for design and origination, continues to build momentum around the globe, as well as thousands of awards and success stories.”
Such innovation has ensured a century of success for Hazen. As the company celebrated its 100th anniversary in 2025, we ask John his thoughts on the secrets behind Hazen’ s success.“ I became President in 1999 when my father Thomas( son of founder John N) retired, but the company was at a crossroads,” he reflects.“ At that point, our primary product was aluminum foil laminated to paper, and it was being targeted as not recyclable. There was also an increase in offshoring American manufacturing, particularly to China, which would go on to have a devastating impact on the lamination industry over the next 20 years. Most laminators pursued lean manufacturing processes and fell into endless pricing wars, but I decided to deploy our resources to develop holography and transfer metallization.
“ When we first started to invest in holography and transfer technologies, most people dismissed the idea. However, we had a vision that holography would be a powerful way to create compelling and vibrant structures in light on paper – and a capability that would set Hazen apart from the competition. My first investment was to build a holographic design and origination lab, staffed with the world’ s leading optics, to fuel innovation.
“ Before the lab, our prevailing business model was to charge buyers of holographic originations for the design and the origination,” John shares.“ Think of a holographic origination as the original recording of a song by a musician; my idea was to not charge for the design and origination but to make our money on the mass-production. This approach made it attractive for brand managers to play with holography, and it was embraced by the entertainment industry in 2004.
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