Dominant Suppliers Increase Their Share
The Top 5 Suppliers combined for more than $1 billion in sales for 2004.
Quality Park Consolidates Brands
It's been a busy year for Quality Park, formerly the PrintXcel brands.
The company has changed its name, experienced major growth by realignment and secured the top position on BFL&S' Top 100 Suppliers list.
"Our sales and marketing teams were able to secure large pieces of business from existing and new customers this past year," said Allen Conway, president. "These efforts were being driven in 2002 and 2003, and came to fruition in 2004. We're already off and running for 2005."
Off and running, indeed. This past year, PrintXcel—a division of Cenveo—added WISCO, Quality Park Products and International Envelope to its documents division and three label locations, and renamed the powerful arsenal Quality Park Brands. As a result, the company has reported $414 million in annual sales for fiscal year 2003, compared to $240 million in 2002.
It has also increased its total number of employees from 1,200 in 12 locations to 2,770 in 24 locations. "Our intent with the umbrella approach of Quality Park Brands was to illustrate to our customer base across all brands that we offer more and can provide more solutions than what they are accustomed to getting from our individual brands," said Conway. "Although, our customers will still know us by our individual brands."
With the blending of existing companies comes new products and services. Conway said that Quality Park continues to improve on its offerings—such as PressAbels, a removable and reusable label—provide fuller color on its products, and continue to adapt its form/label combinations and VersaSeal products. "From a service standpoint, we've invested many resources into our e-Masters program to allow our distributors to provide an online catalog solution to their customers," he added. "This venture has been very popular and well-received."
Last year, when PrintXcel was ranked No. 2 on BFL&S' Top 100 list, Conway—then an executive vice president of the labels division—mentioned the implementation of the Boot Camp program to support cross-selling initiatives throughout the company. The program is still in effect and, according to Conway, has helped Quality Park exponentially grow its Total Company Selling initiative, which focuses on getting all brands to sell more than just their core products. "The education process has made all inside and outside sales staff more comfortable with selling products that they weren't familiar with before," he noted. "We now have label salespeople selling envelopes, envelopes salespeople selling labels and documents, etc."
Conway credited distributors for Quality Park's impressive success. "Without our distributors' support and business partnerships, we wouldn't be where we are today," he said. "Similar to the U.S. economy, our business is built around small- to medium-sized businesses. The best way to reach these businesses is through distributors, who create the relationships with end-users and provide a great service to them."
Conway also pointed out how Quality Park's success is tied to its ability to function as a team, both internally and with distributor partners. One specific Quality Park team set itself apart in 2003. "The information technology team has been a standout performer, with larger percentages of our distributors' work coming in electronically," he noted. "This is not a fad, but a trend that will continue."
Quality Park sees tremendous opportunity in the specialty products that it manufactures across all brands and intends to maximize those opportunities next year. "Our focus will be on providing as many of our products to our customer base as possible while helping distributors and their customers solve challenges in order to do business better and more profitably," concluded Conway.
By Jennifer Hans
Ennis Broadens Its Product Lines
There has been a lot of moving and shaking going on at Ennis this year—literally. First of all, the No. 2 company on BFL&S' Top 100 Suppliers list relocated its corporate headquarters from DeSoto, Texas, to Midlothian, Texas, once again reuniting all corporate functions under one roof and creating an effective, spacious environment for sales meetings and distributor training.
Secondly, there was the name change from Ennis Business Forms to the current appellation, which better reflects the company's position in today's marketplace, particularly as a result of the Crabar/GBF acquisition, as well as the merger with Alstyle Apparel—an Anaheim, California-based manufacturer of T-shirts and fleece goods—which will be finalized by the end of this month.
"These transactions place Ennis among the top players in the forms and promotional products arenas, serving the more than 48,000 independent distributors and printers who comprise the marketplace served by Ennis," said Chairman, President and CEO Keith Walters. "The main benefit of the acquisition of Crabar/GBF—a producer of high-quality, long- and medium-run printing, pressure-sensitive labels and form/label combinations—is that we are now able to fully produce products that we have had to outsource in the past," he added. "It is our goal to continue to provide our customers with a representative offering of the most profitable products in the industry."
Indeed, Walters observed that the profile of a current Ennis customer indicates that less than half of his or her sales revenues are generated by business forms, and that commercial printing and promotional products comprise the remainder. He went on to explain that with regard to the Alstyle Apparel move, Ennis was able to bring the two companies together for a more reasonable enterprise valuation on a combined basis due to the exchange of stock. "It is great news for our customers, our employees and our shareholders. I am especially pleased that Roger Brown will continue in his role as president of Alstyle Apparel, and I look forward to a smooth transition," he said.
But, make no mistake—forms continue to be a healthy product for the company, accounting for 52 percent of Ennis' sales last year and 86 percent of Crabar/GBF's. Many of the company's plants have also increased the number of colors available in form products and have beefed up long-run capabilities.
In addition, the company just launched ennis.com—its online stores service—in September to further assist distributors' efforts in meeting the wide variety of end-users' needs.
Ennis, together with its subsidiaries, operates in three business segments—the Forms Solutions Group, the Promotional Solutions Group and the Financial Solutions Group.
By Maggie DeWitt
Champion Continues Its Multi-Brand Success
Holding steady in the No. 3 spot on BFL&S' Top 100 Suppliers list is Huntington, West Virginia-based Champion Industries, led by Chairman of the Board and CEO Marshall Reynolds. With more than 800 employees and 10 locations, the company attributes a large portion of its more than $122 million in sales last year to commercial printing.
