Chances are if you've noticed  the giant yellow-and-blue tags hanging from the storefronts at Best Buy, the purple and yellow border wrapping Taco Bell restaurants, or the globe graphic wrapping the Lehman Brothers building in New York, you've seen the work of Trient Techonologies in Woodville, WI. On the other hand if you have a cell phone or drive late model vehicle,  you probably wouldn't have noticed that a Trient die-cut circuit spacer, rear view mirror button, or nameplate is a part of those products.

We probably have part on 95% of the cars in North America," said Mark Miller, co-owner of Trient Technologies with partner Mark Nielsen.  "They might be parts you don't even see, like a clear urethane paint protection film."

The company specializes in converting rolled and thin materials into industrial OEM, after-market, and retail parts; and products including tapes, adhesives, decorative films, and graphics for Fortune 500 companies.  " If it's sticky stuff on a roll we probably do it," Miller said.  Nielsen adds: " You'd be surprised at what's held together with tape."

In January, Trient was named the 2007 Business of the Year (large category)  by the St. Croix Economic Development Corp. In 1999, it was named the SCEDC Business of the Year (Small Category) with less than 30 employees.  As the company enters it's 11th year of operations in 2008, more than 105 people are employed there working three shifts and a partial weekend shift.  The ISO 9001:2000-certified company has doubled its sales from 2005-2007.

Trient offers contract manufacturing, industrial converting, custom roll striping, packaging, and contract packaging and assembly; as well as digital graphics and signage including converting, cutting, assembling, and packaging of specialty adhesives, vinyls, polyesters, foils, and tapes-primarily presuure-sensitive materials.  The depth of niche allows them to serve a variety of markets, from the automotive industry and telecommunications to the advertising and home-decorating industries.

Headquartered at 480 Thompson Road, Trient recently added 21,500 square feet to its building at 101 Trient Drive, built in 1999 across from its "480" building, to total 88,000 square feet of operations.  The recent physical expansion included a 30,000 cubic foot drive in cooler to store heat sensitive materials onsite as well as expand its distribution center, warehouse space, and sales offices.

The graphics and signage are is experiencing strong growth.  Trient has a CAD design center utilizing  3M Scotchprint 2000 technology and large format 4-color process printing to design and produce everything from architectural displays, building graphics, and fleet marketing, to flexible signs facades, awning covers, stadium advertising, wall graphics, and perforated window graphics.

" We've seen a lot of change from where we started to where we are today,"  Nielsen said.  "We've broadened our horizons in what we're manufacturing and that's helped us get through the good times and the bad times."

Miller and Nielsen formed the company when the two Marks met a Tapemark in St. Paul.  Nielsen was plant manager of the printing division in West St. Paul, and Miller was the manager of its satellite automotive plant in Woodville.

Tapemark wanted to sell the automotive unit as it was refocusing on medical products.  Another person who worked at the Woodville facility, who is now retired, was an initial investor in Trient as well. The trio originally operated as " Miller Moser Nielsen."

"We had a party to decide the name;" Nielsen said.  " Someone came up with Trient, and we all liked it, so we searched domain names to see if it was taken."

While the name was a pretty easy decision,  Nielsen said the early venture carried some trepidation.  " The scariest part when we first started was that we were responsible for 27 people and their families," he said.

Several of those employees, who had been with Tapemark since it opened in Woodville in 1981, were still part of the company when Trient took over.  Some of those employees remain, and Miller, who was the fifth employee hired in Woodville in 1982 by Tapemark, agrees that the initial feeling of responsibility remains as well. " In addition to making a profit and running a business, our job now is taking care of 105 employees and their families," he said.

Trient aspires to maintain a diversified philosophy.  Offering a complete supply chain, product packaging can be printed onsite and ready to ship from Trient, resulting in cost savings and a faster turn around time for its clients.  Trient uses a Just-In-Time/Lean manufacturing and inventory system, so customer orders can be processed instantly.  It is the world-wide shipping point for 3M Automotive's Urethane and Mirror Button adhesive product, and AG/Continental Motorola is another large customer.

" We look at ourselves as a value-added company," Nielsen said.  " Not only can we take materials and convert them, but we can package them, and ship them directly to our customer's distribution centers, which makes it a really nice one-stop shop."

Trient is rolling more tape-videotape, that is-in another direction through a venture called Backland Outdoors as well as a Backland Television, in its sixth year, which has two shows, " Backland Experiences" and Backland Country: aired on the Great American Country Television Network, the Sportsman Channel, myOutdoorTV.com, and Wild TV Hunting and Fishing Network in Canada.

"Backland Outdoors is part of Trient right now, but we expect to spin that off into its own company," Miller said. " It is a camouflage company with proprietary patterns that we license to customers in making soft and hard goods.  We have some employees here, and the main headquarters for that division is in Hutchinson, Minnesota."

When he's not in the plant at Woodville, Miller can be found in front of and behind the camera filming for the show, which helps to market Backland Outdoors and related products such as Matthews Bows and Burriss Scopes and Binoculars.  Most of the textile and hard goods printing is contracted overseas.

Trient Technologies is also involved in a joint venture called Diversified Converting Technologies LLC with Die-Cut Technologies, which is a 100 percent Hispanic-owned company in Denver.

"That allows us access into Fortune 500 companies that require minority content," Miller said.

Trient Technologies is a member of the Wisconsin Manufacturer's Council, St. Croix Economic Development Corp., and the Minnesota Minority Council;  and is involved locally in Woodville's Syttende Mai Fesitival, the Woodville High School Senior Party, the local food shelf, walks for Multiple Sclerosis Society and the American Cancer Society, as well as sponsoring a solar car at Baldwin High School.

" Both Mark and I are nuts-and-bolts kind of guys,"  said Nielsen, a Wisconsin native who lives in St. Paul and who attend Inver Hills Community College for Business.

" We like to be a part of our manufacturing through our management style," Nielsen said. "We get involved."

Miller, a Minnesota native who is a University of Wisconsin-Stout graduate in manufacturing engineering and lives in Stillwater, said that "of all the presses out there, we know how to run 90 percent of them, and the other couple we could figure out."

Nielsen said that "one of our keys to success is the people who work here.  It's a great workplace.  We work hard but we have fun."