2014 Spring

Book Binders Find Life in the Digital Age

May 29, 2014

by Dianna Brodine, The Binding Edge

Hardcover book sales continue to outpace sales of ebooks, with consumers citing a desire for the smell and feel of a quality paper product.

Despite the shuttering of brick-and-mortar bookstores and the rapid rise in popularity of electronic reading devices, printed books remain a staple in the hands of US readers. In 2013, the annual BookStats study reported that 457 million ebooks were sold the previous year, an increase of 43 percent over 2011. However, hardcover books were chosen 100 million times more – with 557 million copies sold in 2012. The trend continued in 2013, with hardcover book sales up 11.5 percent in the first eight months of the year when compared to the same period in 2012, according to the Association of American Publishers, and adult ebook sales were up only 4.8 percent.

Digital books may remain the fastest-growing part of the market, but digital books still only account for 20 percent of book sales reported by publishers.

Paperback books continue a slow decline, but hardcovers are on the rise due to what some publishers believe is an ebook backlash. Consumers initially enthralled by the convenience of digital books now long to return to the time when they could feel the physical weight of the story. Jim Milliot, editorial director at Publishers Weekly, was quoted in a May 29, 2013, article for The Post and Currier as saying, “Publishers saved money on cheaper paper and jacket design, but are now rethinking that (strategy) for people who want to own physical books.”

Delving into the study statistics

An in-depth study, commissioned by Ricoh Americas Corporation and performed by IT Strategies in conjunction with the University of Colorado, was released in December 2013. The study surveyed 800 consumers via email; in addition, double-blind telephone interviews were held with four publishers, five book manufacturers and 10 consumers. Survey respondents were 55 percent female and 45 percent male, with an average age of 39. Sixty-four percent have an undergraduate degree or higher level of education. The results of the study were released in a white paper entitled “The Evolution of the Book Industry: Implications for US Book Manufacturers and Printers.”

The following bullet points were provided in a press release issued by Ricoh:

Nearly 70 percent of consumers feel it is unlikely that they will give up on printed books by 2016. Consumers have an emotional and visceral/sensory attachment to printed books, potentially elevating them to a luxury item.
Despite their perceived popularity, 60 percent of ebooks downloaded are never read in the US. Since 2012, the growth of ebooks has slowed significantly as dedicated ereader sales are declining, and tablet PC devices are increasingly becoming utilized for other forms of entertainment.
College students prefer printed textbooks to ebooks as they help students to concentrate on the subject matter at hand; electronic display devices such as tablet PCs tempt students to distraction.
Current trends reveal that while fewer copies of books are being sold, more titles are being published.
Digital printing of “ultra short runs” has empowered book printers to supply books more tightly tied to actual demand.
The top three reasons consumers choose a printed book are: Lack of eye strain when reading from paper copy vs. an ebook; the look and feel of paper; and the ability to add it to a library or bookshelf.

With the study commissioned by Ricoh, questions were asked about the use of digital printing verses traditional offset. According to the study, publishers are using digital printing in two ways. First, a small production run can be produced as a test to place one to two books per retailer, “circumventing cumbersome distributor guidelines and storage fees before ordering larger offset or digitally printed quantities.” Second, for titles with strong sales, “digitally printed books are used for reorders as needed to supplement first-run offset printed books.”

“More than 500 years after the invention of the printing press, book manufacturers and publishers are playing a pivotal role in the next renaissance in books that is happening now,” said George Promis, vice president of continuous forms production solutions and technology alliances, Ricoh. “To borrow a phrase from Mark Twain, reports of the printed book’s death are greatly exaggerated. Print is alive, well and sought after in today’s book market.”

A book binder’s viewpoint

So, what does all of this mean for the segment of the binding industry that devotes itself to bookbinding?

