With a 48,000-square-foot facility, 60 employees, and big name clients like the Green Bay Packers, The Hershey Company, and Unilever, it might be surprising that Wild Blue started in 1999 with a single Roland printer. That sole printer – one of the first wide-format machines in the region, according to VP and Co-Principal Will Van Epern – set the Wisconsin-based company on a path of rapid growth.
As the company gained clients, they added space and printers. Today, they run 12 wide-format digital presses. “Early on, we found that not only did we need the ability to print large, but we also needed to create content, so we started adding on designers to design for large-format printing,” Van Epern says. From there, Wild Blue added fabrication, finishing, installation, and branched out into video, motion graphics, photography, and virtual reality, to name just a few capabilities.
As time passed, Wild Blue viewed the business as a full-service “solutions provider” instead of solely a large-format print shop. The goal was to meet every client’s need. “We grew through customer requests and our attitude to never say ‘no’ to a project. If it’s possible, we will take it on and figure out how to get it done,” he adds.
Less than one percent of Wild Blue’s business is outsourced. They discovered early on that it wasn’t their thing, which became a big driver for expansion. “We found we couldn’t control the speed or the quality, and we built the Wild Blue brand on both of those things. We need to be able to manage the timing and quality control throughout the entire process,” Van Epern explains.