Norm Provan, 1951 – 2022

Norm Provan, who founded Pro Mark Technologies (initially named Pro Mark Development) in 1987 with his wife, Jean, passed away over the summer following a two-year battle with cancer. An indelible fixture at trade events like Labelexpo Americas, Norm, with Jean, ran the company for 13 years.

Many in the package printing and converting industry, including his employees, remember him as a true pioneer in print inspection and in management techniques. His win/win philosophy ensured that every party to a sale benefitted. There are camera systems on presses everywhere today, in large part because of Norm. He was a visionary and one of the most astute managers to ever run a company. His employees loved him dearly and would do anything for him. He will be dearly missed but never forgotten.

Starting Out

Prior to founding Pro Mark, Norm had been a very successful sales executive with Goss for 15 years. There, he obtained exclusive rights to sell camera inspection systems made by Tec-Scan in Wales. But the cameras were huge and the systems were expensive—in the area of $40,000. After modest success, Norm decided to put a system in his car and visit label printers in the US to see if he could sell some inspection systems. The idea was to do an in-plant demo by putting the system on a press for a customer to see. He quickly learned how difficult it was to put one on a label press—but he found a way. The first week, he sold three systems.

With that experience in hand, Norm went to the manufacturer in Wales and told them he saw a huge opportunity, but the cameras needed to be smaller so they could fit on the machines, the user interface needed to be easier to use and the prices had to be lower. They told him to leave the market development to them.

So, Norm decided to develop and build his own print inspection system. The concept of a low price, real-time inspection system was born—one that nearly all label printers could afford.

He hired Ralph Armold, with the specific task to build such a system; which he did. They named it the HANDYScan. It was introduced at Labelexpo in 1990. That was followed by The Pro Scan I and ProScan II, for wide web central impression (CI) presses and offset machines. Along the way, Norm convinced Moore Business Forms to put his systems on pretty much every printing press they had in the US—more than 400 machines.

Marketing Genius

At Labelexpo 2002, the company introduced the Super HANDYScan. It had a remote control, easy-to-use interface and motorized camera movement which allowed the user to look at, and inspect, the entire print area. Norm worked with virtually all of the press manufacturers and at that show every press—22 in total—had a Super HANDYScan on it. It was a brilliant marketing move that resulted in the product on the cover of several industry publications. The following year, Pro Mark Technologies sold more than 1,000 Super HANDYScan systems.

In the next three years, Pro Mark Europe was opened in Amsterdam, the North American sales force went from five to 20 people, reps were added throughout Central and South America, agents were added in Australia and throughout Asia Pacifica, and the company went from selling and shipping hundreds of units each year, to thousands every year.

In 1993 and then again in 1994, INC magazine recognized Pro Mark Technologies as one of the 500 fastest-growing privately held companies in America and the management team attended a lavish affair to commemorate the accomplishment.

In 1996, the PowerScope was introduced—a product that is still sold today as the standard viewing system with virtually hundreds of printing presses all around the world. But Norm also saw there was competition coming at him from all over the globe. So, following that show, he directed that the company would strive to constantly be ahead of the competition. To do this, a new generation of inspection systems would be introduced every other year. Each had to be better, do more, and cost less than then previous model. The company would obsolete its own product every other year.

In 1995, Norm and Jean sold a 51 percent interest in Pro Mark Technologies to BST Servo Technik of Bielefeld, Germany with an option on the remaining 49 percent in 2000. Norm ran the company until July 2000.

When Norm retired, he and Jean built a magnificent home, and seven other custom single-family homes, adding general contractor to his list of careers. They lived in the spectacular Utah mountains for the rest of his life.

Norm was diagnosed with terminal cancer in 2020 and fought it valiantly. He is survived by his wife of more than 50 years, Jean, two children and four grandchildren. -John Thome, retired, BST Pro Mark management team member