Michael Roswell, president of Roswell Bookbinding in Phoenix, AZ, explained that it’s become important for his company to offer all types of services in order to address the changing industry. “We do all types of sewing of both hard and softcover books, as well as perfect binding and a myriad of both hardcover books, presentation boxes and portfolios,” he said. “We also do a wide variety of digitally printed books that are predominantly high-end wedding albums; and we still offer library binding, conservation and restoration which was my parents’ original business starting in 1960.”

At Roswell, the primary customer base consists of commercial printers, publishers and designers, although the bindery does work directly with authors, photographers, artists, galleries and museums. The bindery’s website touts its ability to produce run lengths of one to one million, whether miniature or oversized books. In a 2011 article in The Binding Edge, Roswell said, “We have evolved from a hand operation to a fully automated facility with state-of-the-art high-speed equipment. We still use all of the old hand binding techniques and materials in the same building as our 9,000-signature-per-hour sewing machines to create high-end bindings of all types.”

Roswell estimated that less than 15 percent of the bindery’s work is printed digitally, with most projects printed via sheet-fed equipment and another 20 percent web-fed. The company has expanded its on-demand capabilities by adding staff and equipment to handle the one-offs that often are requested.

While high-volume production on automated bookbinding equipment is one side of the bindery’s business model, it celebrates its deep roots in the more complex, handwork projects that come through the door. A recent project gaining media attention is a seven-volume handwritten, illuminated manuscript. The project contains all 73 books of the Catholic Bible and was begun more than 15 years ago at the Benedictine St. John’s University in Minnesota. The skilled craftsmen at Roswell Bookbinding are hand-binding 299 volumes of this Heritage Edition.

With nearly 100 employees in its 50,000 square foot facility, Roswell Bookbinding has found its niche in an industry that holds its own against the threat of ebooks. “Since we have survived three significant recessions over the years and still are flourishing,” Roswell said, “I believe that the demand for high-end finishing will never disappear.”

To download the IT Strategies white paper, “The Evolution of the Book Industry: Implications for U.S. Book Manufacturers and Printers,” visit http://rpp.ricoh-usa.com/discover/publishing.

Communicate and Prosper

May 29, 2014

by Helen Wilkie, MHW Communications

How much has poor communication cost your company in the past 12 months? Chances are, you have no idea. Chances are even better it’s a lot more than you can afford.

But you won’t find the numbers in the financial statements or year-end departmental reports. Nothing shows up saying, “lost productivity due to miserable meetings” or “missed business opportunities through sorry selling skills” or “employee quit because there’s no communication around here.”

Why? Because most people aren’t sure what communication really is.

Consider this: When companies conduct internal needs assessments, communication virtually always surfaces near the top of the list. But, if you ask 10 people who put it on the list exactly what they meant, you’ll get 10 different answers. People often can’t pinpoint the problem – they just have a vague feeling communication isn’t happening. Unfortunately, this vagueness relegates communication to the bottom of the action list.

Truth is, communication isn’t some warm and fuzzy “nice to have.” It is nothing less than the lifeblood of your organization. What I call applied communication is written, spoken and non-verbal interaction among people in order to get things done. It takes co-operation to create a product. It takes collaboration to approach a new market. It takes teamwork to implement a strategy. It takes this applied communication to oil and run the machinery of business. And, if that machinery breaks down – as it often does – a great deal of money is lost. It’s in this area, applied communication, that we need to look for the financial drain.

Loss of time

What does your time cost the company for each hour you are at work? A good rule of thumb in calculating hourly cost is: annual salary divided by 2,000 (based on 50 40-hour weeks). When you know this figure for your own time as well as that of your staff, you can begin to calculate the cost of applied communication at work.

Regardless of its purpose, a meeting is an exercise in applied communication: you speak, you listen and you interact. I’ve never met anyone in business who has not complained about meetings: too many, too long, too boring. I would add to that: too expensive.

