Sandy Alexander--Appetite for Construction
Sandy Alexander has forged a reputation as an upscale, high-end printer, which continues to grow through present investments and future acquisitions.
BY ERIK CAGLE
Let's face it, Sandy Alexander may not be for everyone when it comes time to choose a commercial printer. Roy Grossman, president of the company, admits as much.
The primary reason is as simple as asking this question: Would you go to a five-star restaurant for a burger, fries and cola?
"We operate within the 20 percent of the commercial market that's considered high-end color," notes Grossman of the Clifton, NJ-based company, which has a sister plant in St. Petersburg, FL. "Clients come here because the most important element they need out of a project is unparalleled color. Color, to them, is essential to the way they market their message and sell their products and services.
"A client who is unable to perceive a difference between the ability of one printer to put ink on paper, as opposed to another printer, is probably not going to be a Sandy Alexander customer," Grossman adds. "Most of our business tends to come from the fashion, automotive, graphic design, healthcare and pharmaceutical markets—areas where their image and message are extremely important, and ink-on-paper is a large part of what they count on to convey it."
That pledge to provide the highest quality printing was underscored by a $20 million capital improvements program, which, technically, was completed late last year, but is still an ongoing process. Further growth is planned through strategic acquisitions with an accent on synergies, and adopting new technologies that improve the product quality, save valuable time and streamline once-cumbersome processes.
"Sandy Alexander runs a tight ship and has a good business strategy," states Frank Stillo, chairman and CEO. "We focus on high-profile accounts, where the customer needs the best quality and service and is usually willing to pay a premium for it. We strive to give our clients total printing management and solutions, in terms of products, distribution and marketing services."
It is safe to say 1999 was an eventful and profitable year for Sandy Alexander, with an estimated $120 million in annual sales. How high will that revenue figure rise in 2000? As Yogi Berra might say, the limitations are limitless.
In the Beginning
Sandy Alexander has come a long way. Its modern roots can be traced to 1975, when Herb Alexander merged his company with Carnival Press, a joint venture of Stillo and Hal Fogel. The pair brought with them their Western Gear P26 half-web press, which had been somewhat revolutionary when viewed in the context of the times. Four-color, 38˝ sheetfed presses were popping up in pressrooms around the country, while web offset presses were largely untested and viewed as inferior to their sheetfed counterparts, which replaced letterpress as the print technology of choice.
"Pricing pressures forced us to find a press that could increase our productivity," Stillo reported in a 1993 interview with Printing Impressions. "So we brought the P26 on board. This is how we broke the market."
When the newly merged Sandy Alexander installed a second web shortly after moving into its current Clifton address in 1983, sales billowed from $23.1 million that year to $45.8 million less than three years later. Its new web press, a Heidelberg M-1000A, fostered jobs with a wide range of run lengths, sheet sizes and paper grades.
Press capabilities continue to evolve, and Sandy Alexander, while not a trailblazer on the technology path, remains near the head of the class when it comes to adoption.
"Our position on technology has been that we don't want to be the first guy there, but we want to be the second guy," Grossman says. "We've found that unless there is a measurable and quantifiable benefit to the client, as well as a real return on investment to us, it just doesn't pay to blindly jump into the technology. We believe in always being extremely knowledgeable about what's going on in the marketplace, but not shooting from the hip."
An example is Sandy Alexander's gradual, now-complete adoption of a computer-to-plate (CTP) workflow. The company jumped on the CTP bandwagon about two and a half years ago—early in the history of CTP—and has recently gone fully digital with the addition of two automatic Scitex Lotem platesetters, IRIS 43 ink-jet proofers and Imation Laser Matchprint proofing systems.
"We converted to CTP for all the obvious reasons," Grossman says. "First and foremost, we saw a real benefit to our clients in terms of quality enhancement and lead time. More importantly, we realized pressroom efficiencies, and that's just as important. CTP, as a technology, makes a major difference in the pressroom. Many people think the advantages are in prepress, but we believe the real advantages are in reduced waste, faster makereadies and better register."
Equally as important was finding the right CTP provider with which to partner, as Grossman recalls the bevy of vendors with systems on display at DRUPA 95. Only a handful of major vendors remain.
