Just as TPC Packaging & Printing has constantly reshaped its packaging products to meet clients’ needs, so has it regularly reconfigured its own business model over the years to deal with a constantly changing market.

That strategy and a loyal and veteran staff of employees producing a quality product have helped the company reach its 85th anniversary in celebratory fashion this year, company officials say.

“We have morphed a lot,” said Kurt Schmissrauter, one of several grandchildren of founder Joe Schmissrauter Sr. involved in the operation of the company. “But we have been lucky enough to have key people over the years who have been there night and day. We have been blessed.”

Added sister Hilda Murray, “We feel very fortunate.”

Chances are that the average person in Chattanooga or throughout the United States has left a store within the last year carrying a box or package printed by TPC Packaging & Printing.

Among the numerous products that the firm prints packaging for are Little Debbie snack cakes, hosiery products such as Hue, medicinal items such as Flexall and Gold Bond, and Jack Daniels liquor.

A carton it produced for Jack Daniels won the 2008 Innovation Award from the Paperboard Packaging Council.

Today, TPC does a variety of printing and packaging in a 150,000-square-foot building on Ringgold Road, where the firm moved in 1967 after buying a former bowling alley. It has a staff of approximately 140 employees.

In addition to Hilda and Kurt, brothers Joe “Joey” Schmissrauter III, who serves as president, and Mark Schmissrauter are also involved in the operation. All four do some of the sales work as well as handling the executive and administrative duties.

As Hilda and Kurt reminisced recently about the company’s long history, they said the firm had its start in 1924, after Harry Robinson Sr. approached Joe Schmissrauter Sr. about joining with him to get into the grocery business.

“Big Joe said, ‘I don’t know a thing about the grocery business,’" said Kurt. “So they got together and decided to get a press.”

The press, which cost $250, was placed inside the Atlas Paper Box Company on Central Avenue, where items such as labels, tags and cards were printed for socks and hosiery items manufactured by the several textile mills in Chattanooga and in such nearby cities as Fort Payne, Ala.

For much of the early years, that was the basis of the business, which was called Textile Printing. Eventually, the company amicably separated from the Robinsons, who went on to produce Top-Flite notebooks and other printed paper products.

After Joe Schmissrauter Jr. finished college in the 1950s and began working for the business, he made a trip to New York to the Kayser-Roth company.

He was talking with a Kayser-Roth executive and a man whose firm did some printing. The Kayser-Roth executive asked the other man if he could print some special glued pencil boxes with windows in the next three weeks.

The man said he could not, so Joe Jr. jumped in that he could, even though he did not have the equipment. However, he and his father soon found a way, and they were on the road to more diversification.

As the years passed, the company went on to produce packaging that was sold in such major stores as Kmart and Sears.

They have also maintained a local base with such firms as McKee Bakery, Olan Mills, Chattem Inc. and Chattanooga Group.

“They are very successful business partners and we are very fortunate to have them in our backyard,” said Hilda.

Despite the changes in the world, the Schmissrauters have been able to adapt and diversify enough to not only survive, but also to thrive.

As a result, Hilda believes her grandfather, who died in 1979, and father, who died in 2000, would be pleased with the company today.

“They would be extremely proud that we survived in the last decade,” she said. “And they would be proud we didn’t sell the business and that we took our responsibilities seriously.”

Jcshearer2@comcast.net