Belleville-based manufacturer, distributor to expand production space, add jobs
Belleville-based U-Mark Inc., manufacturer and distributor of paint and ink markers and related products, will expand the beyond of its existing facility at 102 Iowa Ave.
The business recently acquired an adjacent property at 1200 E. A St., adding an additional 8,000 square feet of space to U-Mark’s existing 20,000 square feet of space.
The expansion will create five to 10 new jobs, adding to U-Mark’s current roster of 43 employees, said Francesco Ziniti, executive vice president for U-Mark.
Ziniti wrote in a message to the BND that the company is one of the largest marker manufacturers in the U.S., producing more than 7 million markers annually at its Belleville facility.
The Iowa Avenue building houses all operations from executive offices and production machinery to packaging and shipping operations. Multiple shipping containers are onsite to provide additional storage.
Ziniti said during an in-person interview that U-Mark had wanted to expand its operations since 2021 but didn’t want to leave Belleville. Employees didn’t want to travel elsewhere for work, he said, adding that a move would have required that production by temporarily suspended.
Expanding into the space next door, he said, can be done on a schedule that is less disruptive to production.
What’s in store for the new space
Plans for the new facility start with the clearing of the space, which will likely take around a month, according to Ziniti. Improvements will be made to the restrooms, and new flooring and an air compression system used in the marker assembly process will be installed.
Manufacturing equipment will be moved to the new space. At least six of its nine machines will be moved to the new building.
Eight machines were built onsite and are maintained by skilled machinists employed at U-Mark. Those machines are semi-automated but also require some hands-on assembly for the various marker products, Ziniti said.
The ninth and newest machine is fully automated, requiring only some human quality control monitoring.
Packaging, labeling and shipping operations, which currently take up a large part of the facility, will remain at the Iowa Avenue site.
Office areas are located at the front of the East A Street building’s main floor. The upper level of the building could be used for another office area, Ziniti said. Undeveloped land at the back of the property is available for future expansion as needed, he added.
About U-Mark Inc.
U-Mark Inc. manufactures and distributes various marker products for industrial uses as well as for art, crafts and hobbies. Products include paint, ink and specialty markers and stencil products.
The company was founded in September 2002 by Marco Ziniti, Francesco Ziniti’s father. The elder Ziniti was a 20-year employee and former vice president of Ideal Stencil Machine and Tape Company, which was founded in 1911 and located at 102 Iowa Ave.
In the 1990s, Ziniti saw that stenciling products were becoming obsolete, according to a company history provided by U-Mark.
In 2002, Ideal was acquired by Illinois Tool Works, which closed the facility, laying off all 35 employees, according to July 2002 BND reports.
Starting from scratch and hiring four former Ideal employees, Ziniti founded U-Mark. The business was originally located in a former auto shop located at 2410 W. Main St. in Belleville. Today the West Main Street site is now a parking lot across the street from the Southwestern Illinois Justice & Workforce Development Campus.
By the end of 2006, Ziniti had a dozen employees and was ready to relocate to a larger facility. Coincidentally, Ideal’s former shop was available.
“We were not even dreaming of returning [to the Iowa Avenue site],” Ziniti said in a March 2007 BND interview. “We started business (on 2410 W. Main St.) and we outgrew that building over there and started looking and found this building was available.”
Ziniti acquired the property in November 2006, according to county property tax records, from Penguin Plastics, a plastics molding designer that previously occupied the building.
U-Mark moved to 102 Iowa Ave. in January 2007, bringing Ziniti back to where he started in Belleville more than 25 years earlier.
