What would you say if I told you about a small sheet plant based in Montreal named Découpage MPS, (Découpage is French for die cutting) founded in 1991 and sold in 2021 to a brother and sister in their late twenties who thought they could carve a slice of sheet plant success, during the Covid pandemic, no less? You might likely say it was, well, unlikely. But not only have Cory Dell’Olio, now 33, and Kaylee Dell’Olio, 30, managed to thrive at time when businesses were closing their doors, they have succeeded in tripling revenue.
I had many questions for who may be the youngest owners of an independent sheet plant in North America, among them: What made you think you could succeed in the box making business when you had only had experience in die making? Why form a partnership when one of the partners, Kaylee, was still in university? Was the process as challenging as you imagined? How have you managed to succeed as a small independent sheet plant in a geographical area dominated by the integrateds? And lastly, what was the machinery you relied on to get you from there to here?
As it turns out, the gene for business success was in Cory and Kaylee’s DNA all along.
“My grandfather, my father and my uncles were all business owners, as were a lot of our friends and their families, but not necessarily in the corrugated world, so it felt like buying Découpage was the right thing to do,” says Cory. “We always had someone with whom we could bounce ideas off and get wise business advice. It made the leap from being an employee at another company to a business owner a bit easier than someone who had no help at all, but I can’t say that it wasn’t without its challenges.”
The first challenge was how to begin generating revenue making boxes in a business that had largely focused on subcontracting work and taking overflow projects from the bigger industry players around Montreal and Quebec, all while scaling a learning curve and becoming familiar with new clients and old machinery. The solution? The Dell’Olios have strategically “flipped the script” and transitioned to niche business-to-business work while diversifying into the areas of traditional die-cut, brown box and print packaging, all while keeping the subcontracting work inherited from the former owners, Yvon Dagenais and Vivianne Jean, who stayed on during a monthslong transition period.
Cory and Kaylee’s father, Elio Dell’Olio, had been in the die making business for a large part of his sales career and many of his contacts were helpful in enhancing the Découpage customer base. He’s worked with his daughter and son for the past few years and continues to serve as the company’s Technical Sales Representative. Having the former owners involved also helped the Dell’Olio siblings learn about the equipment, some of which was older, underutilized, redundant or not suited for the new diverse work Découpage was aiming to produce.
“We took out quite a few pieces of equipment and ‘stripped things down’ to become leaner while creating more floor space for storage and new equipment,” says Cory, who listed the machines that have been critical to Découpage’s success: a Ward 3-color rotary die cutter; a “legacy” Jagenberg folder gluer reconfigured to run corrugated; a semi-automatic hot melt folder gluer, which is used for oversized work or small volume projects; an Automatan EM litholaminator, that has recently undergone a major electrical upgrade so it can keep up with the speed of the Découpage’s newest and most significant investment: a Marumatsu Vantage flatbed die cutter by Japanese manufacturer Mikawa, represented in North America by Hitek Equipment Inc.
A Relationship With Marumatsu And Hitek
The new “jewel” of Découpage’s machine family replaced what Dell’Olio says was the most reliable piece of equipment in the plant he purchased five years ago. It was a 38-year-old Marumatsu Super Max 88 with a 39-inch by 54-inch platen that ran for a full-shift or more since the early 2000’s when it was purchased by the previous owners. The machine was as well-maintained as it could have been but it was just a matter of time before a major breakdown would have crippled production just as it was beginning to boom.
Kenosha, Wisconsin based Hitek has been selling and servicing Marumatsu machinery for decades, including the one that served Découpage so durably. Hitek’s sales representative, Ryan Ashley, now a co-owner of Hitek Equipment Inc., introduced himself to the Dell’Olios when they assumed ownership and to maintain the supplier relationship while being available for service and support, as needed.
“Ryan told us what already was in the back of our minds for a couple of years already, which was that the controls on the machine were old, its capacity was limited, and we should begin to think about upgrading to something newer before the inevitable occurred,” says Cory. “Ryan had a great relationship with the previous owners, Yvon and Vivianne, and Hitek was always available and reliable for service and support on their machinery, so it was a ‘no-brainer’ for us to move forward with Hitek to see what a new machine could do for us.”
