Niche Manufacturing, Pricing Strategy, and Growth Through Acquisition with Rachel McGrath of Tower Products
Most people have never thought about the chemistry behind a printed page. Rachel McGrath has spent her career mastering it.
Rachel is the CEO of Tower Products, a manufacturer of technical chemicals for the printing industry — fountain solutions, dust control innovations, and specialty products that determine whether a print run succeeds or fails. In this episode she pulls back the curtain on what it actually takes to operate in a highly specialized manufacturing niche — from product development and SKU management to pricing strategy in the face of supply chain shocks.
This is a conversation about the unglamorous, technical, and genuinely fascinating work of running a niche industrial business — and the strategic decisions that drive real growth in a complex sector.
What we cover:
- How technical chemicals determine printing quality and why most people in the industry don't fully understand the products they're using
- Tower Products' distribution channels and OEM partnerships — how they go to market in a fragmented industry
- Product development and innovation in printing chemicals, including dust control as an emerging area
- How Rachel thinks about pricing strategy — including the real-time tools and ERP systems that make dynamic pricing manageable
- Communicating price changes to customers without losing the relationship
- Managing SKU proliferation and controlling product sprawl as the business scales
- Growth through acquisition — how Tower Products has expanded its market position strategically
- Balancing deep technical expertise with business strategy at the CEO level
Resources mentioned:
Tower Products — towerproducts.com
DataCore ERP System — datacore.com
Connect with Rachel:
LinkedIn — www.linkedin.com/in/rachel-mcgrath-78114625/
Email — rachel@towerproducts.com