Weber's World

Joe Weber can't keep quiet about his successful family run business, the importance of meeting customers demands and his delight in being named Package Printing and Converting's 1995 TLMI Convertor of the Year

The customers call the shots, at least they do at Weber Marking Systems, an Arlington Heights, IL-based custom tag and label maker, with a specialty in developing labeling software and equipment.

Sitting in the chairman’s chair at Weber is Joseph A. Weber, 62, the company founder’s son. A former lawyer, Weber traded law books for labels in the 1960s to carry on the fast growing business his father, a Chicago office equipment salesman, started.

Taking great pride in his family business, Weber believes the keys to the company’s success are found in a corporate enthusiasm that embraces new challenges and emerging technologies and, most important, respect for customer demands.

“You have to believe in what you’re doing,” contends Weber. “You have to keep the spirit that you can get things done, that you can meet and surpass the goals of your customers and that you can be a responsible and responsive producer.” All of those factors combined, he says, make you a winner.

When the company was founded in 1932, it was a one-person shop, with Weber’s father selling hand-crafted stencil labeling equipment. Today, the company boasts 900 employees, more that 50,000 customers worldwide, operations in five countries and a reported $100 million in revenues in 1994.

Weber Marking Systems, whose customers include the ranks of Motorola, Whirlpool and General Motors, is every bit the success its founder envisioned.

“The growth we’ve had since our humble beginnings has been remarkable,” Weber says, crediting his family’s triumph to the greatest motivational factor in any business: tough customers.

Success for Weber Marking came about by meeting its customers’ demands, taking pride in its products and, especially in recent years, embracing new technologies. Without a doubt, Weber thrives on the challenge of carrying the future of Weber Marking Systems on his shoulders.

For his commitment to his family business, his dedication to producing a top quality product, to ensuring customer satisfaction at all costs, and for his company’s contributions to advancing technologies in the tag and label industry, Joseph Weber earns the title of PP & C’s 1995 TLMI Converter of the Year.

Customer oriented Weber’s dedication to satisfying his customers’ demands permeates the day-to-day operations at Weber Marking Systems. This commitment, over the years, is the result of Weber’s belief in setting high standards for service and respect for customers’ needs.

“Joe is very in tune with what the customer wants and needs,” says George Stieber, vice president of manufacturing at Weber Marking. “He is committed to building this business by pleasing our customers and exceeding their expectations of what we can do for them.”

Weber’s son, Doug, 31, vice president of international operations, agrees. “My father is very competitive by nature, which makes him a strong leader and one who wants to meet the needs of his customers better than anyone else,” the third generation label maker says. “What that means for us is that we have to try to stay one step ahead of him, if that’s at all possible, and be prepared for what he is going to ask us to do in order to meet those demands.”

Weber’s eldest son, Brad Weber, 35, president of Weber Marking Systems, admires his father’s tenacity.

“You can’t help but admire his ability as a businessman,” Brad Weber says of his father and boss. “Everything he touches turns to gold. He just has this way about making good, sound business decisions. In fact, he rarely makes a bad decision and, if he does, he is always the first one to admit it and quickly correct it.”

Does Joe Weber demand the same of his employees?

“You better believe it,” Brad Weber says. “He delegates responsibility and gives our employees a lot of autonomy to do a good job, but he also expects us all to recognize the times when, perhaps, we’ve made a bad call and stay strong during those times and make good corrective decisions.”

“At Weber, we try to think and act with the same sense of urgency as Joe,” adds Dennis McGrath, the company’s vice president of marketing. “Outstanding, dedicated people make it happen, especially when they work together as a team and follow the example of a strong corporate leader.”

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