Sixty years of relationships. The same ones that matter when a deadline is real.
Bell Litho, Inc. began on Chicago's Printers' Row in 1965. Six decades later, we've grown into a full-service integrated print partner, and we're still family-owned, still relationship-driven, and still answering our own phones.
The Bell Litho, Inc. timeline.
From Printers' Row to Elk Grove Village: every milestone built on the one before it.
Founded on Printers' Row
Bell Litho opens its doors on Chicago's historic Printers' Row, the dense commercial print corridor that defined the industry for a generation. From the start, we are built on long-term relationships with clients and suppliers.
Growing alongside Chicagoland businesses
As Chicago's manufacturing and corporate communities grow, Bell Litho expands its offset printing capabilities to support increasingly complex communication needs. Greater capacity, dependable quality and responsive service establish Bell Litho as a trusted print partner for growing businesses.
DistCom creates an end-to-end fulfillment solution
DistCom is established to extend marketing support beyond production. Warehousing, assembly, personalization, packing and distribution are brought together with web-based ordering and monitoring, creating a coordinated path from print through fulfillment and delivery.
SunAmerica advances high-impact product labeling
SunAmerica is established as brands seek more distinctive, visually compelling ways to stand out in the marketplace. Its roll-to-roll flexographic capabilities produce labels on film, foil, paper, polypropylene and plastic at CPG scale, supporting dependable production for ongoing label programs.
GLO Document Solutions brings personalization to scale
GLO Document Solutions is launched as demand grows for faster, more targeted marketing communications. Custom, versioned and personalized documents are produced on demand and distributed worldwide, combining variable-data digital printing with the speed and flexibility to support short runs and high-volume programs.
BLIS brings brand control to distributed ordering
Bell Litho develops and patents BLIS™ — Bell Litho Internet Solutions — a web-to-print and brand management platform. Distributed organizations get a custom ordering portal for brand-approved materials, extending the integrated model from production into how work is ordered.
Adapting through unprecedented challenges
Bell Litho responds to the challenges of the COVID-19 pandemic by adapting operations, supporting evolving customer priorities and keeping essential print and packaging programs moving. Flexibility, dependable service and close customer communication help maintain continuity through a rapidly changing period.
Elk Grove Village: integrated and growing
Bell Litho is headquartered at 370 Crossen Ave., Elk Grove Village, IL. Our offset, digital, flexographic, and fulfillment operations span multiple facilities throughout Elk Grove Village, a footprint built over six decades of growth in the region. We serve procurement and marketing teams across the country, with a client base concentrated in the Midwest.
How We Deliver Reliability When It Matters Most
Our process is built around a simple idea: the right person, accountable for the full project, with the relationships and production capacity to actually deliver.
We listen first
Every engagement starts with a real conversation, not a form. We ask about your deadline, your history with past vendors, your pain points, and your success criteria. You talk to the same expert who will manage your job.
We spec it honestly
We quote what the job actually needs: the right substrate, the right process, the right format. If offset is the right answer, we say so. If digital or flexographic serves you better, we tell you that too. We're not trying to fill a press; we're trying to deliver.
We set expectations clearly
Timeline, milestones, what we need from you and when. No surprises. If something in the production process changes — lead time on a substrate, a spec clarification, a scheduling shift — you hear it from us before it becomes a problem.
We deliver. Then we stay in touch.
On-time delivery is the minimum. After your job ships, we follow up to make sure it landed correctly. For recurring programs, we build the workflow so the next run is even smoother.
Four capabilities, one footprint.
The integrated model isn't a diagram on a slide. It's four production operations running under Bell Litho ownership in Elk Grove Village.
Bell Litho, Inc.
Six-color Mitsubishi sheetfed offset for high-volume label and commercial print work.
DistCom
Pick-and-pack, kit assembly, and distribution from the same footprint.
SunAmerica
Roll-to-roll narrow-web flexographic label production at CPG scale.
GLO Document Solutions
Kodak Nexfinity digital press for short-run, personalized, and variable data work.
When everyone else went dark, we kept shipping.
The COVID-19 pandemic is the clearest proof point we have for what supplier relationships are worth to a client, and why family-owned, long-tenured print partners are worth paying attention to.
When pandemic-era supply chain disruptions cascaded through the printing industry — paper shortages, ink allocation constraints, substrate backlogs — printers with shallow supplier relationships went into delay mode. Their clients' lead times stretched from weeks to months.
Bell Litho continued shipping.
Not because we were lucky. Because six decades of paper mill relationships, ink supplier trust, and bindery partnerships meant our calls were returned when others were waitlisted. Our volume guaranteed allocations. Our relationships produced problem-solving, not form letters, and our clients' jobs kept their dates.
That's what supplier depth actually means for a client: not a list on a website, but a track record of relationships that held under pressure when it mattered most.
Why Relationships Compound
Relationships compound over generations. We still work with clients whose parents worked with our founders.
Service is not a department. Everyone at Bell Litho is accountable to the client outcome.
The right answer isn't always the most profitable one for us, and we'll tell you when that's the case.
Supplier relationships are built over decades, and they're why a client's allocation holds when the market tightens. They don't survive a change of ownership or a corporate cost-cutting cycle.
Family-owned means we take the long view. We're building a business that will serve clients 60 years from now.
US Patents for BLIS Technology
Bell Litho developed and holds US patents for the BLIS (Bell Litho Internet Solutions) web-to-print and brand management platform. BLIS is not licensed software. It's technology we built, own, and continuously improve to serve the needs of our clients.
Learn about BLISGreat Lakes Graphics Association
Bell Litho is a member of the Great Lakes Graphics Association (GLGA), the regional trade association for printing, publishing, and related graphic communications industries in the Great Lakes region. GLGA membership reflects our commitment to the industry standards, education, and peer community that keeps our operation current.
Ready to work with a partner who actually picks up the phone?
Tell us about your project. We listen first.