Consolidated Graphics

MILWAUKEE—Five years ago, Arthur Wetzel extended an invitation to Joe Davis, chairman and CEO of Consolidated Graphics. "Joe, I'd like to invite you to my 100th birthday party," remarked Wetzel. Davis, who had just purchased Wetzel Brothers from Wetzel, assured him, "I'll be there." Wetzel joked, "I hope I am." On August 15, Wetzel got his wish as he arrived at his 100th birthday celebration—attended by family and friends—in a vintage Rolls Royce once owned by the late Shah of Iran. Wetzel, who retired from the printing industry only five years ago with the sale of his company to Houston-based Consolidated Graphics, has

By Erik Cagle Old-fashioned hard work and forging genuine, lasting relationships with clients enabled Kevin Polley's Apple Graphics to carve a niche in the Southern California sheetfed market. And now, with a little help from some new friends, the Duarte, CA-based company (10 miles east of Pasadena) is playing the role of a large, full-service printer within the confines of its 25,000-square-foot facility. Rarely has a half-size printer, with 50 employees and annual sales approaching $10 million, boasted the firepower that Apple Graphics possesses. Unlike smaller independents, Apple Graphics has enjoyed a wealth of resources ever since its 1999 acquisition by Houston print

Luigi called me the other day, and it was good to hear from him since we haven't spoken in quite some time. He calls himself Luigi as do almost all of his friends. But he is not a guy that just arrived from Naples. He was born in Philadelphia, in the good old U.S.A., and his real name is Louis. He is of Italian descent and relishes in it to the extent that, well, he's Luigi. It's just that persona which gives him a unique character that makes him likable, very popular and the good salesperson who worked with me for years. After all,

This will be a two-part column. Part one will be my blockbuster predictions for the future of the printing industry. Part two will be invaluable education for print salespeople and company owners. I am truly blessed with healthy modesty. Occasionally, however (never more than once a day), I go on to the Internet to the Google search engine and type in "harris dewese." Up jumps about four pages of references to me—vitally important stuff that I've written, enormously significant stuff I've said, and places where I'm scheduled to appear where I will say even more valuable stuff. Sometimes, my wife of 41 years,

By Erik Cagle How important is turnaround time in an on-demand, digital printing environment? Moreover, how critical is it to accommodate short-run finishing needs without outsourcing? Just ask Tom O'Brien, president of Greenville, NC-based AccuCopy, a digital printing operation with annual sales in the $10 million range. "We are in a fairly remote area, geographically," O'Brien says. "We couldn't afford the time it would take to send jobs out for finishing, given that they would have to travel several hundred miles to make it to the nearest trade bindery." AccuCopy, which is slated to move into a new 70,000-square-foot facility this spring, utilizes three Xerox DocuTech 6155s

On Demand Show to Feature Allied Events NEW YORK CITY—Slated to run April 7-9 at the Jacob K. Javits Center, the 2003 edition of the On Demand Digital Printing and Publishing Conference & Exposition is being held in conjunction with two other events—the AIIM 2003 Conference & Exposition and TeleCon Collaborate 2003 Conference & Exposition. AIIM International is an association for the global enterprise content management (ECDM) industry and focuses on the technologies used to create, capture, customize, deliver and manage enterprise content to support business processes. TeleCon Collaborate showcases solutions that enhance productivity and performance within the enterprise, including videoconferencing, Web conferencing and

Howard Fenton has joined the staff of the National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL), Paramus, NJ, as a senior consultant of digital technologies. Previously, Fenton served for six years as the senior consultant of digital technology for the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation. The Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF) has granted $275,000 in scholarships to a total of 202 students pursuing careers in the graphic communications industry. PGSF awarded 99 of the scholarships to women and 103 to men. Also, Brown Printing, Waseca, MN, recently pledged $50,000 to establish the Wayne "Bumps" Brown Honorary Scholarship. After the fund matures, the scholarship will be awarded

Now in its 19th year, the Printing Impressions 400 provides the industry's most comprehensive ranking of the leading printing companies in the United States and Canada. The listings include company name and headquarters location; parent company, if applicable; 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

By Erik Cagle Say what you want about 2002, but very shortly you'll be able to say these two magic words: it's over. By nature, printers are optimists. So are trade magazine journalists. Thus, coming off a dreadful 2001, horribly punctuated by a reeling economy and the September 11 attacks, most industry people were forecasting a much-improved 2002. No one was ready to pop the champagne cork, but a marked improvement was in the offering, with a strong economic rebound catapulting revenues heading into 2003. Better days, like Godot, never arrived. To say 2003 cannot be any worse than 2002 is tantamount to whistling

(Editor's Note: Company rankings for the current and previous years are based on figures reported in 2002. Therefore, companies that revised their 2001 revenues may have changed their 2001 ranking as compared with the ranking that appeared in last year's Printing Impressions 400. Similarly, the percentage change in sales is calculated on the most recent information provided.) 1 ('01: 1) Quebecor World, Montréal, Canada Total Sales (millions): $6,300.00 Previous Year's (millions): $6,500.00 Change (%): -3 Principal Officer: Charles G. Cavell Employees: 40,000 Primary Specialties: PUB 26%; ADV 21%; CAT 17%; DM 13% Web Offset Units: 3,156 Sheetfed Offset Units: 985 Other: 808 Ownership: Public