TOPPAN PRINTING AMERICA -- Hitting with Power

BY ERIK CAGLE

Shingo Ohkado has an appreciation for baseball, and is an admirer of transplanted Japanese superstar Ichiro Suzuki, the 2001 Most Valuable Player and right fielder for the Seattle Mariners.

Ohkado—president and CEO for Toppan Printing America of Somerset, NJ, a branch of the Tokyo-based worldwide printing king—sees an analogy between the sport and doing business in an economy that has seen better days in both America and his Japanese homeland.

Revenues, like a player's batting average, are impacted by a number of variables. While Ichiro hit .350 to lead all of baseball, he was still prone to periodic slumps. Good pitching or spectacular defensive plays could rob him of certain hits, "and sometimes," Ohkado says, "even Ichiro is unreliable."

A printer's costs, he adds, are like your team's defense. That can be controlled internally, and improved. Let your guard down, and a costly error could be the result.

By keeping a tight rein on those factors that a company can control, the chances of gaining cost savings, which can be passed on to bottom-line-conscious customers, are increased.

Toppan America is proud of its newest heavy hitter, a 10-color Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 102 sheetfed perfector that was added in 2001. The Toppan team will increase its chances of competing for the New York metropolitan area "pennant" this year with the addition of a 12-color model of the same variety.

Cleaning Up

"The contributions of the 10-color press have been tremendous," Ohkado remarks. "This press has greatly improved our efficiency and has helped us control costs. It gives us a unique advantage over our competitors."

By being able to print 10 colors inline or any combination up to five-over-five, Toppan America is able to seize the metro market by producing high page count, short-run catalogs effectively and snare work that "falls under the radar screen of half-webs," notes Peter Grant, senior vice president of sales and marketing. "It's very difficult for other sheetfed printers to compete with us, simply because of the fact that we're producing two sides of the sheet on 40˝ equipment, while they're producing one side.

"Our production is almost double and, as a result, our time to deliver is cut almost in half. That's a unique characteristic for Toppan in the New York marketplace."

It is a distinct advantage in a marketplace that is both large and lucrative. And while Toppan America registers sales figures of $35 million in each of the book and commercial printing/publications divisions, it also has the backing of the world's second-largest commercial printing concern. Toppan Printing Ltd., of Tokyo, has annual worldwide sales of $10 billion to $12 billion, derived from its seven divisions which produce products and services that range the full gamut of the communications industry—commercial, publication, book, package and specialty printing, as well as electronics and multimedia. The printing and publishing group, which includes Toppan America, generates roughly $3 billion of that total.

The Somerset printing plant and its 175 employees specialize in high-end commercial work, and the book division produces coffee-table-quality books, cook books, art catalogs and stock photography books. Book printing sales are generated from the New York sales office, with the printing primarily taking place in Shenzhen, China.

Its offerings have won rave reviews. A three-volume, 930-page boxed set—Sotheby's Halper Collection Catalog—was produced when noted sports memorabilia collector Barry Halper dismantled his world-class collection several years ago. The respected auction house also tapped Toppan for its "Important Jewels" catalog, which won a prestigious gold award for the catalog division in the 2001 Sappi North America Printer of the Year contest.

Aside from auction houses, Toppan America also generates revenues from clients in the pharmaceutical and agency industries. The company is planning new product introductions and recently invested in a Boston-based company called E-Ink, a high-tech firm specializing in visual communications. Other new product introductions emanating from Tokyo are slated for the near future.

Some may be surprised to learn that, given its current stature and wealth of notable clients, until 1992 the American version of Toppan was a mere prepress house, producing color separations and film services for the New York publishing industry. Thus, in order to help reintroduce the company's role in the publishing industry, Toppan America launched an aggressive promotional campaign featuring a new 34-page, 20-color capabilities brochure titled, "Two Sides of the Story." Not surprisingly, the perfecting press plays a prominent role in the literature.

Making a Name

"There has been somewhat of a confusion as to who is Toppan," states Grant. "Is Toppan a book publisher, a color separator, a commercial printer? Over the past three to four years, we have spent a fair amount of money to clarify this image and let people know exactly who we are and what we're doing."

Toppan has also been investing aggressively to underscore those objectives, according to Joe De-Larso, COO and senior vice president. In little over 18 months, the company has invested in excess of $6 million for not only the perfecting press, but also items such as a new Screen USA CTP platesetter, two eight-page Epson digital proofers, a SpinJet digital dylux, as well as a color management system.

Many recent investments had been gauged toward prepress updates and enhancements, but future outlays will include the 12-color Speedmaster and upgraded bindery equipment. Web presses could loom in the future, but Ohkado is wary of getting his capabilities ducks in a row.

"One mistake we made in 1992, when we got into sheetfed printing, was that we really didn't have a sales force to sell printing," Ohkado recalls. "We want to make our sheetfed business very efficient and give it a solid foundation. In the future, we will not only expand to web printing, which our home office is doing, but we would also like to diversify into electronic communications and e-commerce."

The 2001 campaign proved to be a challenging one for Toppan America, with sales down roughly 8 percent from the previous year. Yet, the company still enjoyed a profitable year and, while estimates are conservative for 2002, company officials are hopeful it will prove to be a more prosperous campaign.

"Despite the bleak Japanese economy, the U.S. recession and the September 11 tragedy, we have continued to be profitable," states DeLarso. "Toppan evolved in 2001 by offering new services, including digital proofing, electronic file transfer, fulfillment and mailing services."

Other highlights last year include winning the Pantone Hexachrome award for the first book—"Pantone's Guide to Communicating with Color"—printed entirely in six-color process. The company launched a comprehensive Website, www.ta.toppan.com, and also garnered ISO 9002 certification for quality control.

Perfect Strike

Speaking of control, it is Toppan America's ability to control internal costs and parlay the savings generated from the Speedmaster's efficiencies that will allow its clients to keep costs in check. Finding an edge in a down economy is just one way that Toppan sets itself apart from its New York metro competitors.

"The competition is very severe—not only among our competitors, but our clients, in asking us to reduce our prices," Ohkado says. "We have other areas where we can improve our efficiencies, and I'm confident we can increase revenues by reducing our costs. That's the thinking for 2002."