Fast-Track Firms -- Greener Pastures
by chris bauer
Managing Editor
If just looking at the sales figures of the top 400 printers in North America can tell us anything, 2005 has been a pretty good reporting year for the printing industry. Of the 400 companies on our annual list, 258 have seen an increase in sales for the past fiscal year. Additionally, 125 of those 258 have seen double-digit increases. Not bad for an industry some have pegged as gasping for its last breath.
Here is a look at some printing firms that are on the fast track to success—and details on how they are getting to the front of the pack.
doodad
Austell, GA
Most Recent Fiscal Year Sales: $63 million
Previous Fiscal Year Sales: $53 million
Percentage Change: 19 percent
Change has been a constant for doodad in recent years. The former KAR Printing not only changed its name, it has also added locations, focused on expanding its production capabilities and emphasized to customers the key points of its competitive differentiation.
"Our customers (shared mail marketers and newspapers) are chasing ad dollars that could just as easily be spent in other forms of media," remarks Tom McCloskey, COO. "In order to help them be successful, we have to be particularly relevant to them in terms of product scope and depth, cycle times and knowledge leadership."
McCloskey reports that a high percentage of doodad's capital budget is dedicated to supporting a larger national footprint. The company purchased two additional locations—one in Wisconsin at the end of 2003 and one in Indiana in mid-2005—that allows doodad to compress cycle times, as well as provide redundant capacity and the capability to back up existing plants.
"Beyond that, we've spent a lot of time and money on the front end of the order cycle," McCloskey adds. "For instance, we worked together with our largest customer to reduce cycle times from five-seven days down to three days, including transit."
That involved creating a proprietary electronic interface—dubbed Firefly—that grabs orders directly from doodad's customer, imports them into its ERP system and actually plans the ganged forms without much in the way of human intervention.
As for the name change, McCloskey says it is just one component of doodad's broader goal of creating a brand.
"I think we are well on our way to a time that, when people hear 'doodad,' they immediately think of this nimble company that helps them do their jobs easier and better—and just happens to be a printer," he contends. "We wanted a name that had a general connotation of being accessible and friendly, but at the same time not so well positioned in most people's minds to prevent us from linking it with our particular business."
So far, the company's plan has worked, with evidence appearing in the form of a $10 million increase in annual sales. But doodad's COO is not ready to rest just yet. He feels the company can become even more efficient.
"We will handle something like 25,000 orders this year and be on-time 99.2 percent," McCloskey reports. "But that's still 200 orders that are creating sweaty palms for our customers. We have work to do, and if we can continue to raise the bar by fostering increased expectations by our customers and thereby making it tougher to compete against us, we should be fine."
Southwest Offset Printing
Gardena, CA
Most Recent Fiscal Year Sales: $62 million
Previous Fiscal Year Sales: $50 million
Percentage Change: 24 percent
The addition of "The Old Grey Lady" and other publications has blossomed into a windfall for Gardena, CA-based Southwest Offset Printing (SOP). The company has seen a $12 million spike in business in the past year, with its annual sales ballooning to $62 million.
"In the past year, we began printing a number of new publications that fit our niche, in particular: The New York Times and The Daily Breeze," explains Jennifer McDonald, vice president of operations. "We have experienced steady growth every year since we opened our doors, but it was the addition of these two publications that boosted out company's sales figures in the last year."
The Daily Breeze is located in Torrance, CA, and boasts a daily circulation of 70,225 and a Sunday readership of 72,230. Other Southwest Offset clients include The London Financial Times, Christian Science Monitor, Daily Racing Form, Asahi Shimbun, VNU (The Hollywood Reporter), Trader Publishing, Nikkei and The Washington Post National Weekly.
"We built a brand new, 50,000-square-foot building for the new publications," McDonald notes.
The company also bought a 48-unit Heidelberg (Goss) Mercury press with Omnicom presets, QuadTech controls and Megtec Auto-Web splicers. In addition, it added a 48-unit DGM 430 with GMI color controls and QuadTech motorized registration. In the postpress area, SOP added two GMA inserting machines, as well as new saddlestitchers. In prepress, it added new CTP equipment and a second NELA system for automatic plate punching and bending.
Southwest Offset is a fully integrated printer, utilizing both coldset web and heatset web presslines, a full bindery/inserting division, digital prepress complete with computer-to-plate technology and an integrated mailing division.
"In the last year, we have gone from 350 to 550 employees," McDonald informs. "We hired these people to fill the new positions created by our new publications and equipment."
A.F.L. Web Printing
Voorhees, NJ
Most Recent Fiscal Year Sales: $44 million
Previous Fiscal Year Sales: $35.5 million
Percentage Change: 24 percent
A.F.L. Web Printing, of Voorhees, NJ, fancies itself as a "cutting edge" printing operation offering sophisticated color reproduction and state-of-the-art printing technology. The one-stop shop offers services ranging from design to printing, labeling, mailing, binding, inserting, circulation development, mail list maintenance and distribution.
Its service mentality has led the company, which names a number of daily newspapers among its clients, such as Women's Wear Daily, New York Metro, Philadelphia Metro and The Philadelphia Bulletin, up to the $44 million sales plateau while employing a staff of 225.
"We continued to focus and invest into clients' needs and our own capabilities from a technological standpoint and to increase capacity," states President Dennis Forchic.
This includes the installation of a new DGM pressline, announced earlier this year, and the addition of polybagging services. "Ongoing investments into efficiencies continue to occur," Forchic adds.
Front-end services encompass both traditional prepress and digital prepress with a computer-to-plate workflow. A.F.L. offers high page count tabloid, half-tabloid and broadsheet products.
It's not an easy task to keep thriving in the shaky newspaper market, but the company's president has a plan to keep moving ahead.
"As newspaper leadership continues to decline, the marketplace will inevitably become tighter and more competitive," Forchic predicts. "However, we view this as an opportunity for A.F.L. We will maintain the same focus and commitment to existing, as well as prospective, clients and continue with disciplined investments into our own future growth."
PrintingForLess.com
Livingston, MT
Most Recent Fiscal Year Sales: $15 million
Previous Fiscal Year Sales: $10.3 million
Percentage Change: 46 percent
"Our revenue growth at PrintingForLess.com (PFL) has been due, in large part, to increased efficiencies and recent gains that have been made in our production facility," reveals Nick Runyon, director of marketing at PrintingForLess.com, which has seen sales gains during the past two fiscal years of 39 percent and 46 percent, respectively. "Capacity in our local production facility has increased 57 percent since January of this year."
During the month of October, PFL broke the $1 million monthly printing revenue mark for the first time. This milestone came after the introduction of faster turnaround times just a few months earlier.
"Through better processes and improvements in workflow efficiencies, we were able to decrease turnaround times by a full day," Runyon reports. "Rather than saving this buffer for a busy day, we dropped the normal turnaround time on many of our products without increasing the cost."
PFL also introduced the possibility of a one day turn on those same products because of this improvement. Runyon believes these are just a few of the reasons that PFL continues to enjoy annual sales growth.
"What is amazing about the gains that have been made in our production facility this year is that we haven't added any new equipment and relatively few new staff members," Runyon remarks. "We are reaching our goals by using the facility that we have as efficiently and intelligently as possible."
PFL has grown quickly, and painfully at times, over the past several years, he says. It is in the process of building a new 48,000-square-foot facility with 16,000 square feet of that space being dedicated to press and bindery. Runyon is eagerly anticipating what will be possible with added equipment in an even better environment.
