Just a few months after its founder passed away in a tragic drowning accident, Wauwatosa-based Teuteberg Inc. has moved to a new facility and is poised for more growth in 2010.
Formerly a direct mail printing company, Teuteberg provides personalized, digital and variable data printing, direct mail, fulfillment, automated print management and additional services.
Henry Teuteberg started Teuteberg Inc. in 1976 as a premier printing company in Wauwatosa. Matt Teuteberg worked for his father for several years before taking over as president in 2006. Henry acted as chairman of the company and served as his son’s right-hand man until his death in September.
“My father was really my best friend,” Matt Teuteberg said. “I was lucky enough to learn many things from him, including the value of technology in driving a business forward.”
According to Teuteberg, his father was an early adopter of technology and always believed technology-based services would be the driver of his industry. Ten years ago, the company made a dedicated switch to more integrated technology services that would compliment its printing business.
“As a company we’ve always held a very close relationship with our customers. We like to hear and adapt to serve them the best way possible by providing what they most need from us,” Teuteberg said. “About 10 years ago we went to them and, surprising to us, they told us they didn’t need another printing company.”
Teuteberg Inc. has shifted its focus to include e-media services around the company’s traditional and digital print services that makes the complete package more successful.
That includes SMS text message campaigns, e-mail marketing campaigns, interactive membership forms and personalized digital and electronic materials, all used in conjunction with one another to provide the best results for the client, Teuteberg said.
“We can provide full analytics to our clients, and we’ve found that using more than one type of medium gives clients a lot better results,” Teuteberg said. “Our new full service model allows us to provide a lot better service to all of our new and existing clients, and has also allowed us to expand into other markets both locally and across the country.”
In addition to doing business locally, the company handles national accounts for The Boy Scouts of America and also has niche markets in the casino and gaming industry as well as the association membership market, Teuteberg said.
“It wasn’t an easy transition,” Teuteberg said. “Our existing customers had to get used to the new Teuteberg, and even internally we had to adjust, and train our own employees to adapt to the new model.”
In September, the company moved to a 40,000-square-foot facility at 12200 W. Wirth St., in Wauwatosa.
“We actually downsized our facility,” Teuteberg said. “Last year, my father and I took a look at our existing facility and realized that there was just a lot of space that was no longer being effectively utilized by our new business model.”
The company had a large warehouse space that was previously used to store printed brochures and documents for clients, Teuteberg said.
The new facility has some warehouse space, but the company was able to downsize the room needed for the old large printing presses as they were replaced with new digital presses. The company has about 50 employees and has plans to add additional staff sometime this year.
“We feel very strong coming out of this recession,” Teuteberg said. “We are seeing companies come to us with more business and many are jumping on board with the innovative technology marketing which is promising and very exciting for us.”