Banta Corporation

Banta Corporation was a major printing, imaging, and supply chain management company of the United States, based in Menasha, Wisconsin, for all of its 105 years. Founded in 1901, it was acquired by Chicago-based RR Donnelley in late 2006.

George Banta (1857–1935) began printing forms while working as an insurance agent. In 1901, he opened a storefront and formed the George Banta Printing Company, renamed two years later the George Banta Publishing Company.

Much of the company's early growth came from educational contracts. George Banta, a member of Phi Delta Theta fraternity at Indiana University in Bloomington, secured a contract to print its national magazine, The Scroll. Other national fraternities and sororities followed; the company would also publish Banta's Greek Exchange, a monthly review of fraternity and sorority news, and several editions of Baird's Manual of American College Fraternities. George's late father, David Demaree Banta (1833–1896), was dean of the Indiana University School of Law, and through this connection the company also won orders for university catalogs and yearbooks, textbooks, and magazines. In 1910 it moved to a new building, where its headquarters would remain for nearly the remainder of the century. The elder Banta had helped found the Phi Delta Theta fraternity.

In the 1920s, one of George Banta, Jr.'s brothers-in-law, Russell Sharp, created an elementary school workbook and turned to Banta Publishing to print it. Its expertise in publishing them helped make it a leader in production of other softcover books. In 1954, it adopted the name George Banta Company, Inc. and in 1971 it went public, traded on NASDAQ as BNTA. After 27 years, it moved to the on December 18, 1998, where it traded under the symbol BN for the next eight years.