Consider meetings that are supposed to last an hour, but somehow expand to use up most of the afternoon. Calculate the hourly cost of total participant time and multiply by the length of the meeting – and keep in mind that the higher level the participants the more expensive the time. The result may not sound too alarming, until you consider how many of those meetings take place in your organization every day, every week, every year. Do the arithmetic.

Loss of business

Sometimes salespeople know their “pitch” so well that they totally ignore any input a prospective customer might give them. They barely shake hands and sit down before they start talking. They blithely prescribe their product or service as the cure for a problem, without even finding out if such a problem even exists.

But an effective sales process is, in fact, a conversation, a two-way exercise in applied communication. Done poorly, it can result in lost sales and missed opportunity for ongoing business relationships.

Customer loss doesn’t happen only in the sales process, but also can be spurred by an inept “customer service” exchange. When someone calls to complain, the client relationship is at a fragile point. It can be repaired through the right message well delivered, or broken beyond repair by poor communication. When we consider the total lifetime value of a customer relationship, we truly can appreciate the real dollar cost of poor communication.

Loss of people

Whatever people tell their bosses about their reasons for leaving the company, exit interviews often tell a different story. One of the most common reasons cited is that they don’t feel anyone listened to them.

How much then does it cost to replace them? Studies give a wide range, from a low of 25 percent of salary, plus benefits, to a whopping 150 percent. Employee replacement represents yet another huge cost that can at least sometimes be charged to poor communication.

By improving the way people (and I mean people at all levels) interact in order to get things done, we can increase productivity with its attendant positive impact on the bottom line.

Helen Wilkie is a professional keynote speaker, workshop facilitator and author specializing in communication at work. For more articles and other information, visit www.mhwcom.com.

Dale Reindl Inducted into the BIA Hall of Fame

May 29, 2014

The Binding Edge

BIA Hall of Fame Members

Jim Niesen, former executive director of the BIA
Bill Eckhart, Eckhart & Co., Inc.
Marty Anson, Bindagraphics, Inc.
Jerry Nocar, Advantage Book Binding
Aaron Silberman, American Thermoplastic Company
Jim Decker, The John Christian Company
Jack Rickard, Rickard Bindery
Bill Seidl, Seidl’s Bindery
Norm Beange, Specialties Graphic Finishers
Jack Kavanagh, Kolbus America, Inc.
Charlie Nichols, Nicholstone Book Bindery
Richard Senior, Duraweld Ltd.
Vernon Schwent, Silvanus Products
Dale Reindl, Reindl Bindery Co., Inc.

Dale Reindl, chairman of the board of Reindl Bindery Co., Inc., Germantown, WI, was inducted into the Binding Industries Association Hall of Fame during the 2014 BIA Annual Conference in Dallas, TX, held Mar. 30-Apr. 2. Founded in 2008, the Hall of Fame honors binding and loose leaf manufacturing industry executives who have gone far beyond the standard obligations to become a dominant force in the shaping of BIA and the business of finishing. Sponsored by the Binding Industries Association (BIA), this award is dedicated to the spirit of those industry pioneers whose hard work and determination have created a vibrant, growing and changing industry.

Reindl grew up on Milwaukee’s north side and attended the University of Wisconsin-Stout for four years, attaining a Bachelor of Science degree in education with a concentration in Industrial Education. His career in the industry began with Boehm Bindery, a local Milwaukee book bindery, with his father Charles (Charlie) Reindl during summers, weekends and holidays during his high school and college years. Dale taught printing for 13 years at a Milwaukee Trade and Technical High School, and he started Reindl Bindery in conjunction with his father in February of 1978. He continued to teach school during daytime hours and would run production for the bindery at night, often performing book repair for Bibles and text books. In 1980, he left teaching to run the bindery full-time.

According to a recent article in The Binding Edge: “My dad was at the point in his career that he was looking to do something different,” current company President David Reindl said. “He had been teaching for many years.” Creating his own bindery “was an idea (my dad) had always toyed with. It was just the perfect opportunity.”

