Hallmark’s Litho-Krome plant in Georgia will close

Hallmark Cards said Tuesday that its Litho-Krome printing subsidiary, which produces greeting cards and Crayola packaging, will cease operations in the third quarter this year.

Fifty employees will be affected at the Litho-Krome plant in Midland, Ga.

The Kansas City company plans to move the Litho-Krome work to the Hallmark production center in Lawrence. Ten Litho-Krome employees will be offered a relocation option. The rest will receive severance pay and outplacement assistance in Georgia.

Pete Burney, a Hallmark senior vice president, said the decision was necessary to “improve our capabilities, speed and cost structure so we can remain competitive in today’s marketplace.”

Litho-Krome, a lithography and printing operation, was founded in 1933. It was acquired by Hallmark in 1979. The company had specialized in high-quality reproductions of color artwork and won several industry awards. It had been a leading producer of Giclée prints, which are fine art prints produced on inkjet printers.

The current Litho-Krome plant, opened in 2003, is being marketed for sale by the Kansas City-based real estate office of CBRE.

This story was originally published February 17, 2015 at 4:46 PM with the headline "Hallmark’s Litho-Krome plant in Georgia will close."