PACE PRESS -- All Four One Partners

BY MARK SMITH

Technology Editor

Making it to 90 years young puts Pace Press into a select group of printers, but it is how the company reached that milestone that really makes it special.

Pace has remained a privately held, independent company while growing to more than $20 million in annual sales. This is not a family owned business passed down through the generations, however.

For much of its history, the company has been run by a team of partners, the makeup of which has changed over the years through promotions from within. The same scenario has played out multiple times: a top performer is given the opportunity to first acquire a small stake in the company, then grows his share as a previous generation of management leaves the company for various reasons. The current four-man partnership was established about 12 years ago.

Jack Mangi serves as president of the company, having steadily risen from his start as an assistant production manager some 40 years ago. He subsequently moved into sales and then saw his responsibilities grow when management decided to expand into web printing.

Leading by Example

According to his partners, Mangi's talent was obvious from the start and his leadership really shined over that time.

Charles Licata has also been with Pace Press for more than 40 years, but chiefly in the production side of the business. He went from being part of the production team to managing it, expanded his color expertise into web printing from his sheetfed roots, and now is an executive vice president responsible for "mainly the nuts and bolts of running the company," as he describes his role.

Licata's partners say he has developed a reputation in the industry as probably one of the best color technicians around.

Jonathan Vitale is one of two relative youngsters, both of whom have been with the company more than 25 years. He started as an assistant to Mangi, then moved into production before ending up in sales, now as an executive vice president.

Vitale went through a baptism by fire, of sorts, when he handled production and quality control of the 1980 U.S. Census forms. The shop produced about 80 million copies that were distributed throughout the entire country.

Seth Diamond joined the production staff around the same time, then got a foothold in sales by striking up a conversation while standing in a checkout line to buy a jacket. "The person I started talking with had a print buying position at a large agency, and became my client," he explains. "I started bringing in a lot of business, so management said maybe I should be in sales."

Diamond, who now also is an executive vice president, believes having a staff grounded in production is an important underlying benefit of using Pace Press as a supplier. "If you look at our salespeople and production staff, each person is practically capable of running the entire company," he boasts.

"The only way we know how to work is hard," Licata adds. "This is our company; our family."

According to Mangi, shared ownership doesn't result in management by committee. "I can't remember one time that we had to actually sit down and bandy something about to reach a decision," he says. "We do all get along, not like a family but even better than that—like good friends."

A Matter of Trust

"We all agree so much, we don't second guess each other," Vitale adds. "If someone needs to take the ball and handle something, they just do it. There is a great trust factor here because we've been working together so long. We really do get along better than family. We spend a lot of social time together, too."

Major equipment purchases are discussed on a more formal basis by putting them on the table at the quarterly meetings, Mangi points out.

The company takes a team approach to production, as well, according to Diamond, starting with order entry. When a new project comes in, the salesperson has a meeting with five people who head the various departments. "They discuss a job for a good 20 minutes, if it's not particularly difficult, but they might be in there for 30 to 40 minutes discussing the best way to produce a critical job," he explains.

Close Knit Customers

"People get a different kind of sense working with our company. I have one client who probably kisses half the people he meets and hugs five of my production people when he comes in," Diamond continues. "Clients know we print some of the best quality in the country, and they like coming here."

A sense of commitment permeates the organization. "When we hire people we tell them, 'This is the last place you are going to hang your hat.' That statement is always true," Diamond says.

Employee loyalty was really put to the test about 10 years ago. Until that time, the company operated separate sheetfed and web facilities in Manhattan. Management decided to relocate to Moonachie, NJ, and put everything under one roof.

"We thought a few people might leave, but everybody made the move," Mangi notes.

"We have people commuting a couple hours to this facility, and they've been doing it for 10 years," adds Vitale.

Companies in the tri-state area account for the bulk of the shop's business, Diamond says. "If someone asks, I can say we specialize in about 15 different areas," he claims.

"We do direct mail, catalogs, brochures, postcards, statements, inserts, posters and even print on vinyl. We really specialize in all of it," Vitale agrees. "We've actually had quite a few new clients, even from new industry segments, find us via word of mouth."

Expanding into new markets and services keeps things interesting, Diamond says, along with helping the company stay ahead of the competition. "One of the keys to success in printing today is the diversity of the markets you are involved in," he continues. "It's almost like an investment portfolio; you can have a problem if you're not diversified. With us being in so many industries, there are always a few that are busy."

Being a combination sheetfed and web shop also gives Pace a competitive advantage in the current business climate, Vitale asserts. He points to direct mail campaigns as an example.

With money tight, large corporations are more inclined than ever to do test runs when they create mailing lists. Test runs are suited to sheetfed production, but a full rollout gets into web press volumes, he says.

"If a customer has already printed a piece, they want to keep the full run in the same shop instead of switching to a different printer," the printing exec observes. "They want a source that can handle it all. That way they don't have to start from scratch and the color doesn't change. We have all of our presses fingerprinted and can match sheetfed to web."

Licata agrees that having sheetfed and web capabilities gives the shop important production flexibility. "If one department is busier than the other, we can switch a job from sheetfed to web or vice versa," he observes.

Diamond says both sides of the business continue to be strong, and he sees no clear indication that one will dominate going forward. "I change my opinion on that about every two weeks, depending on the work that comes in," he remarks.

Taking a Head Count

The 1980 census job was so large, Pace Press added a second web press, in part, to handle the load. The shop's first web was replaced by a new machine at the time of the move to New Jersey, so it now operates two six-color Goss web presses (M-1000A and M-1000B). On the sheetfed side, it has three (two-, five- and seven-color) 40˝ Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 presses and a two-color, 50˝ machine.

The printer has also diversified into mailing and fulfillment, an area of business it is looking to grow, and has gotten involved in digital printing through a strategic partnership with another company.

Continuing to drive the business the way it is going now should carry Pace through to the century mark and beyond, the partners believe.

The company continues to be guided by the philosophy of looking out for a client's best interests, Licata says. "In production, if we see something that doesn't look right we'll call the client and tell them about it before we begin the job," he notes. "A couple of times we've had the person say, 'No one has ever asked us this before.' "

"Aside from our quality and competitive pricing, our service is so huge with customers," Diamond asserts. "We have had some clients for 30 years."

"We are all very hands-on with clients," adds Mangi. "The day after a job comes in I personally take a proof out to them and go over it, then bring the approval back so the job is on the press the next day."

There may be no "i" in team, but individual responsibility and action in service of the common good definitely contributes to the success of this partnership.