RRD Facility Spotlight: RRD Pittsburgh
2/13/2025
Established in 1963 as Hoechstetter Printing, RRD Pittsburgh is a 155,000-square-foot facility situated on the outskirts of the Steel City. Providing premium quality offset and digital commercial print solutions, the company boasts a complete offering of prepress, press, bindery, kitting, fulfillment, and distribution services to local clients and Fortune 500 customers.
“Our success is due to the craftsmanship quality we provide our customers. For more than 60 years, we have taken great pride in exceptional service that exceeds our customers’ expectations,” says Steve Smith, President of RRD Pittsburgh.
“We believe that for us to succeed, our customers need to succeed,” he continues. “Our reputation for quality printing and service in the market is supported by an international footprint offering unparalleled products and services to bring the client’s vision to market — from marketing, packaging, and print to supply chain solutions.”
Steve elaborated on RRD Pittsburgh’s craftsmanship, their commitment to quality, and how the facility is going above and beyond when it comes to the work they’re doing for their customers.
What about RRD Pittsburgh makes it unique in the marketplace?
Steve Smith (SS): We’ve had significant success differentiating ourselves by offering various specialty coatings that aren’t generally available from competitors — and all of our coatings can be spot-applied if desired. Our combination of UV-capable presses and anilox rollers, which precisely apply difficult coatings, has created many opportunities for us. Once clients realize that our coatings capabilities can help tell their story in a more powerful way — and achieve improved ROI — they’ll often proactively request them on follow-up projects as well. We're always looking for how we can help the customer — and how we can give our clients and potential clients additional options.
RRD Pittsburgh is a local printer, but we’re part of a larger, fully integrated network of RRD facilities across the country and around the world. RRD offers the industry’s most trusted portfolio of marketing, packaging, print, and supply chain solutions. The stability of being part of the 160-year legacy of RRD also widens our opportunity for investments in “best in class” manufacturing techniques and capabilities — across more than 40 commercial print locations around the country.
If you had to narrow it down to one aspect, what do you consider your facility’s forte?
SS: Definitely quality — our reputation in the marketplace is driven by our craftsmanship. Our desire to perform at a higher level in sales, service, and production has made RRD Pittsburgh the “go-to” provider for a wide range of services. In addition, our certifications in ISO 9001:2015, cGMP, G7 color reproduction, and 5S workflow are a testament to our dedication to the quality our customers demand and deserve.
Can you share a client project where your facility’s technology played a critical role?
SS: Recently, a medical device company sought a cost-saving alternative for small-quantity, direct-to-consumer marketing pieces. By utilizing our newly added digital press, we were able to provide a great solution for the customer's request while also decreasing their time to market. We designed and produced a high-end marketing piece for a new product the client was introducing — printing with variable data to allow the company to personalize the messaging for their customers, and mailing pieces out on a daily basis if they desired. As a result, the customer realized cost savings for the ongoing project.
As business evolves, what role do you see RRD Pittsburgh playing in your clients' evolution? How do you help clients evolve to keep pace with their customers' demands?
SS: We take the time to understand the customer’s challenges. We offer solutions to meet these challenges, whatever they might be, and create a plan of action while engaging the customer. From simple direct-mail letters to high-end printed pieces to capture their customers’ attention, all are designed to enhance their quality and elevate their engagement across the full customer journey.
We’re dedicated to staying in front of new trends, new technology, and changes in the marketplace. We know that every project can be a game changer for our customers — that’s why we flawlessly execute every step in the process. Whether the customer is a small business with a local audience or an international corporation requiring a global reach, we’re here to provide the services and solutions that will help them succeed.
When talking about RRD Pittsburgh to a potential customer — or to your staff — what’s the one thing you find yourself repeating time and time again?
SS: In our internal meetings, the first thing that we always discuss is our wins — how we overcame a very difficult process in the printing environment, for example, and made it successful. Some of these processes are very difficult to achieve, and when someone has accomplished that, the phrase we use is “you really crafted it,” which indicates how important craftsmanship is to the people who work here. Our desire to hit the highest quality possible on every single piece and project is conveyed by the staff — and that quality, in turn, is then recognized and commented on by the customer. We firmly believe that we can produce anything we take on, and do so at the highest quality.
To learn more about this facility, visit the RRD Pittsburgh location page.