What William Exline does

William Exline Inc. is a fourth-generation, family-owned specialty manufacturer of passbooks, passports, card jackets, and the patented CardBook® cardholder, headquartered in Cleveland, Ohio. The firm was organized in the 1890s as Exline Printing and Binding Company and reorganized in 1929 under its current name. It operates from a single manufacturing facility with 11-50 employees and serves institutional buyers in the United States, Canada, and Puerto Rico across nine verticals: banks and credit unions, colleges and universities, healthcare facilities, hotels, restaurants, retailers, conference/trade show organizers, smart-card issuers, and government programs (WIC/EBT).

The core technology is thread-sewn booklet construction with glued covers and no metal staples, making every product 100% recyclable. The flagship CardBook® cardholder is a wallet-size booklet (2.5 x 3.5 inches closed) with an interior pocket to hold cards and optional RFID-shielding liner to block 13.56 MHz and 860-980 MHz contactless skimming; it is protected by five US patents and a federal trademark. Other proprietary formats include RFID-shielding FIPS-201 card jackets, Tyvek and Paper Tyger card jackets, polyethylene and vinyl certificate/passbook jackets, and customized passports with options such as QR codes, foil stamping, embossing, and foldout pages. Customization is sold as a structural feature of the product, including the ability to auto-affix card jackets to outgoing mailers during manufacture.

The business model is direct B2B sales with quote-based pricing on custom orders and stock SKUs for immediate delivery. Multi-year contracts are typical for custom institutional work, and revenue is generated as one-time purchases of customized or stock booklet batches. The go-to-market is entirely phone- and email-driven with dedicated sales, order entry, accounts payable, and prepress contacts, and there is no visible digital marketing, e-commerce storefront, or third-party distribution. No external funding has been raised, no parent or subsidiary relationships exist, and the firm has remained under family ownership for over a century.

Name

William Exline

Legal name

William Exline Inc.

Website

https://williamexline.com

Company type

Private

Founded year

1929

Operating status

Operating

Headcount range

11–50 employees

Short description

William Exline is a fourth-generation, family-owned Cleveland manufacturer of passbooks, passports, card jackets, and the patented CardBook® cardholder, selling directly via quote-based B2B sales to banks, universities, healthcare providers, hotels, retailers, restaurants, and government programs across North America.

Ownership category

akta.pro rank

Product category

Custom Print Manufacturing

NAICS

Converted Paper Product Manufacturing (3222), Stationery Product Manufacturing (322230)

SIC

Blankbooks, Looseleaf Binders & Bookbindg & Relatd Work (2780)

akta.pro primary industry

Printing & Business Forms (continuous forms, checks, tickets) (IMAMAHAH)

Keywords

• Passbook manufacturing
• Card holder production
• Passport booklets
• RFID shielding products
• Custom printed materials

Headquarters

HQ city

Cleveland

HQ country

United States

HQ region

North America

Offices1 record

Markets served

GTM type

B2B

Offering type

Hardware or Manufacturing

Cost components

Supply Chain, Personnel, Operations, Technology or R&D, Marketing or Sales

Revenue model

1. Passbooks: Custom and stock passbooks manufactured for banks and financial institutions. Includes savings passbooks, checking passbooks, and savings department passbooks. One-time purchase with customization options.
2. Passports: Custom and stock passports including Personal Financial, Personal Health, and Pregnancy & New Baby passports. Sold to individuals and organizations for record-keeping purposes.
3. Card Jackets: Custom and stock card jackets in Tyvek, Paper Tyger, polyethylene, and vinyl materials. Protects credit, debit, gift, and ID cards. Sold in various sizes.
4. CardBook Cardholders: Patented cardholder booklet with pocket to hold and protect cards. Customizable with 2-38 pages. Sold to banks, universities, healthcare facilities, hotels, restaurants, retailers, and government programs.
5. Certificate Jackets: Polyethylene and vinyl certificate jackets to hold and protect certificates and notes. Stock sizes available for immediate delivery.

