by: Dianna Brodine

It’s rare to hear good news out of Detroit these days. Concerns about the automotive industry hang over the city like a dark cloud, and Detroit has become the media symbol of the downturn in the nation’s economy. However, Cadillac Looseleaf Products, Inc. isn’t letting its suburban Detroit location slow it down. The company, which celebrated its 80th year in 2008, is moving forward with a multimedia approach to traditional loose leaf, expanding beyond the paper boundaries of binders and tabs to organize information in new ways for its customers.

We were the first ones in the recession so we’ll be the first ones out of it. – Suzanne Medinis

Cadillac does minimal work for Detroit car companies, perhaps saving it from a deeper impact as a result of the auto industry collapse. Cadillac President Kurt Streng, however, believes things aren’t as negative as painted by the news. “I almost feel it was worse eight years ago. Business-wise, it was worse because there was no new business on the vine. The strong survived in 2001 and there were a lot of guys who were smart enough to prepare for the future.”

Streng continues, saying Detroit has been in a recession since 2001, with unemployment rates steadily climbing over the past eight years. The lessons discovered by smart business owners included tighter budgeting, continuing business as normal, and effective marketing of services. “The people who continued to sell with a smile on their faces, they’re making it,” explains Streng. Suzanne Medinis, controller, chimes in. “I always say that Detroit is either high or low – business is either booming or at rock bottom. But people are optimistic – we were the first ones in the recession so we’ll be the first ones out of it.”

Cadillac emerged with strength from 2001 and has taken advantage of the lessons it learned. “You keep working hard, position your company for growth, and keep your eye on the trends,” Streng explains.

We’ve never considered ourselves a bindery. – Kurt Streng

Watching industry trends was a key factor in Cadillac’s transition from traditional loose leaf services to a more robust way of looking at ways to organize information. For decades, Cadillac, located in Troy, Michigan, was a provider of binders and tabs for conventional loose leaf information presentation and storage. However, Streng believes the company has always had a larger view of itself, saying, “We’ve been around this business a long time and, typically, binderies stay binderies. We’ve never considered ourselves a bindery, and that’s allowed us to migrate.”

That migration was primarily customer-driven. In the early 1990s, in response to the needs of existing customers, Cadillac added full service collating, diecutting, and finishing to its line-up, and soon after, fulfillment and distribution. Streng explains that fulfillment and distribution are a natural extension of information packaging: “Part of what we do is build product so that it can be delivered. With that in mind, it has to survive delivery.” By bringing fulfillment in-house, Cadillac can now work structurally on the delivery, reviewing substrate and decoration techniques and evaluating its impact on the company’s choice of delivery methods.

Medinis also points out the additional control that in-house fulfillment provides. “Other binderies are traditionally sourcing delivery out. But from my perspective, we could not only save time and shipping by bringing it in-house, but we could control everything right here, reducing lead time.”

Additional changes were in store when Cadillac saw the market moving away from paper-based information storage. “Catalog binders were moving on,” says Streng, “and instead of walking away from those customers, we knew we could produce the catalog binder virtually.” Cadillac began producing CD sleeves, along with the print collateral. From there, it was a logical step to digital printing.

It’s about letting people purchase what they need to use. – Suzanne Medinis

Cadillac purchased a Canon ImagePRESS C6000 in 2008. The ImagePRESS produces digitally printed pieces that for short-run production of books, brochures, or customized CD packaging. It also has the capability of producing customized manuals, print on demand projects, and other 1:1 marketing pieces. Using web and digital print technologies, Cadillac has provided custom solutions that work for its customers.

Says Streng, “CD sleeves, text, binders inserts, tabs’ it’s all interrelated. Digital print offers an affordable way to get full graphics and exceptional quality at an affordable price.” Noting that his customers’ budgets are tighter, Streng points out that digital print allows Cadillac to offer unique solutions on a value basis, while also reducing the chance of mass-printed inventories growing stale.

“Some of our people thought we were stepping on the toes of printers,” says Medinis. “But it’s not about that – it’s about letting people purchase what they need to use, rather than purchasing binders they don’t need right now.” Streng chimes in, “A big part of our business is the trade and finishing side, with print product coming in the door and needing to be collated, bound, and shipped back. There are a lot of printers without digital print capabilities and we’ve offered a safe environment for them to go out and sell digital print and bring it back to a trusted source.”

The key, says Streng, is that Cadillac is simply taking its customers’ needs one step further, helping them to organize and present information in new ways. Now, rather than providing just the binder and tabs, Cadillac also can help to create customized, variable data to populate the binder. “Communication needs to be authored, produced, packaged and distributed,” explains Streng. “Through its many forms we take to market to allow our customers to effectively get their message across.”

We’re in the organization business. – Kurt Streng

Cadillac Looseleaf Products has a full service multimedia department to assist customers with the design technology-based information packaging solutions. Whether the need is video production, CD-ROM and DVD authoring, animation, or web sites, Cadillac’s staff of 35 employees is able to help. This multimedia approach may seem to be a departure from the company’s primary business model; however, Streng believes it goes back to the very roots of what the company provides in terms of information organization. “A binder or a web site – there’s no difference. When a user pulls up the first page of a website, that’s the binder cover. And each button that a user pushes is an index tab. A website is essentially an electronic ring binder,” he explains.

That outlook coincides with the transformation in the way information is collected and disbursed. “The buyer of tomorrow is well aware that there is more to learn and more to pass on with less time. Cadillac has responded to this by immersing our customers into a multimedia experience that complements our bindery and production shop,” says Streng. Services include digital video, photography, and web site production, and the facility has a sound booth as well as blue and green screen capabilities.

Whether multimedia or paper-based, Cadillac remains in the organization business. Customers approach the company with information that must be compiled, presented, and stored. Through a series of questions, Cadillac helps to determine the best way to package the information. What does the customer want the end user to walk away with? What type of environment will it be used in? How appealing does it need to be? How will it be used?

Cadillac will continue to introduce custom and cutting edge technology forms to deliver information, but as a complement to traditional loose leaf packaging. “We will always produce ring binders, diecut, collate, punch, and bind,” says Streng. “Considering the electronic versions of that production allows our customers choice in media form. Once we learn what our client does, the challenges he faces, and where he wants to go, we can start plugging in the variety of offerings we have.”

We are like none other. – Kurt Streng

Cadillac considers itself print, product, and virtual media packagers – perhaps the only company of its kind in the country. “It’s kind of a running joke around here,” says Streng. “We are like none other.” In this economy, that has allowed Cadillac to go virtually anywhere and sell a product that is appropriate to its customers’ needs and budget.

What Cadillac offers is experience – experience in taking information and the need to communicate it effectively, and transforming it into a solution for its customers. By remaining small and focused, Cadillac operates as a family business. “I still believe in a handshake,” explains Streng. “I still believe that there’s good in the words that people say. We operate our business that way, because you’ll forget about the product and the price down the road, but if you have a sour taste in your mouth, you’re probably not coming back.”