CUNNINGHAM GRAPHICS -- Public Service

Cunningham, who notes that his company is not immune to overall market conditions, is upbeat about the stock performance. "On a percentage basis, if you look at all the IPOs that were done in April, we're probably at the top of the heap for keeping our value," he says.

Cunningham began making his plans for the IPO two years ago, following the lead of other industry consolidators. "We owe a lot to Joe Davis at Consolidated Graphics and to [Gerald] Mahoney at Mail-Well," he says. "We saw what they were doing, and it looked very promising. We thought we could do it a little different. We wanted to build the company through organic growth as well as acquisition growth, which would be specialized growth. We wanted to go after niche players and companies that complement what we do, not just general commercial printers."