Among some of the other upgrades and additions stemming from the $20 million capital improvement project:
* A six-unit, 38˝ MAN Roland Rotoman 2002 web press with a color diagnostic system that was converted to a closed loop color control system by Quad/Tech International (QTI). The system is actually a joint venture of QTI and System Brunner of Switzerland, a manufacturer of color registration and diagnostic systems. According to Vinny Pinzone, senior vice president and general manager, Sandy Alexander is one of the first plants to have such a closed loop color control system.
"We are believers in measuring what we print and how we print," Pinzone says. "We have the System Brunner system on several presses, and we also have installed Heidelberg CPC 21 scanning densitometers. We're the first commercial printer to have QTI's fully closed loop system incorporated with System Brunner. The advantage: Sheets are constantly being adjusted and monitored before the job is finished, folded and sheeted."
* Two eight-color Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102 sheetfed presses, one with interdeck drying and a double coater, and both featuring aqueous and UV coating capabilities.
* The crown jewel is a new Heidelberg off-line coating/finishing machine, which Pinzone calls the first of its kind in North America. Heidelberg will introduce this model at DRUPA in Germany in May, but Sandy Alexander is already utilizing its talents.
The unit provides at least 30 percent higher gloss levels than does conventional in-line coating, and it is able to lay down dispersion metallics, spot coatings and any type of coating that is available on the market. Perhaps the greatest benefit is speed; it runs at press speeds and does not have to slow down for interdeck drying or UV coatings, since the coating process is done off-line.
Reasonable Investment
"For a reasonable amount of money, the off-line coater allows us to provide the exact same capabilities as an in-line coater and enables us to run the eight-colors at full press speeds, which is a huge advantage," Grossman notes. "This coater enhances the capabilities of every other piece of equipment in the pressroom, since we can apply off-line coatings to jobs printed on any of our existing machines. In effect, it gives us coating capabilities for everything."
An upgrade was also made at Sandy Alexander's Florida facility, Modern Graphic Arts, with the addition of a Heidelberg M-600 web press. The unit is fully automated with in-line finishing gear such as gluers, perforators, glue pockets and a rotary cutter. The M-600 joins existing Goss G14 and Heidelberg M-110 webs, both with finishing lines. Pinzone notes prepress will be upgraded at that facility, as well.
By the end of June, the Sandy Alexander Management System (SAMS) will be fully operational. SAMS is an Internet-based, proprietary management information system that will allow clients, salespeople or any other relevant parties to access a variety of information, including job tracking, production information and requests for quotes. SAMS electronically links all of Sandy Alexander's operations, from estimating to invoicing. Sandy Alexander developed the system in-house and wrote the programming to its own specifications.
Sandy Alexander also added a file transfer protocol (FTP) element to its Website, independent of SAMS, which allows clients to access and retrieve files on jobs still in process.
The company installed Scitex RenderView, an online proofing system that allows for remote file interaction. Clients can view soft proofs electronically; since it displays post-RIP files rather than conversions, the chances of changes to the file—reflowing of text, for one—are eliminated. Electronic notations can be made to the file, and an online densitometer allows for the examination of color attributes.
The benefits to RenderView are numerous, according to Grossman. In some cases, a round of hard proofing can be eliminated. Reduced production cycle times and prepress cost savings are a result.
These investments have helped to underscore the ultimate objective: to offer the resourcefulness of a large printer and the personal touch of a small operation. In the process, Sandy Alexander plans on growth, both physical (a 40,000-square-foot expansion is being added to its Clifton building) and economic, through strategic acquisition. Grossman notes that the company's five-year plan calls for Sandy Alexander to triple in size, partly through M&A activity. The types of companies considered would likely include an East Coast sheetfed business without web capacity or a "tangentially related" business such as a packaging company.
Sandy Alexander plans to remain on its toes, keeping a watchful eye on technologies and what it takes for its clients to be successful.
"Unchartered waters loom for everyone in this business," Grossman says. "Today, you can't chart any path for more than six months to a year. If you're not revising that path regularly, you're going to find yourself led astray. If you're constantly monitoring what your customers need to do to become more successful, then you'll find your way. That's the guiding theme for every business."