Ryan educated Cory and Kaylee on the improvements in Mikawa’s technology over decades and helped them choose the machine that was right for Découpage’s product mix. One key point, for example, was the difference between Marumatsu’s Diamond and Vantage models: the Diamond is like Découpage’s old Supermax in that it used a pusher-type system to move board through the machine and then used vibration as the primary method of stripping scrap. The Vantage, however, uses a gripper bar system that pulls the sheet through different sections of the machine and has the option of having male-female stripping to get 100 percent stripping.
From the feeder to the hopper, everything is computer controlled, even the thickness of the board. The only thing that is adjusted manually is how much distance the operator wants to have on the gripper, which is usually very similar or virtually the same as previous orders. A repeat order can be set up and running within five minutes, which may be further reduced as Découpage’s operators become more familiar with the machine.
“We decided on the Vantage because it would allow us to have the greatest amount of growth and greater control over the sheet for the type of work we’re doing,” says Cory. “I think we would have been satisfied with the Diamond also, but the Vantage is a bit faster and will bring us to the next level in terms of capabilities. It’s been a really positive decision for us.”
A Path Forward
Découpage made the decision to purchase the Marumatsu in mid-2025, after which preparations began: a foundation for the new machine was built and new electrical accommodations were added while the 38-year-old Marumatsu continued normal production. Hitek employees and technicians from Mikawa installed the new Vantage in about two weeks.
“We were still working on the old press as the new one was being delivered and installed, so there were a lot of things going on in the plant for those couple of days,” says Cory. “Start-up was as close to perfect as a new machine installation could get. After three days of testing, set-up and adjustments, we started production orders. The first order was virtually flawless. And communication with Hitek from day one was excellent.”
The Mikawa personnel stayed on to train Découpage’s two operators, as well as Cory Dell’Olio himself, who’d always been “hands-on” when it came to machinery.
“I wanted to understand how the machine worked and what was going on so I could step in and help, if needed,” he says. “Since we had extensive experience with our older machine, the learning curve on the new Vantage was much shorter. A big change was the switch from pushers to a gripper bar system, but the machine is ‘super simple’ to operate and it’s very user-friendly.”
And of course, there is the significant update in technology. The old machine was set up manually, with very little electronic calibration; the new Vantage boasts automatic setup and is completely servo-driven. More cost savings: Découpage was able to modify its existing dies to use them on the new machine instead of having to buy new ones. The Marumatsu Vantage started up early May of this year but because it’s so fast, it is not yet at full capacity.
“We only need to run one shift and we’ll occasionally do overtime but with the capacity we have with the new Marumatsu, we’re gobbling up all the work that in the past added overtime hours, so we’re super satisfied.”
Remember, by any measure Découpage can be considered a small company. Thirteen to fourteen employees work in a tidy 20,000-square-foot facility, which includes the production floor and offices. The company’s customers are primarily in the pharmaceutical, food & beverage industries, many from the subcontracting work inherited from the former owners and many more from the new diversified customer base on which Découpage is now able to compete. About 90 percent of its output is “local,” that is, to Quebec, Ontario and a little from the Maritimes. Ten percent of its work is exported to the U.S.
“We are seeing a lot of word-of-mouth business and we have a mix of people who are selling for us. We use brokers, a mix of our own employees and some semi-retired people that have been in the industry for a long time, all of which seems to be working for us,” says Cory. “Growing our sales team is definitely something we see as part of our future growth plans. Right now, we’re focused on continuing to expand our production capabilities and building the business strategically, so we’re well positioned for that next step. We are taking it one step at a time for the time being.
A Partnership For Success
Marketing manager Kaylee Dell’Olio also contributes to the company’s sales initiatives and handles the majority of the administrative work, including onboarding new clients, all of which complements Cory’s strengths of being more “hands-on and mechanically inclined.” Together they form an excellent and productive partnership, as evidenced by the success Découpage has enjoyed for the nearly five years since its start. The company’s fiscal year begins October 1.
“My sister and I saw this as a good opportunity for us and our futures and we’re seeing our vision realized more and more clearly every day,” says Cory. “We’ve successfully transitioned from being solely a subcontractor to also being a direct supplier and with the addition of our new Vantage we’ve been able to see a significant increase in productivity without having to add more employees.”
Beau travail, Découpage, beau travail!
