California Printers — Geography Has Its Perks

OK, WE aren’t going to pull any punches here. California is a state of thieves. Dirty, rotten, shameless thieves.

It’s in your blood; can’t be denied. People flocked here in 1848 to take gold away from mother nature. San Francisco started as a shanty town housing these crooks, and now it’s one of the most expensive places in the world to live. What kind of swindle is that? Even the lighthouse was torn down on Alcatraz Island in favor of a prison.

Fast forward 110 years, and we see Los Angeles and San Francisco pilfer baseball’s Brooklyn Dodgers and New York Giants, respectively. Hey, New York stole Super Bowl XLII earlier this year.

And, speaking of sports crimes, how about hockey’s Los Angeles Kings? They heisted Wayne Gretzky from the Edmonton Oilers and instantly turned that franchise into a pile of rubble. They nearly had to close Alberta altogether. No wonder Canada still gives us dirty looks from time to time.

California’s courts can’t even follow through and properly punish the crooks that are caught red-handed. Celebrities seem to receive a perpetual “Get Out of Jail Free” card. Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, Nicole Richie and Britney Spears get away with murder when it comes to abusing driving privileges while abusing substances. O.J. Simpson got away with murder when...OK, never mind. Winona Ryder five- finger discounted some clothing, and it gave Hollywood a reason to contact her publicist. Mel Gibson slammed Hebrews the world over, and the buzz carried over to his next motion picture deal.

Is Charles Manson the only Californian to ever get hard time for his transgressions?

OK, so maybe we’re being hard on the Golden State. Sorry about that. We can’t help but admit being envious. What’s not to like about California? The sun, the sand, the surf, the beautiful (and sometimes augmented) women and hunky men. There’s La-La Land, the Golden Gate Bridge, Hollywood, Napa Valley and all things Southern California. And you’re all so laid back, wearing genuine smiles, sipping wine, browsing through the sitcom treatment you’ve developed. These are among the nicest people you’ll ever meet.

Head West, Young Man!

Yes, life is good. Especially if you’re a printer there. Many companies find California to be an insulated market, free of competition outside its borders. It’s just one of many reasons behind the state’s extraordinary printing success.

“There are two United States,” muses Peter Offermann, president of Fremont-based Cellotape. “There’s east of the Mississippi River, which you can think of as a single market. Then there’s the Pacific Coast. California and, to a lesser extent, Washington and Oregon, are a separate market from the rest of the United States. The desert and the mountains in the middle separate the markets.

“No one in St. Louis is flying to California to do business. If you’re in St. Louis, you can point yourself in the other direction and you’ve got 90 percent of the nation’s domestic national product in front of you. There’s no sense spending three hours on a plane to go to California.”

Perhaps Left Coast printers don’t want the competition to know about the high-quality clientele that exists here. Dan Hirt, CEO of Primary Color in Costa Mesa, counts his customers as among the most creative, progressive and innovative companies.

“They have very high standards for themselves and they expect the same from their printing and imaging partners,” Hirt says. “The advertising agency, graphic design and direct marketing talent in our region is especially strong, and this has a direct relationship to the nature of our work. In turn, it’s made Southern California the nation’s leader in high-end print manufacturing.”

Zarik Megerdichian, president of trade printer 4Over Inc. in Glendale, notes that California, with its 30 million residents, is more densely populated than the United States as a whole—220 people per square mile as opposed to 78 nationally. Even so, he believes it’s also beneficial to have a national focus.

“Even though California has a vast amount of opportunities and a wide market range, we do business nationally,” he says. “We adapt to environmental laws very quickly and try to keep operations extremely efficient in order to stay competitive. We embraced technology from day one and gained higher profits in comparison to some other print shops.”

Local competition keeps printers sharp, as well. Jeff Young, executive vice president of sales for Hawthorne-based Lithographix, compares it to the USC-UCLA collegiate mindset. When quality programs are so close together, no one is able to rest on their laurels.

“For the past 25 years, three of the finest printers in the country have been located right here in Southern California,” Young says. “We’ve always felt that if we could outdo our closest competitors, we could compete with anyone, anywhere. To my knowledge, no other state in the country has so many high-end printers. It has made it better for us and certainly better for print buyers.

“We are extremely fortunate to have two fairly recession-proof industries right here in Southern California—entertainment and automotive,” he adds. “We’ve done a great job of cultivating and nurturing clients in these fields.”

Client Brand Integrity

Brandon Gabriel, principal of LAgraphico in Burbank, notes that high quality standards and strict adherence to the customer’s brand can make all the difference for a printer. “These days, speed to market and providing your client with brand consistency are just as important as where you’re going to be distributing the product,” he says. “If you can’t meet the creative’s and the client’s brand integrity, you’re going to have a real challenge when it goes to market.”

Tim Poole, president of Dome Printing in Sacramento, believes the California lifestyle helps attract the industry’s top talent. The weather conditions and environmental consciousness make the state ideal for operating a manufacturing company.

Dome itself is strategically positioned in Sacramento, with prime access to the L.A. and San Francisco markets, not to mention some of the biggest corporations in the world to target. Marvin McCarthy, IT manager for Dome, notes that once upon a time, Eastern and Midwestern companies would cherry pick work out of the Golden State.

“Some work used to go to the Midwest because of cheaper prices, but a lot of that has stopped due to the price of gas and shipping costs,” McCarthy notes. “For the same reason, it’s tough for California printers to compete back East. A lot of printers don’t pay the same wages we do, because the cost of living is higher out here.”

It’s not a bad price to pay for a little California Dreamin’. PI