In 1999, Willard Ettinger, a long-time manager of C.C. Sutinen & Company felt that his company wasn’t fully realizing its potential in the powder compacting press market, so he purchased the company and changed its name to Digital Press. Willard, who had worked his way up from the stockroom of Sutinen, was by then fully involved in the design and engineering of their presses and managing the servi
ce side of their business. This experience had led him to truly recognize and understand the quality and potential of his company’s products, presses that had grown from the company’s background as a previous distributor of the iconic Bussmann Presses. Ettinger’s concept for helping his new company reach its full sales potential was simple – keep pace with demand by maintaining immediate inventory. So he instituted a revolutionary production process that required pre-building one of each of their presses to ensure they were ready to sell (this had never been done in the powder compacting press industry). In addition, Digital Press instituted a rigid quality control process that required every movement of each pre-built press be personally checked and verified by Willard and his son Martin. With this, he ensured the reputation and future of his new company, making Martin personally responsible for each new press that was sold. Thanks to innovative operational policies such as these, Digital Press has managed to build on the legacy of its presses and thrive over the last decade and a half. In the process, Willard has been able to share his 40 years of industry experience with his son Martin, and pass down an ongoing compacting press pedigree for years to come.
