Nov. 5, 2010—After doing business as Process Displays Inc. for over 80 years, officials of Process Displays announced today that the company name is changing to
Process Retail Group Inc. The name change will coincide with the company’s move to a new headquarters in New Berlin, Wis. in December.
“Our new name better reflects what we have grown to be,” said Bob Zanotti, president of Process Retail Group. “In recent years we have evolved into a strategic provider of national retail marketing and merchandising programs that go way beyond the production of displays.”
The company began as a screen printing sign business in 1929 in Milwaukee. Growth moved the company to a new home, but a fire in that building forced the company to move again in 1947.
Success in creating marketing products for the petroleum industry, including for Exxon’s famous 1960s “Tiger in your Tank” ad campaign, drove the company to grow into a larger 57,000 square-foot facility in the suburb of New Berlin. The company was given the “Key to the City” on May 1, 1967, as the very first occupant of the New Berlin Industrial Park. This building has served as the company headquarters for the last 43 years.
Process Displays was purchased by James Coffey in 1940; his son James Coffey, Jr., became president in 1965. The company remained a two-generation family business until it was sold in 2000 to the local ownership team of Michael Pranke and Brendan Rowen who brought in Bob Zanotti as president. Since 2000, the company has tripled in size and operations have expanded into a number of other buildings in the New Berlin Industrial Park.
With its name change, Process Retail Group will also organize its product and service offerings into three divisions to more strategically service and grow different retail market segments. The divisions of Process POP, Edge In-Store, and Process Merchandising will improve market focus on three distinct retail environment segments with contrasting needs.
“Our company of 10 years ago was entirely focused on manufacturing displays and signage for the convenience retail environment where we worked extensively with tobacco, beer, alcohol, lottery, soft drink, petroleum and financial service companies,” Zanotti said. “Now our Process POP division will be dedicated to assisting businesses with building their brands in convenience environments.”
Since 2000, the company has also dramatically bolstered its retail design service offerings. The company has significantly grown its team of designers, engineers, and model makers so it can now provide retail development services.
“Bolstering our retail development resources has opened a lot of new doors over the last 10 years in other retail segments such as electronics, gaming, tools, cosmetics, apparel, sporting goods, footwear, telecommunications, and golf,” said Zanotti. “Our Edge In-Store division is more focused on researching and innovating for more premium retail segments where the shopper experience is even more critical. Typically, these retail programs are composed of multiple elements in a variety of permanent materials that create or enhance an overall retail environment strategy.”
Finally, the company started its Process Merchandising division two years ago to focus on developing merchandising systems for consumer packaged goods companies in grocery store environments. These highly engineered proprietary products are focused on improving the efficiency of merchandising space by improving the shopping experience for both shopper and retailers.
“We are currently going to market with some exciting new products for refrigerated and freezer cases that are certain to improve the shopper experience and create merchandising efficiency for grocers,” said Zanotti. “When a program produces sales lift and reduces in-store labor, it’s a winning formula for everyone.”
While Process is changing its name and moving to a new location, the one constant that will remain will be its workforce. The company, which earned recognition in 2010 as a Top Employer of Choice in Southeast Wisconsin, was very cognizant of its workforce when searching for a new location. A study of its employee population actually placed New Berlin as the geographic center. In fact, the company has several employees that have been on board since the 60s and 70s, including one that was with the company when it moved in 1967.
“Our people are the reason for our success, so we searched for years to find a building or a site that supported our future goals and kept hardship commutes to a bare minimum,” said Zanotti, “we didn’t want to lose any of our people by moving far away.”
The Process Retail Group leadership team connected with Briohn Building Corporation who had a site on Moorland Road just south of Interstate 43. The company will move into a new 136,000-square-foot custom-designed facility in December. The LEED-certified building will combine a state-of-the-art Retail Design Center with integrated production operations to more efficiently serve the company’s major brand and retail clients.
The Retail Design Center portion of the new facility will cover over 8,000 square feet and will include a Retail Showroom, a Retail Innovation Library, meeting rooms, and breakout areas, as well as contemporary work spaces for designers, engineers, and model makers.
“The front-end of our business is made up of a highly creative team,” said Zanotti. “So, the goal of for this new space will be to stimulate their creativity, and to provide a space where our visiting clients and supplier partners can engage with them.”
Much thought also went into the layout of the company’s press, manufacturing, assembly, and logistics operations. “Everything we do is literally custom designed and produced from scratch, so our production operations are a complex, job shop environment,” added Zanotti. “There are multiple handoffs between internal functions and external suppliers, and it is critical that important program details are not missed. The new plant space will integrate these operations to maximize quality, efficiency, and ensure on-time performance. I really believe it will set a new standard for the effective delivery of large, national retail marketing and merchandising programs.”
“We recognize that our company is a bit of a ‘rarity’ to be changing our name after 80 years and expanding during this challenging economic time,” said Zanotti. “The timing however, couldn’t be more perfect for us. Our business is strong and we are really excited about the future.”