“I was teaching school and dealing with way too much bureaucracy,” said Dale Reindl. “I enjoyed the students, but every time I tried to do something, there was someone telling me I couldn’t do it. I wanted the ability to make my own decisions.”

Over the next 18 years, Reindl Bindery relocated three times to reflect the continual growth of the business. In 2007, Dale and his wife/vice president of the company, Kathy, handed the reins of the business to two of their sons, David and Steven, who moved the bindery to its current location in Germantown. Both David and Steven grew up working in the business on weekends and holidays, just as their father had done with his father.

Today, Reindl Bindery serves three major markets, including education, entertainment and trade. Capabilities include cover making, casebinding, perfect binding, mechanical binding, cutting, folding, drilling, foil stamping, collating, tipping, tab cutting, round cornering, shrink wrapping and DVD/CD. Reindl mounts trays and pockets to house CDs and DVDs for several media venues such as education, music, movies, television shows and more. It also produces single or multiple panel covers for use in casebinding, wire-o and for other applications such as game boards. Dale Reindl continues to work for the company in an advisory role.

Reindl was a member of the Milwaukee Printing House Craftsmen. He served as president of St. John Lutheran Church Trust Fund Committee in Lakefield, WI, a football coach for the local youth football program and as an advisory member for the University of Wisconsin-Stout’s Graphic Communication Department for 15 years.

“All three of my boys went to UW-Stout, and I felt like the advisory committee was my opportunity to give back to the university, while also helping my boys learn a little more about the things they could get involved in with the industry,” Dale explained. “The advisory committee helped with the curriculum and especially with ensuring the university kept up with the industry. Because we were working in printing facilities and binderies, we were proving out some of the new techniques and products. We helped the university upgrade what they were bringing to the students.” Dale served on the Advisory Committee for 15 years and, when he left, his son, Steven, became a board member.

When asked if his induction into the BIA Hall of Fame was expected, Reindl said, “It was a total surprise! Nowhere in my wildest dreams would I have expected it. As much as I’ve done in the industry, I still think there are other things I could have done. I looked at the list of other Hall of Fame members – I know all of them and what their contributions are, so it’s very humbling to be inducted.”

For more information about the BIA Hall of Fame, visit www.printing.org/BIA or contact Mike Packard at 412.259.1704 or mpackard@printing.org.

Low-Budget Wonders: Get the Look of Specialty without the Price Tag

May 29, 2014

by Trish Witkowski, foldfactory.com

Everyone loves the specialty folds that I share on my “Fold of the Week” video series – they’re so creative! However, I get the same comment over and over when I’m out in the field: “We love all of the ideas you’re sharing, but we’re never going to get to do any of them. We don’t have the budget.”

Hey, I can relate. I lived the agency life for six years, and I truly understand that often the desire to do something exciting is squashed by the reality of a super-slim budget. The good news is that I’m always in hot pursuit of low-budget wonders. To me, a low-budget wonder is something that feels especially engaging, but comes with an economical price tag on the production side. I love sharing these types of things, because I enjoy proving to people that some of the most powerful formats come in low- to moderate-budget packages. The other reason I like the low-budget stuff is that anything can be done when the budget is generous, but it takes some real smarts to do something exciting when there’s not much money to throw around.

It was actually very hard to decide what to feature, as my collection is so large and I have seemingly endless solutions to choose from, but I decided to focus on clever options for folded self-mailers for this article. Each of these solutions also was featured on “60-Second Super-Cool Fold of the Week,” so I invite you to visit the videos to really get the full experience.

Dual-purpose freemium self-mailer

Photo 1: This format, courtesy of Westland Printers in Laurel, MD, was featured in Fold of the Week episode #230.

This first format (Photo 1) is great for non-profits and fundraisers. When the objective is to raise money, often the strategy is to include freemiums, or free token gift items, as a motivator. The freemium, often address labels, calendars and the like, becomes an extra expense in the campaign. This particular format uses a simple and ingenious idea that makes the folded format itself become the gift, so to speak.

