Hall of Fame--Master of Survivor Skills
BY ERIK CAGLE
Defining moments have a way of defining people. The choices made in life can go a long way toward painting a self-portrayal.
When he first stepped foot into this country in 1948, it was clear to Frank Stillo that he was going to have more than his share of disadvantages and challenges. It is not only the way he brilliantly responded to the tasks, it is the manner in which he has flourished that has earned Stillo election into the Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame's Class of 2000.
Stillo is chairman and CEO of Sandy Alexander, a Clifton, NJ-based commercial printer that generates more than $125 million in annual sales. There have also been one or two definining moments between leaving Italy for the United States in 1948 and the present that help explain who exactly Frank Stillo is.
Born in Calabria in the southern portion of Italy in 1934, Stillo's father left the homeland in search of prosperity. The elder Stillo found it in Brooklyn—eventually bought property, then sent for his family to join him in 1948. Frank found himself drafted into the Korean war six short years after his arrival.
"Going into the war had a great deal of impact on my life," Stillo recalls. "It helped me to learn a lot of disciplines—respecting authority, teamwork, responsibility and accountability."
Upon returning, friends convinced him to give commercial printing a try, and Stillo took a Wednesday-to-Sunday job with a publication house for $54 a week. Told it was too much work for too little money, Stillo joined Meehan-Tooker for a respectable $150 a week.
Dynamic Duo
When Stillo met Hal Fogel at a firm called Clarendon, a friendship was formed, followed soon after by a business relationship. Stillo and Fogel broke out on their own and started Carnival Press in 1968. The pair were able to land three antiquated, two-color presses from a Canal Street printer that had gone bankrupt. Since Stillo and Fogel were short on cash, they quickly struck a deal that would allow them to pay the owner in installments.
In the first week of operation, Stillo and Fogel made the mistake of trying to print four-color work on two-color presses. One of the first jobs out of the chute was ruined. What they needed was a four-color press, but since they were still paying for the three outdated machines, how would they be able to afford another—a four-color model at that? Simple: he used the two-color units as a down payment.
"I think we had more guts than anything else," Stillo laughs.
Since Stillo and Fogel didn't want the original owner of the presses to know they had sold them before paying them off, Stillo gave the receptionist a picture of "Sam" and told her to warn him if Sam ever came to the plant. But one day Sam made it past the receptionist and found Stillo on another floor, where the old presses should have been.
"He yelled, 'Where's my equipment?' " Stillo recalls. "But I was paying him every month; never missed a payment. He was happy after a bit. If we hadn't done that, we wouldn't have been successful. To this day, I've never had to lay anyone off, even during down times."
Stillo has a great admirer in the form of Fred Bennett, vice president of Gould Paper in New York and a major paper supplier to Sandy Alexander. Bennett has known Stillo for 38 years and considers him to come straight out of the Horatio Alger mold.
"He's really an amazing person, a totally self-made man," Bennett remarks. "He's a terrific person to know and is respected enormously in the industry. Frank has always been on the cutting edge, and he was one of the first people to go over to DRUPA."
Bennett adds that Stillo has always managed to keep a perspective during the growth years of his company and not cash in on the equity. "The reason he's survived is that when other company CEOs were buying BMWs and filling their staffs with family members, Frank was putting money back into the business," he says. "He's built the company with the rare ability to find and keep exceptional people. And he never forgets what people have done for him."
There were numerous changes over the years, including the 1975 merger with Herb Alexander's company that created Sandy Alexander. But Stillo has consistently championed the web offset cause over the years. He notes that in the early 1970s, many of the presses were four-color, 25x38˝ formats. Stillo and Fogel figured there had to be a way to print faster, so they started shopping the idea of half-size webs to manufacturers, who didn't jump at the concept initially. Finally, forms press manufacturer Western Gear, which wasn't manufacturing commercial presses at the time, took the assignment and ran with it.
"At the time, web printing was for work like comic books, but we wanted to make it something for high-end products," Stillo says. "We even told our customers that if they didn't like the job (done with the half-web), we'd run it sheetfed at no additional cost to them."
Satisfied Customers
Not once has Stillo had to reach into his own pocket because a customer was unsatisfied.
"We gave clients more gloss, printing on both sides, no powder on the sheets and a quicker turnaround," he says. "For a period of time, we were making three times the profit over what we were making on sheetfed."
The crush of press manufacturers designing half-webs soon followed. That hasn't stopped Stillo from working to further improve the web offset process. For more than 15 years, he has worked alongside Felix Brunner—one of the world's leading color experts—to perfect on-press color diagnostic systems for web presses. A majority of the work has been research and development.
"I'd like to think that I've helped raise the quality level of printing," Stillo remarks. "Felix Brunner has been one of those guys who carries the gospel to the industry."
Stillo is also a firm believer in staying active within industry groups. Currently president of the PIA's Web Offset Association, Stillo has long believed the association to be a force in the industry. "The Web Offset Association is extremely important, and not just for web people," he adds. "It's a wonderful place to find new ideas, exchange information and build on relationships. It provides an enormous value that's not fully appreciated."
John Dreyer, chairman and CEO of Pitman, a distribution partner of Sandy Alexander's, has known Stillo for more than 30 years. He counts his friend and Sandy Alexander as the leader in the web offset cause.
"Frank has been a major promoter of web offset during his career, and he's done a great job promoting quality web offset printing to the Fortune 500 companies. He's really led the way in raising the level of web offset printing within the New York area.
"Frank's the kind of guy you want running your printing company. He's a visionary, a team leader and team builder who gives credit where credit is due. He's very customer-focused, customer-centric and customer-aware. You can work better with a Frank Stillo handshake than you can with a written contract. He's a high integrity, high intensity, good person."
In its 25 years of operation, Sandy Alexander has been nothing short of a rousing success. Stillo quotes a growth rate of between 10 percent and 15 percent per year, and sales have risen to their current annual level of $125 million. It has also grown from five employees to 600 workers. Sandy Alexander has never experienced a losing quarter despite three U.S. recessions.
"Sandy Alexander is at the forefront of digital workflow, computer-to-plate and digital proofing," Dreyer notes. "They have some of the best equipment around. They're raising the bar of quality improvement."
Stillo has proven to be a leader for the work force, and not just his own. For 10 years he has been president of the Metropolitan Lithographers Association (MLA), which represents 20 union printing shops in the New York metropolitan area, and is responsible for negotiating collective bargaining agreements. He is trustee of the Amalgamated Lithographers Association (ALA) Local 1 S&A and pension funds, and oversees the benefits funds of all union workers in the New York area.
The employees at Sandy Alexander perhaps make Stillo the proudest. Nothing excites him more than seeing a worker graduate from sweeping the pressroom floor to a post earning $60,000 or more.
"This industry is full of great challenges," Stillo says. "We're seeking to develop broader services and are looking to serve the market better in the future. We're going to adopt new technologies and further expand the company. And I'll be here as long as I can make a contribution."
This, as much as anything, defines Frank Stillo.
