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 Lon Riley, founder and CEO at DPI Laboratory, headquartered in St. Petersburg, Florida.
Please provide a brief history of your company and its core mission.
I started the DPI Laboratory a year ago, in May of 2024. Originally, I started the company on my own, with a line of UV inks and specialty coatings for print bar applications, primarily in the packaging industry. Shortly after I started the company, I was approached by several different former customers and partners who were looking for an industrial, but more reasonably priced, UV print system. The team set to work, and we developed what is now Catalyst Printers—a full suite of printers, inks, and software. Today we have eight full-time team members. We’re growing aggressively, and our mission is to provide our customers with competitively priced, best-in-class print solutions with unlimited scalability.
Are there markets/industries outside of your traditional offerings you are looking to add (or have added)? If so, what?
Many people immediately associate UV printing with promotional products, like the commercials you see on TV. While promotional products remain a strong segment in which we operate, we feel educational institutions are a great fit for this technology to create signage, awards, educational materials, art pieces, spirit items, etc., and at the same time, train students on a marketable skill.
What would you consider some of the most significant achievements of your company to date?
It’s a huge testament to the internal team that we went from initial design parameters to product release of our Catalyst UV line in under nine months. We are so confident in our product line that we entered into multiple categories of PRINTING United’s Pinnacle Product Awards. The most significant achievement, though, is always when our customers deploy the technology and then rave about it. There is no greater achievement as a business than customer satisfaction.
What are some future goals for DPI Laboratory? Are there any new initiatives on the horizon that your clients can look forward to?
We are currently finalizing our new print data dashboards, which will be a game-changer for those overseeing print operations with Catalyst Printers. We will also be bringing our workflow automation product to the market this summer, which will allow print companies to automate workflows from online stores to picking, printing, and shipping. We love this technology because it allows companies to retain control over their data and process, and is essentially technology agnostic, so it will fit well into new or existing workflows.
Why did you decide to join the Alliance? What resources do you plan to or have already utilized through your membership?
I have been involved with PRINTING United Alliance for many years, and the level of support for members and opportunities to participate in the community are really unmatched. We particularly like the Pinnacle Product Awards because they offer the opportunity to measure yourself against the biggest players in the industry.
Is there anything else you’d like to share?
One of our slogans is “print the impossible,” and we love solving complex challenges for customers and partners. Our company is young, but the entire team has been operating in this space for many years, and we love to solve problems. Anyone reading this who has an interest in the technology, a specific “impossible” challenge, or just wants to geek out over digital print, give us a call and chat. We love this stuff.
For more information on DPI Laboratory, visit their website at https://dpi-lab.com.
Contact Lon Riley directly via email: lriley@dpi-lab.com or phone: 727-210-5401