GLOBAL COMPETITION — DANGER LURKS OFFSHORE

CHUCK NASON admits he wasn’t fully prepared for the effects of global competition as it accelerated in 2001. The president and CEO of Worzalla Publishing, a Stevens Point, WI-based book manufacturer, watched as a significant portion of the company’s four-color children’s book work went to China.

“Global competition has affected us in a major way,” Nason contends. “It caused us to suffer a five-year slide in annual sales from just over $62 million to $44.4 million a year ago. This has meant little or no wage increases for our employees and a freeze on capital equipment purchases for four years.”