History Photo

Walco History

It all started in 1967, the Summer of Love.

Paul Sieber wasn’t living in San Francisco, but he was near a large body of water in Erie, Pa., working hard at McCarty Printing Company. Paul realized there was a growing demand for pressure-sensitive labels and stickers that could be printed on a roll. And so, with one flexography press and two employees, Paul…well, went on a roll of his own and started Walco Label.

Walco’s first customers were in the food and beverage industry. Most labels were one to three colors, printed on material up to about six inches wide (because that’s all we could really do at that time). Today, Walco offers virtually limitless color and materials options, running up to eight colors in a single pass on material as wide as 13 inches. Guess you could say we’ve really grown.

Through the years, we’ve gained experience and expertise by listening to our customers and trying all sorts of new materials and adhesives. Along the way, we ended up with this huge collection of label dies in all sorts of shapes and sizes (they do come in handy when you need a label quick).

We’re looking forward to the next 40 years…and even the next 40 after that. We’re not quite sure what type of material we might be printing on then, but we are confident there are going to be customers out there who are going to need our help to Stick It!