The Printing Impressions 400

Now in its 17th year, the Printing Impressions 400 provides the industry's most comprehensive ranking of the leading printing companies in the United States and Canada. For the first time the list has been shortened from 500 to 400 firms, primarily in response to the industry consolidation that has occurred over the past few years.

The listings include company name and headquarters location; parent company; current and previous year's rankings; most recent and previous year's fiscal sales; percentage change; primary specialties; principal officer(s); and number of employees, manufacturing plants and total press units.

Each year, we continue to refine our list. As was done in several past years, we eliminated greeting card companies and several paper converters because they do not really compete in the commercial printing marketplace.

In addition, those firms on the list that are heavily involved in activities other than printing were instructed to indicate sales derived only from printing. If printing revenues comprised less than 50 percent of total corporate sales, companies were asked to give only the amount of their annual sales derived exclusively from printing.

Financial information for the PI 400 rankings was provided by privately held firms voluntarily. However, companies that indicated unusually high sales increases and incomplete information were re-contacted to ensure accuracy.

Some printers appearing on our list provided sales figures that were based on projections—most often when their fiscal years were finishing slightly after our editorial deadline. Most, however, gave year-ending December 1999 sales as their most recent figures. An "E" for estimated figure appears by those companies that estimated their annual revenues for 2000.

Despite our repeated attempts, various privately held companies refused to divulge their annual printing sales figures. As a result, they were not included in the rankings.

Also, individual printing companies that are part of larger graphic arts networks—such as Quebecor World, Consolidated Graphics, Mail-Well, Wallace Computer Services and Kelmscott Communications—are not listed separately.

In essence, to do so would be to show sales figures twice.

Instead, only the revenues of the entire umbrella corporation are included. They are listed only under the parent company's name. In the case of a holding company that owns a graphic arts firm, the printing operation is listed in our rankings with the holding company's name appearing beneath it.

For firms headquartered in Canada, revenues that were reported by some companies in Canadian dollars were converted by us to their U.S. dollar equivalencies for the sake of proper comparison.

—The Editors