Think of it like a tri-fold where the fold-in panel is trimmed a bit short and fugitive-glued on two edges to form a pocket. The pocket holds the letter and response mechanism, and then when you remove these items and peel open the pocket, the interior of the format becomes a commemorative poster. It’s an amazing, fun and practical idea that truly does double duty.

Glued gate fold self-mailer

Photo 2: This format, courtesy of Standard Press in Atlanta, GA, was Fold of the Week episode #214.

Now that I frequently speak about mail ideas and strategies, I am getting a lot of questions about simple mail solutions that go a bit beyond the basic card/postcard format. This piece (Photo 2) is as easy as two panels glued together at the edges. A fun zip strip – one of my favorite mail engagement strategies – is embedded down the middle, enticing the recipient to tear it open. Once torn, the zip strip releases two interior gate panels that reveal the marketing message. With one easy pull, you’re giving the recipient a fun and interesting way to get to the content. The powerful “card” mailer is simple, mail-friendly and loaded with creative possibilities.

Poster fold self-mailer

Photo 3: This format, courtesy of John Roberts Company in Minneapolis, MN, was Fold of the Week episode #229.

Now, let’s go large and blow things out of the water. To me, it’s really inspiring when I see a format that is very efficient to mail, but also offers a tremendous amount of real estate for graphics. This format (Photo 3) is, in my opinion, a stroke of genius. They figured out that with the addition of a small flap with a zip strip opening mechanism (there it is again!), they could take a huge poster, fold it down and it would self-mail with style.

Pull the zip strip to open, and the piece takes on a tri-fold into tri-fold poster fold format. This sample also is really well-designed and uses wonderful paper and printing techniques to give it pop. Great stuff.

Pull-tab self-mailer

Photo 4: This format, courtesy of Specialty Print Communications in Chicago, IL, was Fold of the Week episode #169.

I have one more for you, and this is another “super card” format (Photo 4). Again, two panels are glued together at the edges, but this time there is a perforated pull tab that is lifted to reveal the interior contents. What I like about this is that it could have been two panels wafer-sealed shut, but instead they chose an interesting way to reveal the content – in this particular instance, little tipped-on coupons. Clever little opening mechanisms can be truly irresistible, and that’s what you want.

Tip: Peek-a-boo windows add engagement

One thing that all of the samples have in common is that they utilize techniques designed to get people engaged or interested in the piece. If you’re looking for something simple to get started, add a peek-a-boo window.

Photo 5: This piece, courtesy of Rider Dickerson in Chicago, IL, was responsible for drawing a sold-out crowd for the event it was promoting.

This can be done with any folded format – all you need is two panels to glue together. This sample card mailer (Photo 5) from Rider Dickerson in Chicago, IL, glues two panels together to create three peek-a-boo windows that reveal QR codes which jump to promotional videos for a college. This piece was responsible for drawing a sold-out crowd for the event it was promoting.

I hope these “low-budget wonders” have given you some great ideas for your own promotional opportunities and also for your clients. After all, you don’t have to spend a fortune to get a great result.

Trish Witkowski is chief folding fanatic at foldfactory.com. An educator, author, speaker and award-winning designer, Witkowski specializes in creative solutions for mail and marketing. She hosts a popular e-video series “60-Second Super-Cool Fold of the Week.” Witkowski has an MS in Printing and a BFA in Graphic Design from RIT.

A New Beginning at Phillips Graphic Finishing

May 29, 2014

by Jen Clark, The Binding Edge

Plant Manager Bill Kelly, left, and George Zook go over details of a foil stamping job.

After 17 years as a management consultant for several leading global professional services firms, Andrew Hoffman was ready for something new. He researched his options, put together a group of investors and bought a bindery, even though he had no experience with the printing, binding or finishing industries. However, Hoffman brought a keen awareness of what it takes for any business to be successful – a systematic approach with a focus on the big picture.

