Catania Medallic Specialty, Inc.

Vince and Trisha Frank utilize an Epilog Laser for medal engraving.

Catania Medallic Specialty, Inc. started business in the basement of Ray and Faye Catania's house in Cleveland , OH , in 1971. The company started out manufacturing cast medals, medallions and coins. The company still manufactures the same products, and has also expanded into specialty items such as lapel pins, belt buckles and laserable labels that can be attached to other metals or used as a key chain. When Ray and Faye Catania retired in 2003, Vince and Trish Frank took over the successful business; however, the Catania's continue to serve as valuable consultants to the business.

The Challenge:

When Vince Frank found the opportunity to run Catania Medallic, he was looking to become part of a company that he could help grow. The Franks promised Catania 's customers the same high quality products they had come to expect, as well as some exciting new product lines.

Vince and Trisha Frank face the challenges of building Catania Medallic head on. One of the most beneficial ways of growing the business has been to add new products for their customers. "I have always been very good at brainstorming and thinking of ways to do new things, so this has come naturally for me to think of new products to benefit our industry," states Vince.

The Solution:

One of the most exciting new products that they have been able to add to Catania 's current offerings is a line of laser engraveable medals. "We had acted on the suggestion of several of our customers that a laser engraveable medal would be very beneficial to the Awards and Engraving industry, as well as a huge hit with their end customer,” said Vince. “A good example of the use of a laser engraveable medal would be if we made 100 custom medals for a track meet with custom text and graphics cast into the medals on the front. With these medals, the Awards shop would laser engrave the back to read ‘First Place Boy's 100 Meter Dash', ‘Second Place Boy's 100 Meter Dash,' or ‘Third Place Boy's 100 Meter Dash'. The same can be laser engraved for specific events in gymnastics, swimming, wrestling, cross country, or any event that has places and divisions. In fact, along with our Photo Image medals, our greatest success and best selling products are the custom, single-faced, cast medals that are laser-engraveable."

The Epilog Laser has been the biggest participating factor in Catania 's success in offering this exciting new product line. As Vince explained, “We purchased the Legend 24 - 75 watt because of the positive feedback that we received from several individuals we spoke with. We were also impressed with our sales representative and their ability to answer all of the questions we had. We are very satisfied with our Epilog and very happy with the help from the service team both at the corporate level and the local level.”

Please visit Catania Medallic Specialty, Inc. at: www.cataniainc.com