Quad/Graphics

LOMIRA, WI—A collapsed automated racking system was suspected as the culprit behind the July 12 fire at Quad/Graphics' plant here that destroyed most of a 10-story warehouse and killed an outside-contracted worker. Fire investigators told the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel that the collapse of the Automated Storage and Retrieval System (ASRS) likely caused a portion of the building to collapse, sparking the blaze. Keith Freiberg, 22, an employee with Aero Building Maintenance, perished when the building collapsed upon the vehicle in which he was sitting. According to the paper, Freiberg had just finished his shift with Aero, Quad/Graphics' cleaning service. Dodge County authorities later stated that structural

Richard Mascola has been appointed regional sales manager for MAN Roland's commercial web division, overseeing a territory that includes the Midwest and Manitoba, Canada. Mascola will be based in the Chicago area. For the past four years, Mascola served as regional sales manager of American Roller Co. Also, Michael Lake, a 20-year veteran of the graphic arts industry, has joined MAN Roland as a district sales manager in Minnesota and North and South Dakota. Previously, Lake served for 16 years with the Gannett Co. in a variety of executive positions. American Binding Co., based in Miami Beach, recently announced that it has merged with Italian-based

CHENEQUA, WI--Harry V. Quadracci, 66, who grew Pewaukee, WI-based Quad/Graphics from a startup company, funded by taking out a second mortgage on his home, into the largest privately held commercial printer in the United States, died July 29. Mr. Quadracci's body was found approximately 3 p.m. that day in about four and a half feet of water in Pine Lake near his home here, according to Chenequa Police. His family contacted the police around 12:30 p.m. and reported Mr. Quadracci missing. The cause of death is under investigation, according to Robert Douglas, chief of police. An autopsy by the Waukesha County Medical Examiners Office concluded he

PEWAUKEE, WI—The program might have been the only winner at the 2002 Major League Baseball (MLB) All-Star game. Quad/Graphics bowed at its fourth consecutive midsummer classic, the number of years it has been printing the official game program. What added extra significance, from the printer's standpoint, was that the game was played in Miller Park in Milwaukee, which is about a Richie Sexson home run away from Quad's Pewaukee headquarters. "Since the game was in Milwaukee, there was an extra sense of pride for Quad to print the programs," explains Gavin Taylor, Sussex, WI, plant customer service manager, on the company's Website. "A local printer producing

An oft-repeated story from circa 1971 tells of a young pressman—one of the first employees of a struggling, fledgling commercial printing company named Quad/Graphics—who went to the bank to secure a mortgage for a home he wanted to purchase. The trip proved fruitless, as the press operator was denied a mortgage by the bank. When Harry V. Quadracci, owner and founder of the Pewaukee, WI-based printing company, heard about his employee's plight, he called the bank himself. Quadracci asked the bank to provide his new recruit with the mortgage loan. Quadracci backed the loan, but was far from being in the black himself.

BY ERIK CAGLE In 1996 it was becoming increasingly clear to Anthony and Robert Lienau, co-founders of Trend Offset Printing, that the Southern California market which gave birth to their thriving business—from a $15 million printer less than 10 years previously to nearly $80 million—was just about tapped of growth potential. Before long, the Los Alamitos, CA-based printer was embarking on a national expansion plan, first in Carrollton, TX (a Dallas suburb), followed by Jacksonville, FL. It proved a prophetic move by Anthony Lienau, company chairman. "We were profitable within our first three months in Texas," notes Todd Nelson, president and COO of Trend

I'll admit it; we didn't set out to highlight industry trends and paradigm shifts, some that are occurring in response to our nation's prolonged economic slump. But, as various feature articles for the August issue came together, several themes permeated that seem to defy conventional industry wisdom. Here, in no particular order, are some of them: Since the printing industry so closely tracks GDP growth, it's impossible for a printer to be virtually recession-proof in a stagnant economy. If you believe this, you haven't read the cover story on Trend Offset Printing, which is approaching annual sales of $200 million this year—rising from $182

CHENEQUA, WI--Harry V. Quadracci, 66, who grew Pewaukee, WI-based Quad/Graphics from a startup company, funded by taking out a second mortgage on his home, into the largest privately-held commercial printer in the United States, died July 29. Mr. Quadracci's body was found at approximately 3 p.m. that day in about four and a half feet of water in Pine Lake near his home here, according to Chenequa Police. His family had contacted Chenequa police around 12:30 p.m. to report Mr. Quadracci missing. The cause of death is under investigation, according to Robert Douglas, chief of police. The Waukesha County Medical Examiners office will conduct an autopsy. Mr.

Here are some milestones that occurred in the history of printing and in the web offset process, in particular. 1434—Johann Gutenberg settles in Strassburg, Germany, and, by 1438, forms a business partnership. In 1450, he is able to pay the first installment on a loan from his partner, Johann Fust (Furst). A second installment is paid to Fust two years later. In 1457, Gutenberg goes broke as a result of a lawsuit and Fust takes over his equipment. 1439—Around this time, Gutenberg is working on the development of a two-part, fixed-metal type mold capable of producing type characters (movable type) of various widths and

By Caroline Miller In 1952, a handful of web offset printers got together in a hotel room in Chicago during the NAPL Expo. Those men were not only the pioneers that would help promote the then-fledgling web offset industry in the United States, they would also be the founding members of the Web Offset Association (WOA), the largest heatset offset printing organization in the world, says WOA Executive Director Tom Basore. "It really was the early days of heatset web printing in this country," notes Basore, who himself remembers—during his days working in the heatset web offset department at McCall's Printing in Dayton, OH—being