Meet Steward Printing, TLMI Best in Show winner

Just a few years after officially entering label manufacturing, Steward Printing excelled at the TLMI Printing Excellence Awards, winning five awards and earning Best in Show, the awards’ top prize. 

Steward Printing, a first-year TLMI member, is a woman-owned label and packaging company based in Dallas, Texas. The company manufactures its products primarily for the nutraceuticals, pet and cosmetics industries. Labels account for about 40 percent of the company’s business, folding cartons another 40 percent, and stick packs about 20 percent.  

‘We are a family business,’ says Karley Steward-Mize, president of Steward Printing. ‘I feel a lot of pressure to make sure that every decision I make is what’s best for everyone who has spent almost their entire lives working for this company.’ 

The winning label 

Steward Printing won Best in Show for its Spoken Greens: Berry Blast label, which also took Best in Class and first place in the wellness, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical category. This label, created for a nutraceutical sports product, is primarily black with white text, featuring a spot gloss and tactile coating. 

It was printed on a Nilpeter FA-17 flexo press, using DuPont plates, Xsys cylinders, Interflex anilox rolls, Rotometrics dies, Avery Dennison material, Siegwerk inks, Uvitec coating and 3M mounting tape. 

‘The Spoken Greens nutraceutical label was an exceptional example of precision printing and finishing,’ says judge R Keith Nagle. ‘The deep, rich black solids exhibited flawless coverage, creating a striking contrast with the crisp reverse type and sharply defined NSF logo. The fine typography within the nutritional panel was equally impressive, with no detectable over impression. Combine that level of print quality with impeccable registration of the spot gloss and tactile coatings over the soft-touch lamination, and the result is an elegant, multidimensional sensory experience that delivers exceptional shelf appeal.’ 

The company also won first for its NutraBio L Canitine Sour Candy label in the beverage-nonalcoholic category and first for its Piper Color Spray label in the food category, as well as second for its Chi Vibes Better Together Hair Spray label in the personal care and cosmetics category and second for its EHP Labs: Hectic Preworkout label in the wellness, pharmaceutical and nutraceutical category.  

Growth into labels 

Missy and Kevin Steward founded Steward Printing in 1983 as a commercial printer and sheet-fed folding carton manufacturer. Their daughter, Steward-Mize, joined the company in 2013 as vice president of sales. Under Steward-Mize's sales leadership, Steward Printing more than doubled its revenue in the first 10 years, growing from about 4m to 11m USD. She also began selling labels to clients, which were manufactured by Inovar Packaging Group rather than Steward Printing itself. 

‘Karley is really good at the technical aspects of selling,’ says Todd Tubbs, vice president and controller. 

In 2022, Steward-Mize decided it was time for Steward Printing to embark on a new trajectory. Inovar had been bought by private equity and was growing rapidly, and the labels that Steward Printing brokered for them were highly decorated, complicated labels that didn’t have long runs. Steward-Mize felt like Steward Printing needed to bring its label manufacturing in house. 

Tubbs, whom Steward-Mize had built a business relationship with beginning in 2013 when Tubbs worked at Inovar, decided he would join Steward Printing, bringing his label manufacturing expertise with him.  

‘I didn’t want to do it without Todd because of his expertise, our relationship,’Steward-Mize says. ‘I’m the sales, the face, the day-to-day running. He’s the knowledge, the money. We both are very like-minded when it comes to how we run a business, how we treat our employees, how we treat our customers first and foremost.’ 

The two bought her parents out of the company and in 2024 installed a customized Nilpeter FA-17 press, expanded the company’s team and officially began producing labels and flexible packaging in Steward Printing’s facility.  

‘Now we do it all under one roof, cartons and labels side by side, which helps us control color matching,’ Tubbs says. 

The Nilpeter press was specifically configured for the labels that Steward Printing was already selling. The press now runs 24/7. It is integrated with a Xaar digital embellishment module.  

In the four years since Steward-Mize and Tubbs took over the business, its revenue has nearly doubled, from 11m to 20m USD. This adds up to fivefold growth since 2013, when Steward-Mize started working at the company, from 4m to 20m USD. 

Company culture 

Steward Printing has 30 employees. The company sees strong employee retention, with workers staying for an average of 20 to 30 years.  

Steward-Mize and Tubbs both say that the company’s culture as a family-owned business, with a dedication to customer service, allows it to stand out in the industry.  

‘I always say once we get a customer, we don't lose one,’ Steward-Mize says. ‘Especially now, the lack of customer service, the lack of being able to call and have someone pick up a phone and talk to a real human being, it’s happening less and less these days, and just being honest and upfront with our customers about lead times, about if we're doing it here, we're doing it somewhere else. I learned a long time ago that blowing smoke is not going to get you anywhere in the long run. It might get you that one PO, but it's not going to get you the relationship.’  

Tubbs adds: ‘In Dallas, 20 years ago, there were probably 50 label companies, and now they've all sold and consolidated, and private equity has come in. It's hard to get any hands-on service, and it wasn't like that 20 years ago. There were a lot of us out there that were small and scrapping and fighting for all the business. It's become more impersonal, which allows a company like us to thrive and grow.’