PRINTING United Alliance is grateful to serve its members who make such significant impacts on the printing industry. Through our Member Spotlights, we continue to recognize our members, and help our community get to know their peers better, both professionally and personally. The following is a Q&A with Alliance member Mike Pusatera, Operations Manager at Royal Envelope in Chicago, IL.
Can you please provide a brief history/background on your company?
Royal Envelope started as a family-owned envelope manufacturing and lithography company located in Chicago. Tony Pusatera started Royal Envelope in 1978. When Tony passed away in 2004, he left the company in the hands of his three sons— John, Mike, and Matt who owned and operated Royal through 2022. At that point the company had grown to 20,000,000 envelopes weekly, with 80 employees and two production facilities. In 2022, Royal merged into SupremeX and became part of the second largest envelope manufacturer in North America.
How and when did you enter the printing industry?
Royal had been an intricate part of our family life as soon as Tony started the company over 40 years ago. The company and printing itself has always felt natural and good for us. Even my wife, Tricia Pusatera comes from a printing family. Tricia’s family had Family Press, a printing company in the South Suburbs of Chicago.
Are there markets or industries outside of your traditional offerings you are looking to add or have added? If so, what?
Being a part of SupremeX has expanded our capabilities beyond our traditional direct mail die cut operation. We now offer all web sales options. In addition, our company produces eCommerce, conformer and lightweight retail packaging options all produced within SupremeX production plants.
What would you say have been your company’s biggest accomplishments and challenges?
The strong relationships not just between our family, but also with our employees is what I value the most. Three brothers and a sister-in-law have worked side by side for most of our lives and remain incredibly close. I’m also proud to say we had no layoffs during the pandemic or the sale of the company.
What are some future goals for your operation?
We are continually looking to the future. Our capital investments are meant to bring a twenty-year return. We also plan to grow our sales and operations in envelopes and packaging.
Why did you decide to join the Alliance? What resources do you plan to or have already utilized through your membership?
The Alliance has been a huge asset for us. The iLEARNING+ platform is very valuable and we even used the Alliance’s resources to calculate our EPA emissions.
For more information on Royal Envelope, visit their website at https://www.royalenv.com/.