Pricing tiers

Go-to-market motion1 record

Distribution channels1 record

Marketing channels1 record

Core offering

William Exline Inc. manufactures and markets custom and stock passbooks, passports, card jackets, and patented CardBook® cardholders. Products are produced in materials including Tyvek, Paper Tyger, polyethylene, and vinyl using environmentally friendly thread-sewn construction (no staples). The company offers full customization including logos, signatures, MICR encoding, foil stamping, embossing, and consecutive bar coding.

Product overview

William Exline Inc. is a fourth-generation family business (organized in the 1890s, reorganized in 1929) that manufactures passbooks, passports, card jackets, and the patented CardBook® cardholder. The product portfolio consists of four core product lines: (1) Custom and Stock Passbooks including Savings, Savings Department, and Checking variants; (2) Custom Passports including Personal Financial, Personal Health, Pregnancy & New Baby, and Cannabis Passport variants; (3) Custom and Stock Card Jackets in Tyvek®, Paper Tyger®, RFID Shielding, Polyethylene, and Vinyl materials; and (4) The patented CardBook® Cardholder with multiple variants including ClearView, CardWallet™, Transaction Registers, and market-specific versions for Banks & Credit Unions, Colleges & Universities, Healthcare, Hotels, Retail, Restaurants, Smart Cards, and WIC/EBT Programs. All products feature environmentally friendly thread-sewn construction (no staples), glued covers, and are completely recyclable using soy-based inks.

Differentiator

Problem solved

Functional benefit

Products and services

• Custom Passbooks Custom-manufactured passbooks designed for banks, savings institutions, and other financial organizations. Built to customer specifications with options for logos, signatures, foil stamping, embossing, and various material choices.
• Stock Savings Passbooks Ready-made stock passbooks in various sizes (6¾ x 3¾, 5 x 3, 5¼ x 3¼) with 10-100 pages, available in two colors of Paper Tyger. Designed for savings account record-keeping at financial institutions.
• Stock Savings Department Passbooks Stock passbooks with 10-100 pages designed for savings department use, available in two sizes (6¾ x 3¾ and 5 x 3) and two colors of Paper Tyger material.
• Stock Checking Passbooks Stock passbooks with 10-100 pages specifically designed for checking account record-keeping, available in multiple sizes and two colors of Paper Tyger material.
• Custom Passports Custom-manufactured passports with sewn construction and personalized inserts. Available in multiple sizes, 12-32 pages, with foil stamp and custom logos. Designed for travel agencies, resorts, conferences, membership programs, and various promotional uses.
• Personal Financial Passport Custom passport designed to help consumers organize personal financial information and records. Sized 6¾ x 3¾ with 16 pages, foil stamp on cover, and 12 informational inserts.
• Personal Health Passport Custom passport designed to help consumers organize personal health information, medical history, medications, and emergency contacts. Sized 6¾ x 3¾ with 16 pages and 12 informational inserts.
• Pregnancy & New Baby Passport Custom passport designed to help expecting parents track pregnancy progress and record baby milestones and memories. Sized 6¾ x 3¾ with 16 pages and 12 informational inserts.
• Cannabis Passport Custom passport designed for legal cannabis dispensaries to help consumers track strains, products, and purchase history. Sized 6¾ x 3¾ with 16 pages and 12 informational inserts.
• Custom Card Jackets Custom-manufactured card jackets made from paper, vinyl, or polyethylene with thread-sewn construction. Available with foil stamping, embossing, and custom designs. Designed for financial, retail, and membership card protection.
• Stock Card Jackets Ready-made stock card jackets in various materials including paper, vinyl, Tyvek, polyethylene, and Paper Tyger. Available in multiple sizes (e.g., 3⅝ x 2⅜, 3⅞ x 2⅝, 4 x 2¾) with sewn construction.
• Stock Passbook Jackets Stock protective jackets for passbooks, available in vinyl and paper materials with sewn construction. Sized to fit standard passbook dimensions (e.g., 6¾ x 3¾, 5 x 3, 5¼ x 3¼).
• Stock Certificate Jackets Stock protective jackets designed for stock certificates and similar documents. Available in multiple sizes and colors of paper material.
• CardBook® Cardholders Patented expandable cardholder made from Tyvek or Paper Tyger with thread-sewn construction (no staples). Holds up to 12 plastic cards and expands to accommodate additional cards and cash. Features RFID shielding, soy-based inks, and is fully recyclable. Configured for banks, retail, restaurants, hotels, colleges, conferences, healthcare, government programs, and smart card issuers.
• ClearView CardBook® Cardholders Variant of the patented CardBook cardholder featuring a clear pocket on the front for displaying an ID card while holding additional cards behind. Made from Tyvek or Paper Tyger with thread-sewn construction and RFID shielding.
• CardWallet Variant of the CardBook cardholder with a thumb-cut clear pocket on the front for card access. Made from Tyvek or Paper Tyger with thread-sewn construction and RFID shielding.
• Transaction Registers Card-sized registers designed to accompany CardBook cardholders, allowing users to track transactions, deposits, withdrawals, balances, and notes on the back of cards.

