By Erik Cagle Senior Editor Even though postal reform remains in a holding pattern and the 2004 economy dragged its feet en route to recovery, major players in the direct mail industry have high expectations to what the coming year will bring after a solid finish to the current year. The 2004 campaign was one of dramatic growth in top-line and bottom-line revenue for IWCO Direct, Chanhassen, MN. The company once again saw solid performances from the financial services and insurance markets, according to Jim Andersen, president and CEO. Top 10 Direct Mail Printers CompanySegmentSales(millions)TotalSales(millions) 1Quebecor WorldMontreal$640$6,400 2RR DonnelleyChicago$492$8,204 3Vertis Inc.Baltimore$317$1,585 4Banta Corp.Menasha, WI$184$1,418
Quebecor World
BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor Catalogs and publications typically are linked operationally and managerially, at least to some degree, within major printing organizations. This is reflected in the high degree of crossover among the Printing Impressions Top 10 Printers rankings for the mag/cat or pub/cat categories, as some call them. The markets these printers serve also share a common outlook in that change is the operative word for catalogs, as well. Online shopping continues to be the dominant market force reshaping the interest in and use of printed catalogs. Top 10 Catalog Printers CompanySegmentSales(millions)TotalSales(millions) 1*RR DonnelleyChicago$1,887$8,204 2Quad/GraphicsSussex, WI$1,040$2,000 3Quebecor WorldMontreal$1,024$6,400 4Arandell Corp.Menomonee Falls, WI$224$244 5Banta Corp.Menasha, WI$156$1,418 6Perry Judd'sWaterloo, WI$98$297 7CenveoEnglewood, CO$86$1,728 8Brown PrintingWaseca, MN$80$400 9Spencer PressWells, ME$75$83 10Consolidated
By Erik Cagle Senior Editor The book printing industry in America cannot live on Harry Potter's whimsy and Oprah Winfrey's blessings to survive in an environment that's losing share to overseas competition. Hit titles such as the J.K. Rowling line of Potter tomes, and the popularity heft that the afternoon talk show queen can put behind a new or backlisted work, can create a stir in both the publishing and printing industries. What the leading book manufacturers from our Printing Impressions 400 are looking for is consistency from the educational market. Top 10 Book Printers CompanySegmentSales(millions)TotalSales(millions) 1Quebecor WorldMontreal$704$6,400 2RR DonnelleyChicago$656$8,204 3Banta
Now in its 21st year, the Printing Impressions 400 (in this special pull-out section) 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. Financial information for the PI 400 rankings was provided by privately held firms voluntarily. We also did not allow companies that were close to completing a fiscal year to provide projected/estimated sales
Ennis Acquires All Royal Stock MIDLOTHIAN, TX—Printed business products specialist Ennis Inc. has acquired all of the stock of Arlington, TX-based Royal Business Forms for $3.7 million in Ennis stock. Royal Business Forms posted sales of $12 million for its fiscal year that ended Sept. 30, 2004. Royal Business Forms opened its doors in 1959. Dollco Purchases Roland 700s OTTAWA—Dollco Printing, one of Canada's largest privately owned commercial printers, has acquired a pair of MAN Roland 700 presses, a five-color and a 10-color unit, to complement its sheetfed, heatset web and coldset press arsenal. Integrated into the installation are an in-line sheeter, coater and perfecting. Dollco
Worker Crushed in Accident VERSAILLES, KY—OSHA is investigating an apparent accident at a Quebecor World facility here that led to the death of a longtime employee. Carolyn Cox Campbell, 62, suffered fatal chest trauma Oct. 15 when she was crushed between a forklift and a metal racking system, according to John McCarty, Fayette County, KY, deputy coroner. McCarty indicated that a final autopsy and toxicology report would be completed in about four weeks. Tony Ross, director of communications for Montreal-based Quebecor World, said that Campbell's death, "appears to be an unfortunate accident." CGX Kills Deal for Newbridge HOUSTON—Consolidated Graphics (CGX) is no longer pursuing the acquisition
SEAFORD, DE—Perhaps offering mailing and fulfillment isn't the financial panacea this industry needs. Maybe everyone should just buy lottery tickets. For the third documented time this year, members of the commercial printing industry have collected significant lottery jackpot prizes. The popular, multi-state Powerball game produced the second batch of printing millionaires in 2004, with 33 employees of Sussex Printing collecting the $117 million cash option payout from a $214.7 million jackpot. The office pool winners were revealed to be workers at the Delaware printer by Georgetown, MD, tax attorney George Smith, according to the Associated Press. Smith said the winners would receive about $2.2 million each,
It's widely accepted that desktop publishing killed the typesetting industry. This is not true. It certainly shrank the industry a great deal. As I recall back in 1984, just before the Apple Macintosh hit the market, roughly 6,000 firms in North America offered typesetting services. In the short-term many of those firms morphed into "PostScript Service Bureaus," offering film output from desktop publishing software. Soon printers began to bring that service in-house, forcing many of the service bureaus out of business. More recently, the near-complete printing industry adoption of computer-to-plate knocked most of the rest of them out of the market. But a core group has
MONTREAL—Quebecor World is instituting a major strategic capital investment plan that includes the purchase of up to 22 new web presses for its U.S. manufacturing platform, with many supplied by MAN Roland. The plan calls for 48-, 64-, 96- and 128-page web presses that target the company's magazine, catalog, retail and book platforms. Sixteen of those presses will be MAN Roland LITHOMAN and ROTOMAN machines. An order has been placed for 12 presses, to be commissioned in 2005 and 2006, which carry a price tag of about $165 million. The balance, to be delivered in 2006 and 2007, will also cost $165 million. "During the last
ORLANDO, FL—Bob D'Angelo is one of the lucky ones, if you can call it that. The sales rep for Central Florida Press, part of the Quebecor World family, was starting his fifth day without electrical power. The good news, in the aftermath of Hurricane Charley—the worst storm to hit U.S. land in about a dozen years—was that power was to be restored as early as later in the day. "I'm just doing a Cool Hand Luke...a lot of sweating," D'Angelo jokes. The storm, which lasted no longer than an hour in some parts of Florida, had its greatest effect on the west coast, where
