Special Editions — The Joy of Printing

You know that you’re a small-town printer when your customers stop by without an appointment, with their kids and pets in tow, just to say Hello.

That’s what life—and business—is like in the small Midwestern town of Sussex, WI, and Brandon Esser, president and co-owner of Special Editions, wouldn’t have it any other way. He claims that he and his partner, Tom Peterman, are perfectly happy running their small, but-high tech printing business, which boasts only 13 employees (including the owners), 150 customers and revenues of about $1.5 million a year. According to Esser, living in a small town and doing business with people who are not only customers, but also friends, is a blessing that bigger printers probably wouldn’t understand.

“We don’t want to be a big printer; although growing, at some point, to medium-size might be nice,” he says. “As a small printer, we enjoy the wealth that comes from being happy, loving what we’re doing, and working with people we know and care about. Wealth shouldn’t be measured in financial terms alone; we’re very wealthy here at Special Editions—because we’re happy doing what we do, which is building a business based on integrity, friendship and the joy of printing.”

Plenty of Press Power

Special Editions prints everything from business cards and letterhead to high-end annual reports and other commercial products. Run lengths are as small as 2,000 and as large as 50,000. The company operates four presses: a two-color, 17˝ Ryobi 3302; a four-color, 17˝ Ryobi 3304; a two-color, 26˝ Polly 266 perfector; and (as of March) a five-color, 29˝ Ryobi 755 with tower coater. Prepress technology includes a Screen PlateRite 4300 platesetter and Trueflow workflow, and there’s a full-service bindery.

“Our business has always been word of mouth,” explains Esser. “We’re in business—and able to stay in business—because our customers spread the word about us. We have a reputation as a small, family owned business. We are the owners-operators-employees; our clients are our sales reps.”

Many Special Editions clients have been with the company since it first started in 1993. “Our customers know us. We live in the same community, attend the same events, go to the same social clubs, belong to the same organizations,” he adds. “Our sales have grown steadily over the years, mostly by word of mouth. We didn’t even have a full-time salesperson until the late 1990s. To this day, he’s the only sales rep we have.”

Interestingly, Esser and Peterman claim they “never tried to build a house of cards.” They put everything, all of their profits, back into the business and, through that reinvestment, have been able to sustain growth.

When Special Editions opened, Esser and Peterman were in their 20s and owned only a few pieces of printing equipment (purchased from Esser’s father, when his small print shop closed in 1992 during a recession). The two friends got personal loans from their families, rented an 8,000-square-foot facility in Milwaukee and bought everything else via COD.

There were three employees at the time: the young owners and Esser’s grandfather, Harold Esser, who ran an old 1960s Baum folder in the back of the shop.

“We had a single-color Ryobi 3302; two ABDick duplicators; a very old one-color Harris, which was a monster press; the old Baum folder; and a little Challenge cutter,” Esser recalls. “We did mostly letterhead and business cards; we probably had about 20 local customers. We were happy to make $20,000 a month. If we made that much, that meant we were making money, paying the bills and had a little left over to reinvest back into the company.”

As 20-something businessmen, Esser and Peterman had a tough time getting credit, so they bought ink, paper and other supplies, paying cash as they went along. Working 12 to 15 hours a day, if not longer, seven days a week, Esser and Peterman were able to move to a better location a year later.

Way Back When...

In 1994, the company moved to Hartland, WI, which is halfway between Milwaukee and Madison. The facility was only about 3,500 square feet, so it was a bit tight, but the money they saved on the heating bill (vs. the former location) was enough to pay the rent in the new place.

After its relocation, Special Editions added a few more staff. Esser’s then-girlfriend, now-wife, Donna came in and took care of business administration. Also, Esser’s dad, John, helped out with sales for a year or so. And, when a small ECRM imagesetter was purchased, a production person was added. The imagesetter allowed Special Editions to keep its prepress work in-house, and it significantly improved the workflow.

By 1997, the staff had grown to six people, and business was good enough for Esser and Peterman to afford their first new printing press: a two-color, 26˝ Polly 266 perfector, which replaced the old Harris. With the Polly, Special Editions was able to attract some small advertising and design agencies to its client base.

“We were doing a lot of four-color on our single- and two-color machines, but that was very time-consuming,” Esser explains. “Customers weren’t aware that we didn’t have a four-color press, so we were pretty good at faking it. They’d even compliment us on our four-color work, which we did on on the old one-color Harris, which was difficult to run and hold the registration. We were producing 1990s work on a 1960s machine.”

Although the business struggled initially, five years into the venture, Special Editions was starting to take off. In fact, after adding the Polly press, business was doing very well, and there were now 10 employees. In 1999, Esser’s wish to be a four-color printer came true, when Special Editions purchased its first four-color press: a 17˝ Ryobi 3304.

Word Gets Around Fast

In the small town of Hartland, the word got around quickly—Special Editions had a fancy, new press—and more work started rolling in. Previously, the printer was getting most of its work from the local community. Now, the sales radius jumped from 10 miles to 100.

With each increment of growth, Esser and Peterman invested the money back into Special Editions. In 2002, the partner-friends bought a used five-color, 26˝ Komori press—and hit the $1 million sales mark. Business was getting better every day.

In 2004, Esser and Peterman bought a piece of property (their present location) in a new industrial complex in the town of Sussex. They designed and built a 10,000-square-foot facility to their own specs. A year later, they invested in Screen CTP technology and the Trueflow workflow. Suddenly, life became a lot easier. “Workflow improved 100, even 200, percent,” Esser points out.

With its new and improved workflow and updated equipment, Special Editions’ print business continued to swell. Today, Esser says the company is on track to meet its $2 million goal by year’s end. The installation of a new five-color, 29˝ Ryobi 755 press with tower coater in March should help meet that goal.

“The press is amazing! We’ve finally got a fast, high-tech press. It runs up to 15,000 sheets per hour, and it’s got all sorts of automation: paper presets, scanning densitometer, semi-automatic plate loading, and blanket and roller washers. Our makeready (vs. our older press that didn’t have aqueous coating) went from half an hour to about 10 minutes. Also, the six-up format of the new Ryobi allows us to compete against the big boys,” says Esser, who notes that he got a lot of help from xpedx, Ryobi’s U.S. distributor, as well as the local distributor, GSS Graphics.

“Printing is what we know and enjoy,” he adds. “Money comes with the business, but it’s not about the money. Success is about being happy, enjoying what you do.”

“If printers don’t have the right mindset—which is loving your chosen profession—they’re not going to succeed, or they’re not going to be happy, even if they are successful,” concludes Tom Peterman, vice president. “As a small company, we’re all cross-trained; we all know how to do each other’s jobs. We work together, we stay together, and we’re all in this together—for the long run.” PI