Quantifiable outcome

• Reduces administrative costs for WIC and EBT programs by providing instructional materials that reduce costly phone calls
• +2 more outcomes

Segments9 records

Ideal customer profiles9 records

Technology focussed No

API detail

Has API

No

API docs

API detail

Core technology

AI maturity

App detail

Feature5 records

Scale indicators2 records

Recent moves7 records

Expansion highlights4 records

Broad incumbents

• Cenveo Worldwide Limited: Commercial printing company specializing in custom printed products, envelopes, and labels for institutional customers. Comparable to William Exline's custom printed booklet/paperboard product category, with overlap in financial, healthcare, and hospitality end-markets.
• Harland Clarke: Major US supplier of checks, checkbook covers, and printed financial forms to banks and credit unions. Directly comparable to William Exline's passbook product line as both serve financial institutions with physical banking record-keeping products, though Harland Clarke's volume and product breadth are orders of magnitude larger.
• Deluxe Corporation: Large public company that historically dominated the printing of bank checks, business forms, and financial documents. Comparable to William Exline because it serves the same institutional banking customers with printed transactional materials (checks, statements, forms), though at far greater scale and with a much broader product portfolio.
• R.R. Donnelley & Sons (RRD): Large commercial printing and communication services company with a substantial business forms and financial printing practice. Comparable to William Exline in core custom-printed booklet and forms manufacturing, though RRD operates at vastly greater scale across many print categories.

Direct peers

• Ennis, Inc. Public company that manufactures printed business forms, including custom and stock forms, labels, and financial printing. Closely comparable to William Exline in the converted paper products / business forms manufacturing category, with overlapping customers in banking and institutional verticals.
• Safeguard Business Systems: Distributor and manufacturer of custom business forms, checks, and printed documents for small businesses and financial institutions. Comparable to William Exline as a direct competitor in the custom business forms and passbook-style printed products category for banks and credit unions.
• Topflight Corporation: Specialty converter of printed labels, cards, and functional printed components. Comparable to William Exline in custom printed functional products for institutional customers, with overlap in card-adjacent and specialty paper converting capabilities.

Emerging players

• Brady Corporation: Manufacturer of labels, RFID products, and identification solutions for industrial and commercial use. Comparable to William Exline's RFID-shielding card protection line and custom printed functional products, though Brady is far larger and more diversified into industrial identification.

Market position

Strengths4 records

Weaknesses4 records

Competitive moat4 records

Key risks5 records

Key highlights6 records

Customer concentration

• LinkedInlinkedin.com/company/william-exline-inc

Revenue estimate

Valuation estimate

Number of profiles

Profiles5 records

Funding overview

Funding rounds

Investors

Funding detail is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

M&A

Investments

M&A and investment is available on the Subscription and Enterprise plan.Contact sales →

Frequently asked questions about William Exline