2024 Innovator of the Year: Brodnax 21C Pushes the Boundaries of Print

Editor's Note: Innovation may look different for every company; however, the industry leaders make innovation part of their DNA. By utilizing new technology, developing comprehensive investment strategies, implementing unique human resources practices, and integrating top-of-the-line processes, they can stand out as true innovators.

Our six Printing Impressions' 2024 Innovators of the Year were nominated by printing industry experts and consultants who identified them as pushing the boundaries of innovation. The business tactics and philosophies they employ may provide some inspiration to take your company to similar, greater heights.

The summary of Brodnax 21C that follows shares what makes this company innovative, interesting, and exceptional. The insight it presents may provide the inspiration you need to take your company to a new level, or in a new direction.

The innovative, revolutionary spirit of Brodnax 21C, which currently exists as two companies — Brodnax 21C Printing and Brodnax 21C Packaging — has been “baked in” since 1956, when the Dallas, Texas-based company was founded. Founder John Brodnax started the company with an understanding of emerging technologies and a desire to develop cutting-edge printing solutions that would exceed customer expectations. That commitment, as prescient today as it was nearly 70 years ago, continues to propel the company forward.

Industry consultant David Zwang, of Zwang & Company, who nominated Brodnax 21C as one of this year’s Innovators, says, “They have a history of innovation. It’s what helps drive them. It’s what has built their business.” During a visit to Brodnax 21C in 2023, Zwang says he was struck by the eclectic mix of work done, as well as the company’s strong understanding of how technology could be used to optimize production and achieve a marketing advantage. “The industry’s constantly changing,” he adds, “evolving, with new requirements, new opportunities, and these guys are taking advantage of all of that.”

Additionally, Zwang says Brodnax 21C possesses one trait he believes is essential today, considering market changes and industry dynamics: an entrepreneurial spirt. That spirit, he says, is typified not only by having the latest equipment, but also knowing how it can help grow the business. The recent acquisitions of both Landa and Scodix systems at Brodnax 21C are evidence of this — both technologies are enabling the company to work in new ways.

Jim Singer, co-owner of Brodnax 21C, stands with the company's Landa S10P nanographic press, which is uses for variable data work. | Credit: Brodnax 21C

“We’re always looking for ways to do things differently,” Brodnax 21C co-owner Jim Singer says. “It’s probably why we bought both the Landa and Scodix.” He also willingly admits that some of his attraction to new technologies “stems from geekiness.” And, part of the goal with its purchase of both systems, he shares, was to be able to embellish 40" sheets. He loves the business, he says, and also loves that the company manufactures things that are “very cool.”

The Scodix, in particular, has enabled Brodnax 21C to create new and interesting effects, and “our customers get very excited by that.” Customers see things they want, he adds, and because the company has a good sales organization, it is able to help them move forward with it. Singer shared a story that one Brodnax employee told him, upon seeing some of the things coming off the company’s Scodix unit, they said, “It’s like we’re printing jewelry.”

Asked exactly what it is about certain technologies that activates his entrepreneurial spirt, Singer says that while “we’re geeky and like to do cool, new stuff,” its decisions go well beyond that initial technological attraction. “We’ve been in the business long enough to know [the] cost structures based on traditional workflow.” To some degree, for Singer, the entrepreneurialism is personal, “I still learn something every day.” And it’s cultural, “We’ve built a family here. It’s a tight group. We work very hard, and we enjoy working with each other.”

One key factor in integrating new technologies into the company’s toolbox, Singer says, comes from working to understand whether a technology provides either a mechanical or digital advantage. For instance, he says that if you have a press you don’t have to make plates for, then you can do the job in less time. That’s a mechanical advantage. Expanding on his example, the company’s Scodix system not only enables the company to produce things that could not be done using traditional methods, it also saves the cost of dies and saves time. That is both a digital and a mechanical advantage.

As mentioned, Brodnax 21C is really two companies, co-located in a single facility. While the printing side of the business utilizes both traditional and digital technologies to produce commercial printing applications, including direct mail — for which he says the company is “doing some crazy variable data work” with its Landa S10P — the packaging side is focused on the high-end trading card market, particularly sports trading cards. In that space, Singer says, the use of novel embellishment effects is raising the bar and spiking customer interest in innovative approaches.

The packaging side of Brodnax 21C, with its laser focus on the trading card vertical, was formed to have a “glove-type fit” with sports trading card publishers. It could be sold as its own business if one of the top trading card publishers chose to purchase it. Because it is its own business entity, Singer says, the printing business is protected.

For a company rife with technologies and capabilities, how does Brodnax 21C define its path forward? How does it decide which opportunities it will pursue? “We’re customer and client focused while others are more production minded," Singer says. "We don’t buy a machine just because it’s cool. Our customers drive our decision-making.” In response, the company has added capacity, added unique embellishments, and built its capabilities in variable data — an effort made real through a team of in-house developers.

Forging a Future

Singer says the name Brodnax 21C — the 21C stands for 21st century — represents a vision for the company. It is a vision of how a modern marketing services provider would (and does) connect with its customers. As an ongoing result of that vision, the company has added digital services, wide-format printing, and variable data, and has become a business doing roughly $25 million annually.

And Singer believes other print service providers (PSPs) could benefit from the Brodnax 21C approach. “Printers need to balance themselves with mechanical advantage,” Singer says. “Be in different disciplines of print, embrace technology — take advantage of what’s out there.” Automation can also bring advantage, he says, noting that at Brodnax 21C, jobs “are automated all the way to the press. Responding to estimates, proposing, getting jobs, prepress, preflight — all of that gets replaced by automation.” Not surprisingly, he describes automation as being a win-win for both clients and production.

Singer adds that Brodnax 21C has benefitted strongly from continuing to invest in the business: “Everything revolves around trying to exceed customer expectations at every turn.”

For its near-term path forward, Brodnax 21C is not resting on its laurels — not even close. The company is currently working to install an eight-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL with a cold foil unit. That will be the second unit of its type, both utilizing UV-LED curing systems. It will also be the company’s fifth long press. Brodnax 21C will also add a B2-format HP Indigo 15K, which will replace an existing Xerox iGen press. Singer shares that the company was also the first in the U.S. to install IST’s hybrid curing units, which utilize both LED and mercury-based UV curing, thus expanding curing capability.

Lessons Learned, Looking Ahead

Singer says he believes the industry is growing again, and that as it has consolidated and weaker companies fell away, “It really got good again.” He feels business is good and sees strong headwinds on the horizon. “2025-2027,” he says, “will be some great, strong years.”

Asked what keeps him awake at night, Singer clarifies that he doesn’t have a fear factor and never has. His faith suffices. “Trust God,” he advises. “When you do that, you don’t have fear.”

For PSPs seeking to grow and flourish, Singer offers the following advice: “Our ability to invest back into the company has been what’s allowed us to grow using human capital, and to invest in unique, strong equipment.” For other companies, the failure to invest in equipment may be based either on fear, or on cost. “Other companies may want to invest,” he adds, “but this machinery is expensive. There’s a barrier into our marketplace because of the technology.”

His last bit of advice is more of a mindset. He believes it is wrong to think printing is either dying or dead. Brodnax 21C believed the industry was changing and that it was not going to die. “You need to believe in print.”