HOF 05 Groomed for Success -- Thomas Engdahl

"There was a tremendous amount of people issues associated with the slowdown," Engdahl remarks. "There are a lot of fixed costs in the printing industry, and if you don't have volume, there's no way to make up for that."

Bouncing Back

Despite the fiscal setback, Brown Printing has rebounded nicely in the period from 2001 through the midway point of 2005—growing 40 percent. Much of the growth came from added capacity in the Woodstock, IL, and East Greenville, PA, divisions. And earlier this year, Brown Printing's parent company—Gruner + Jahr—gave the green light for a $57 million expansion initiative at the Waseca facility. The project is aimed at increasing capacity and replacing older equipment.