Articles

Almost thirty years ago, graphic designer Andrea Grossman pioneered a new industry called stickers. Now, after three decades, she is stepping down as president of the legendary company that bears her name and has named her son, Jason Grossman, her successor.

“I started working for my mom when I was twelve and I was her only employee,” says forty-five-year-old Jason Grossman. “And today we’ve got 90 employees. I’ve been working alongside Andrea in every position from purchasing to company vice president since 1988 and there’s not much I don’t know about how Mrs. Grossman’s works.”

Jason considers himself something of a maverick and has already brought some major changes to the company.“We were outsourcing all of our printing when I bought our first printing press in 1993. Now we have seven Flexographic presses and are producing almost 15,000 miles of stickers a year,” says Jason, adding that acquiring a HP Digital Press is adding a new dimension to their production capabilities.

Jason launched Paragon Label (a division of Mrs. Grossman’s) in 1998 to hedge his bets in case the sticker business got soft. He then acquired a competitor, McCoy Label and he now oversees one of the most successful wine and food label printing businesses in the County.
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Five years ago Jason spearheaded Mrs. Grossman’s popular sticker factory tour that attracts more than 30,000 visitors a year. In another move, he purchased the Laserweb (the only one of it’s kind in the country), a high tech, state-of-the-art laser cutting system that produces precision cuts and design details on both stickers and wine labels.

Andrea Grossman will continue to be involved with Mrs. Grossman’s design and product development team. But after thirty years of running her own company, she is ready to explore other ventures.

“A lot of interests are tugging at me,” says the Novato, CA resident. “I am involved with Prison Fellowship and visiting people in prisons throughout the country has changed my life. I want to do more of that. I’m on various boards serving people with severe disabilities and people in desperate need. All of these people need more help and this is something I so much want to do. I see this as an opportunity for me to be more involved in causes that really touch my heart.”

Andrea Grossman started her home-based design business in 1979 from her dining room table in Woodacre, CA. Today Mrs. Grossman’s is housed in an 110,000 square ft. corporate headquarters with it’s own printing plant. The company has designed more than 2,200 different stickers and sells products throughout the United States, Canada and Japan.

Called “the company with a heart” Mrs. Grossman’s is the recognized leader in the sticker industry. Located in Petaluma, CA the company allows employees to bring their dogs to work, hires and celebrates the skills of developmentally challenged adults and is well-known for their ‘green’ commitment to the environment winning the prestigious PG&E award for outstanding energy conservation innovations in 2005, 2006 and 2007. Over the past twenty years Mrs. Grossman’s has donated more than 50 million stickers to children in hospitals and cancer camps all over the world.

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