FAST-TRACK FIRMS - Filling the Piggy Bank

Is commercial printing a dying industry? By looking at the boom in sales figures reported by some printers this year, the answer is a resounding no.

BY CHRIS BAUER

Looking for the answer of how to boost your annual sales by 20, 40, even 60 percent or more? Does that sort of annual revenue growth seem impossible? This might sound like some late-night infomercial, but it can be done. Several firms on this year's Printing Impressions 400 have reported tremendous sales growth in their most recent fiscal year. These are the movers and shakers of the printing industry.

Sales figures can explode as a result of acquisitions, new technology, new equipment, better sales and marketing strategies, or all of the above. Although it seems that the number of mergers and acquisitions have slowed in the past year, M&A activity still appears to be a big factor when it comes to the printing industry's "fast-track firms."

"Our business has expanded dramatically primarily through acquisitions," explains Gerald Mahoney, chairman and CEO of Englewood, CO-based Mail-Well. "We have also been successful in recruiting aggressive salespeople, which has allowed us to grow internally."

Mail-Well, which boasts sales of $2.4 billion for its most recent fiscal year, up 23 percent from $1.95 billion the previous year, now has 16,000 employees at more than 140 plants, running a decentralized organization. But even with its expanded size and sales power, Mahoney reports facing the same challenges of smaller organizations.

"It is always a challenge to make sure we have the right people in place to make the important, day-to-day decisions," Mahoney explains. "As we have grown, we have added employees, but it is difficult to recruit employees to the printing industry in this tight labor market."

One sure-fire way to boost your sales numbers is to buy up the competition. This is what financial printing stalwart Burrups Packard did earlier this year. Burrups Packard is the U.S.-based financial printing unit of London-based St. Ives plc and Burrups Ltd., Europe's largest printing group. Headquartered in Philadelphia, Packard acquired Global Financial Press of New York, its long-time competitor.

The move launched Burrups Packard into the $60 million range for financial printing services nationwide and cemented its already strong hold on the Philadelphia market. The deal was not the first for Burrups, which earlier acquired Packard Press, the Philadelphia-based financial printing company.

These moves have helped the company see a 131 percent increase in sales over the previous year's tally of $26 million.

Meanwhile, out West, San Francisco-based Kelmscott Communications bolstered its annual sales totals from $56 million to an estimated $175 million by way of numerous acquisitions—a growth spurt of a whopping 213 percent. Although representatives for Kelmscott declined to be interviewed for this story, sources close to the organization report that we can look for even more moves from Kelmscott in the near future.

More Market Moves
"Just like everyone else, we moved up our bottom line by way of consolidation," notes Jim Feeney, vice president of marketing and business development for Addison, IL-based DSFI. While the agreement that allowed DSFI to up its sales totals from $62 million to an estimated $88 million is obviously significant (a gain of 42 percent), details have not been released to the public or the media.

Since DSFI, a business forms manufacturer and distributorship, is not alone in the M&A game, Feeney adds that acquisitions seem to be the one sure-fire way to bolster a printing company's sales figures.

"If there is a magic elixir out there, that you can drink and raise sales totals, we would like to hear about it," Feeney says with a laugh.

Other companies that have undergone an explosive sales growth-spurt in the past year include:

• A 56 percent jump in sales has been reported by Algoma, WI-based W/S Packaging Group, moving from $96.4 million to $150 million.
• Consolidated Graphics, of Houston, boosted its sales from $435 million to $625 million, an increase of 44 percent.
• In Cicero, IL, E/D Web has improved its sales figures by 48 percent—moving from $48 million to $68 million.
• PBM Graphics, located in Durham, NC, generated more than $114 million in sales, a 32 percent increase over its previous revenues of $87 million.
• Decatur, GA-based John H. Harland Co., with its most recent fiscal year sales standing at more than $702 million, puts them 24 percent higher than the previous total of $567 million.
• Twenty-three percent higher sales totals have been reported by Serigraph Inc., of West Bend, WI. Serigraph moves from $126 million last year to $155 million on this year's list.
• Also coming in at 23 percent higher this year is The Antioch Co., headquartered in Yellow Springs, OH. Antioch adds to its sales numbers this year—from $164 million to $201 million.

Even with some companies seeing exaggerated sales growth figures, printing industry executives feel this strong trend should continue in the future.

"We feel good about our business and the markets we serve, and are optimistic that we will see steady growth over the next five years," concludes Mail-Well's Mahoney. "Through aggressive cost control and unit growth, we expect 2001 to be better."