Independent. Family-led. Since 1991.
Most of the industry has been rolled up by private equity. We haven't.
The Label Shoppe has been independently owned and family-led since Rudy Gaytan founded it in 1991 in City of Industry, California.
Rudy didn't set out to be a label printer.
Rudy Gaytan grew up in his family's business — Gaytan Foods, founded 1935 in the City of Industry, California.
He saw the problem firsthand for years: label vendors missed deadlines, missed specs, and never came with a person who'd answer the phone. So in 1991, he built the shop he wished his family had been buying from.
Rudy died in 2016 — a hard loss, and a clear next chapter. His son Ryan took the helm and has led the company ever since. Same family. Same shop. Same promise.
Most of the industry has been rolled up by private equity since. We haven't. The presses are faster. The technology is better. The team is bigger. But when an SMB brand calls with a deadline problem, someone here picks up the phone and tells you straight whether it can be done.
A decision-maker picks up the phone.
Independent label printers used to be the default. Then came consolidation. Heritage shops dating back over a century. Regional players in every state. Most of them have been rolled up — and most of the names that used to mean something now answer to a private-equity board. That changes how things work — quotes go through committees, problems go through tickets, and the person on the other end of the phone usually can't say yes.
We chose differently. Not because we're nostalgic, but because independence is operationally better for the customers we serve. When something goes wrong on your job, you don't get routed to a call center. You reach someone who can decide — and by the time we hang up, the floor knows what's happening.
That's not a cultural value. It's a structural advantage.
We invested in third-party auditing because the alternative is asking you to trust us.
Every job clears our quality management system before it ships. 93%+ of defects caught internally before shipping, tracked internally. 96%+ on-time in-full, tracked internally. Independently audited annually by SGS to GMP standards. Full audit report available to qualified buyers on request.
See how the system works →// The leadership team
The people who pick up the phone.
Independent means a real person owns your job from quote to ship. Here's who you'll be working with.
Ryan Gaytan is CEO of The Label Shoppe, where he sets the vision and leads the technology and systems work that lets a family-led printer move faster than the private equity rollups around it. His instinct is to simplify the complex, turning a tangled order into a quote in hours, not days. Outside work, he's a weightlifter, a relentless audiobook listener, husband, and dad to two.
Ignacio Huerta is President of The Label Shoppe, where he keeps a growing, family-led operation aligned — integrating people, information, and decisions into one steady direction. His instinct is to lead by listening, asking the question that unlocks what others can't see and walking the floor each day to ask his team what they need. Outside work, he's a devoted husband and a man of faith, grounded in family.
Patty Alatorre is Accounting Manager at The Label Shoppe, where she turns financial detail into insight that drives business decisions — from the smallest entry to the biggest strategic call. Her instinct is to solve problems with people rather than for them, mentoring new talent while grounding ambition in what the numbers can support. Outside work, she's a dedicated mom and lifelong learner devoted to her own growth as much as everyone else's.
Pete Stoeffler is VP of Strategic Accounts at The Label Shoppe, the trusted advocate behind the company's most important customer relationships — the person clients can call day or night and count on to deliver. His instinct is to read the moment and move fast, disarming tension with humor and expediting a stuck order before it becomes a problem. Outside work, he's an avid golfer who turns clients into real friends.
Brian Joaquin is Plant Manager at The Label Shoppe, where he turns customer and sales needs into production reality — routing complex jobs, pushing equipment beyond its default limits, and keeping the whole floor running smarter. His instinct is to solve problems at the root: diagnosing what's breaking down in real time and stabilizing the team when it matters most, with credibility that bridges customer service, art, production, and shipping.
“I need these in Chicago by Monday.”
A customer called their rep at 6:30am on a Saturday. They needed labels in Chicago by Monday 8am — and they needed them yesterday. We mobilized a team into a closed shop, ran the job, drove it to FedEx for EarlyAM delivery, and got them on a dock 1,700 miles away by 7am Monday — with an hour to spare.