run operation where we know each person, their spouse, their children, their parents; we want to get to know these people and we want to motivate them as individuals. That’s the key to our success and it’s more fun that way,” says Farris. That’s one of the reasons that Farris will not take the company public. “In an economic downturn like we’re seeing right now, public companies have to cut people, but in a family owned business that’s the last thing you cut because you personally live with and adore them.” In order to keep costs down, Total Label USA makes its own label plates. This not only saves money, it also saves time, because the company can start making labels for a customer as soon as the plate is ready, instead of having to wait for it to be shipped from another company.

The move to Montana did not come without challenges. One of the biggest obstacles was bringing a highly technical industry into an area where timber, agriculture and tourism dominate. In order to have employees who could perform some of the technical duties such as graphic design and work with the printing press, Farris had to recruit people into the area. “Recruiting people into Whitefish, Montana, is just about the easiest thing there is,” says Farris. But while Farris has no problem bringing people to Whitefish, he wants to create more opportunity for young people in the area to stay. “What we want to avoid is the continued export of smart young people out of Montana after college.”

Although the company has only been in Whitefish since 2004, it has already experienced growing pains and quickly out grew the 16,000 square foot plant that was originally constructed. In March of this year, the company moved into its new 60,000 square foot multimillion dollar facility located right down the road from the original plant. With the capacity to print up to 50 miles of labels per hour, there is still room to grow. Currently there are 50 employees at Total Label USA; Farris expects to have between 100 and 150 employees in the next ten years.

As the company continues to grow, Farris says he wants to make a difference in the Whitefish community. “It’s one thing to put a business somewhere just because you think you can make some money. It’s quite another to put a business somewhere because you think you can make a difference and make money.” As a result Total Label USA belongs to both the Whitefish Chamber of Commerce and Montana West Economic Development.

Total Label USA truly is a family business. Farris works with his son Christopher, who is the Operations Manager, his daughter Janet Henderson, who is the Administrative Manager and her husband Scott, the Sales Manager. The Farris family not only works together, they live together. Each family has a house built on the 800 acre property owned by the family, so there’s no commute to work. “We plan to be in business forever,” says Farris.

Reprinted with permission from:
Montana Department of Labor and Industry
Main Street Montana
www.MainStreet.mt.gov