“When I was looking to buy a company, I looked at all sorts of industries,” said Hoffman, who has been president and CEO of Phillips Graphic Finishing, LLC for about a year. “I looked at anything that came across my desk. I really knew nothing about the printing industry or the binding industry, and when this came to my attention I said, ‘Who would buy a bookbinding company in this day and age?’ But when I looked at the information and started to investigate the industry and the binding side of it, I realized it was a good business decision.”

Phillips Graphic Finishing is a full-service postpress finishing and trade bindery located in Manheim, PA. It provides services in three main groupings: binding, finishing and diecutting. “As with many trade binderies, the assortment of services offered by Phillips is commonly bundled together by customers and provides a competitive advantage to Phillips for complex jobs that utilize more than one process,” Hoffman said. “Many customers choose Phillips for its broad array of services, in addition to its excellent reputation with printers throughout the region to consistently produce high-quality work within tight deadlines. We are known as the go-to bindery for complex jobs.”

He said unlike some competitors, Phillips has the right mix of experience and machinery to accomplish complex tasks. “I think people know that if it’s a difficult job, we’ll get it done and get it done right,” he said. “If someone wants to saddlestitch, foil stamp and perfect bind, then fold and glue, we can do all of those things, whereas some other binderies have to farm it out to finish various aspects.”

But the competition is stiff, he noted. Phillips serves the Philadelphia, PA, Lancaster, PA and Baltimore, MD, areas. Full-service binderies in Baltimore and Philadelphia, in addition to smaller binderies with limited finishing capabilities, vie for business from the same pool of clients as Phillips. “Other competition comes from the printers with in-house bindery capabilities,” Hoffman said. “Sometimes we’ll take jobs from an in-house bindery that is either overwhelmed or has an equipment failure. Our competitors sometimes are our customers, too, which is an odd reality in some industries, but is the norm for us.”

Humble beginnings

In 1957, Si Phillips opened S. G. Phillips, Printer, a diecutting and printing business, in Mount Joy, PA. The business was incorporated as Phillips Die Cutting, Inc. in 1979. A year later, Phillips retired and sold the business to Eric Liddell, who had joined the company in 1974. Liddell moved the company to its current location in Manheim, PA, in 1986. Upon his retirement in 1993, Liddell sold the company to Doug Shelly, who had been with the company since 1984. Shelly changed its name to Phillips Graphic Finishing to better reflect the variety of services it offered.

Andy Hoffman, president and CEO of Phillips Graphic Finishing, LLC, said the highly skilled employees trained in handwork will play a key role in the company’s future growth.

As the company grew, it added more machinery and more capabilities. One thing that stood out, according to Hoffman’s research, is that as the company grew, management would talk to the customers to find out what services would benefit them. “They’d go out and buy those pieces of machinery or upgrade machinery based on what the clients were asking for,” he said. In 2008, a major expansion was undertaken to accommodate the growing business. It included a 3,000 sq. ft. office addition and a 23,500 sq. ft. production addition, for a total production space of 55,300 sq. ft.

In 2013, Shelly sold the company to a group of investors led by Hoffman. “I organized the group (of investors), and my family has the majority interest,” Hoffman noted. “Here, a lot of people just call me the owner, but I’m not the only owner.” He is, however, the only one with an active role in running the company. Three other members of the investment group make up a board of advisers, though.

In the last year, Phillips Graphic Finishing has seen an uptick in business, but Hoffman doesn’t think that had anything to do with him. “We’ve been very, very busy,” he said. “Toward the end of last year, some of the employees were coming up to me asking, ‘Andy, did you bring all of this new business with you?’ I had no contacts within the printing industry, so it was just luck.”

He’s learned, though, that there is an ebb and flow to the amount of work that comes in. “I think we are even less busy now than we were at this time last year. January and February were good. March was lighter than last year. We still are projected to have a good year and to grow, but we haven’t made any specific changes to aid in that growth – other than new machinery. We haven’t done any sales promotions or anything like that,” he explained.

