Integracolor Group--Growing a Bountiful Business

The need for top-quality management skills became essential in 1996, when business expansion was required (rather than simply desired) in order to finance debt from the company's second internal-management buyout.

The first buyout took place in 1988 when Vanberg retired and handpicked seven managers to take over the business. The second occurred in 1996, when all but two partners wanted to retire from the business after "successfully reaching their goals," explains 36-year-old King, who joined the company in 1980 as a pressman, before rising through the ranks to become president and COO. (Henry Skrabanek, who was previously president, was named chairman of the board after the buyout.)