ALGOMA, Wis.--April 1, 2002--We are pleased to announce that Blake Printery, located in San Luis Obispo, California, has joined WS Packaging Group! WS Packaging Group recently closed on the acquisition of Blake Printery. Prior to this acquisition, we were involved in a joint venture with Blake, creating CALabel, a flexographic division operating within the Blake Printery facility. In 1949 Emmons Blake opened Blake Printery as a one-man job shop in an alley near the center of San Luis Obispo. Richard Blake joined his father in the business after graduating from college in 1970. At about the same time, Michael Glavin joined the firm following graduation from California Polytechnic State University. After Emmons' retirement in 1972, Mike and Richard became partners and worked at positioning the company as a leader in the printing industry with a reputation for quality and service second to none. In 1981 Blake Printery created a specialty in the production of ultra-high-end wine labels. Wineries were just beginning to see the marketing value of labels as works of art. Traditional label printers were not prepared for the challenging new demands of wineries, including exact color matching, tight registration, metallic foil application, sculptured embossing, intricate die-cutting, and just-in-time delivery -- which equates to the premier quality and service offered by Blake Printery, one of the largest and most respected businesses on the Central California Coast. In the mid-90's, a growing demand developed among wineries for pressure-sensitive labels. Research into this completely new process ultimately resulted in the joint venture between Blake Printery and WS Packaging, known as CALabel. In addition to wine label production, CALabel provided a West Coast presence, additional capacity, and a high-end production facility for WS Packaging. CALabel has since earned several national awards for quality from the Tag and Label Manufacturers Institute and the Flexographic Technical Association. Under the leadership of Mike Glavin, who will now serve as president, Blake Printery will continue as one of the few label printers in the nation to offer both pressure-sensitive and sheetfed glue-applied labels from the same facility. Please join us in welcoming Mike Glavin and the Blake Printery team to our group of companies.