An attractive investment

Andy Hoffman is president and CEO of Phillips Graphic Finishing, LLC.

In his research, Hoffman found Phillips Graphic Finishing was well established and had a solid base of clients. “It had a small amount of customers, but the end-users of the clients were Fortune 500 companies. The feeling is that printing might be dying, but the people who are our customers – not the actual printers, but the end-users – are never going to stop printing,” he said. “That was one of the reasons (it appealed to me). The other is it is a service business. I like that concept.”

Hoffman had spent the majority of his professional career advising numerous Fortune 100 companies, as well as medium- and small-sized privately held organizations across a variety of industries. “My entire career was spent going into a business and trying to figure it out in two weeks and then improving their processes,” he said. “For me, this was just another case or another project. I utilized the same skills from my consulting career to evaluate the key points of the business. I think it helped that I had worked with so many different businesses, and I could relate to this one.”

Hoffman hasn’t made any major changes to the way Phillips Graphic Finishing does business, but he has made a few smaller adjustments, including equipment purchases and policy changes. “It’s really just been a few little tweaks here and there,” he said. “That was my intention for the first year. I knew it was going to be a learning curve to figure out what the most effective changes could be. I’m still not even a year in. But, on the other hand, it was a very well-run business for many, many years.” He said the biggest change was hiring a director of finance, “but that was part of my plan.”

The staff’s reaction to the ownership change was marked with cautious optimism, Hoffman said. “I think they were surprised because we kept everything pretty silent until we brought everyone into the conference room. Doug said, ‘I sold the business; here’s the new owner’,” he recalled. “People don’t really like change in general. I think they were trying to feel me out. The first couple of weeks, I don’t think people opened up to me or tried to get to know me. They just wanted to see what I was going to do. Were their jobs safe? Was I going to do stupid things and make everyone’s life miserable? Or, would I have new ideas and want to change the company for growth? Hopefully they’re pleasantly surprised that my plan is to grow the company and make their lives easier.”

As he took over, the learning curve was steep. But three key people, in addition to Shelly, helped ease the transition. “At first it was really, really intense,” he recalled. “Even though I had studied and talked to a lot of people, it’s not until you’re in a bindery that you really figure out what printing is all about. I had no background in printing, so lucky for me the people who are here are very, very good teachers. The plant manager, customer service manager and sales person – anytime they brought something up to me, they would educate me on the question they were asking or explain why they did something a certain way. Then, after a while, I started to pick it up. Probably in the first three months, I knew enough to be dangerous. After six months, I knew enough to make decisions and be confident that I was knowledgeable enough to make the right decision.”

One detail of the sale, Hoffman explained, was that Shelly would stay on for six months to answer questions and ease Hoffman into the business. The plan was for Shelly to be involved less and less as time went on, but it didn’t quite work out that way. “At one point, he came to me and said, ‘Andy, I feel like I’m wasting your money. You know enough, and I want to get on with my life.’ And, we were good with that. He was supposed to be here for six months, but he only stayed for four.”

The response to new ownership from customers has been positive. “It’s gone like I had hoped,” Hoffman said. “I didn’t really want to raise any red flags with anyone. I think everyone was happy with the quality (of our work), and we are trying to keep that same quality and same high opinion that people have of Phillips Graphic Finishing. I don’t think there’s been too much change in that area.”

A ‘very good’ workforce

Phillips Graphic Finishing offers a comprehensive range of binding, finishing and diecutting solutions including saddlestitching, perfect binding, wire-o and spiral binding; handwork, mounting, film laminating, inline gluing and insertion; folding; diemaking and diecutting; and foil stamping and embossing. The company has state-of-the art bindery equipment including a Kolbus perfect binder; two Heidelberg saddlestitching lines; two Bobst folder-gluer lines; two Bobst Speria 106E diecutters; a stable of MBO folders; and four Polar cutters. On the finishing side, it utilizes three Heidelberg Cylinder Letterpresses; two Heidelberg Windmills for foil and diecutting; a Cioni foil stamper/emboss/deboss/diecutter; a Franklin foil/emboss/deboss stamper; a Kluge foil/diecutter; and other clamshell handfed diecutters and embossers, as well as two BR Moll Regals, fully automated diemaking equipment, wafer sealers, eyeletters, a Crathern mounting machine, round cornering and drilling, two Punchmasters, a collator, two Rilecart Wire-O machines, a Coilmaster Junior for spiral binding and three remoisten glue machines.

“We serve the commercial printing industry,” Hoffman said. “The end customers vary to a large degree, but we do a lot in the form of marketing materials for pharmaceutical companies, financial services and banking companies, manufacturing companies, consumer goods and colleges and universities.”

The company’s production facility is open 24 hours a day, including weekends as needed. It operates a three-shift schedule with approximately 80 employees, with a goal to provide the highest quality and fastest turnaround times available in the industry. “Our employees are cross-trained to give us the flexibility to run several different types of machinery on all three of our shifts,” Hoffman said, noting every shift is assigned a weekend at the beginning of the year. “If we have work that needs to be done on a particular weekend, we have a shift to cover it,” he said. “We plan ahead for it.”

One of the things that surprised Hoffman from the beginning is “how good my workforce is from a technical standpoint. They are very technical craftsmen – everything you want to have in a workforce,” he said. “We have so many great ones here who have been in the industry and in the business for a long time. The flip side is that there really are not that many printing programs or trade schools in the area anymore. It’s hard to find newer employees that have had as good of training as in the past, so we have to do it in-house.”

Phillips Graphic Finishing utilizes an informal training program for new employees, who are trained on the machinery they will be working on first. “We usually hire new employees for specific needs and have our existing expert operators train the new employees,” Hoffman said. “We also will bring people from one shift to another so that the new employees can learn from more than one individual and gain experience running alongside different operators.”

Because there is a wide variety of jobs that come through the plant, Hoffman said it is difficult to train people to become experts on every type of job they will run. “We also send employees to vendor-based training on an as-needed basis,” he said. “There used to be full apprentice programs at printers and binderies that just don’t exist anymore. I think there are people interested in the industry, but when you say ‘graphic arts,’ now they think digital and using computers, not using machinery or setting up work on saddlestitchers, diecutters or something like that.”

Even though Hoffman hasn’t been in the industry long, he has learned that every week and every month is going to be different in terms of types of jobs and size of runs. He’s also learned schedules aren’t always set in stone. “We are very up-front with our customers about what we can do when it comes to scheduling,” he said. “We don’t take on jobs saying ‘Yeah, we can do that in two days’ if there’s no possible way we can get it done in two days.”

Poised for the future

Tony Picillo works with the MBO folding machine.

While the recession hit many bindery and print finishing operations hard in the last decade, Hoffman said Shelly’s leadership helped Phillips Graphic Finishing weather the storm. “I think that Doug was very good at directing Phillips through the (recession),” he said. “He saw the economy getting worse, and he became much more lean in terms of doing business. He was focused on maintaining.”

Now that he is in charge, Hoffman would like to see Phillips do more packaging, kitting and special projects, utilizing the highly skilled handwork people already on staff. With the ability to produce all of the pieces for those projects in-house, he said doing fulfillment is the logical next step. “I see that as a growth area,” he said. “Even for some of the boxes and packaging that we already make, we can start doing the fulfillment for those items.”

He obviously wants Phillips to continue its pattern of growth. “We are focusing on new growth areas in terms of machinery and people,” Hoffman said. “We have had lots of success recently in the folder-gluer area working on consumer goods packaging. We recently purchased our second Bobst folder-gluer to double our capacity, and we feel that will be a driver for growth in the near term. This is an area of focus that will help us grow in the next few years.”