Indeed, Champion's 1997 acquisition of the Blue Ridge Printing Co., with plants in Asheville, N.C., and Knoxville, Tenn., added specialized commercial printing capabilities, due in part to proprietary technology that creates color printing of a significantly higher resolution and impact than traditional color imaging methods.
Over the course of the last year, the company continued to expand its manufacturing capabilities, including the purchase of a new four-color press with UV capabilities and the addition of 10 production employees. Fifteen additional sales representatives were also hired to help distributors get the company's forms, labels, tags, direct mailers, promotional items and commercial print pieces to market. But, the big news, according to Reynolds, was the announcement in September that Champion had purchased all of the stock of Syscan Corp., headquartered in Charleston, W.Va.
Syscan—with sales in excess of $13 million, and a nationally recognized gold and silver medal winner with the National Association of Printing Lithographers—is a regional, market-driven systems provider of integrated business products, administrative services and innovative procurement solutions, including its enterprise resource electronic catalog. Its geographic markets include West Virginia, northern Virginia, Pennsylvania, and central and eastern Kentucky.
"Syscan has won many national awards as a corporate supplier because of its supply chain solutions and the way it reduces customers' procurement costs," commented Reynolds. "With Syscan's capabilities in mailing and fulfillment, as well as its electronic catalog systems, Champion has a wonderful opportunity to drive industry-leading value for future growth to our customers nationwide. This acquisition should bring enormous synergies to many of our markets."
Bill Williams, Syscan's chairman and CEO, joined Champion as a vice president responsible for market profitability and strategic planning. "I have always thought that Bill Williams was one of the top young businessmen in our state," Reynolds continued, "and we're happy to have him on our team."
Reynolds went on to say that he didn't think Champion could have engaged in any other acquisition that would be as strategically advantageous as this one. "It is a perfect fit," he observed. "I'm personally excited about the enhanced level of service our customers will receive from the combined companies."
Champion is a commercial printer, business forms manufacturer, and office products and furniture supplier in regional markets east of the Mississippi. Champion serves its customers through the following companies/divisions: Chapman Printing (West Virginia and Kentucky); Stationers, Champion Clarksburg, Capitol Business Interiors, Garrison Brewer, Carolina Cut Sheets, U.S. Tag and Champion Morgantown (West Virginia); The Merten Company (Ohio); Smith & Butterfield (Indiana and Kentucky); Bourque Printing, Upton Printing, Transdata Systems and Diez Business Machines (Louisiana); Dallas Printing (Mississippi); Interform Solutions and Consolidated Graphic Communications (Pennsylvania, New York and New Jersey); Donihe Graphics (Tennessee); and Blue Ridge Printing (North Carolina and Tennessee).
By Maggie DeWitt
TST/Impreso Handles a Tough Year
Despite A hefty $10 million decrease from last year's $121 million in sales, TST/Impreso, Coppell, Texas, once again nabbed the No. 4 position on this year's BFL&S Top 100 Suppliers list—reporting more than $111 million in sales for 2004.
Last year, Marshall Sorokwasz, president and CEO, described 2003 as a tough year. However, he said that 2004 was even more challenging, due to declining material costs. "Falling material costs brought our average selling prices down, so it was a struggle to maintain the margins that we had the previous year," he explained. "In March and April, though, our sales started to increase because prices began going back up."
To help compensate for its decreased sales, TST/Impreso—founded in 1976 and currently with 285 employees at five manufacturing locations in the United States—is expanding some of its existing businesses, including its wide-format ink-jet and engineering roll business, as well as its small roll business. Furthermore, the company recently ventured into bottled water manufacturing. "As paper diminishes in volume, we still need volumetrics in order to fill our transportation and logistics system. We found out that a pile of paper and a pile of water weigh about the same," Sorokwasz said. "We think that entering the water business will benefit us in the long run."
As for the current strategy that led to this year's success, Sorokwasz said that diversification is the key. "We continue to diversify and find products that are growing and that fit our manufacturing capabilities," he said. "Last year, we experienced approximately a 300 percent growth in the roll business. The strategy of diversifying and training other paper areas has paid off."
As it did last year, Sorokwasz noted, the company is continuing to pursue its goal of going private. "We are still pursuing strategic investors who may want to enter our business," he explained.
When it comes to outstanding performers, Sorokwasz said that the company's engineering roll business tops the list. "The engineering roll side of our business has shown outstanding numbers. It has contributed greatly to our gross profit dollars this year."
While TST/Impreso does not use a particular method to train its sales staff, Sorokwasz said that online methods have proven beneficial and cost-effective. "We use conference calling to demonstrate new products to the sales staff via the Internet," he explained. "It cuts the cost of going into the field or bringing them in for training."
When it comes to the role that distributors play in the company's success, Sorokwasz said that distributors are TST/Impreso's "bread and butter." He continued, "Resellers make up 65 percent to 70 percent of our sales, so they continue to play a key role in our success. We depend on the dealer market and support them greatly."
For the upcoming year, Sorokwasz said that TST/Impreso will continue to expand its existing businesses. "We will continue to expand our small roll business, wide-format roll business and ink-jet products, and continue to hold our own in the computer paper business," he explained. Sorokwasz said that although the computer paper business is declining rapidly, TST/Impreso has been able to maintain market share. "I anticipate that it will be more challenging this year, but with us expanding into the bottled water arena, we will continue to thrive."
As for the future, Sorokwasz said, "We want to continue to grow our business and enter businesses that fit our model. We do not want to reinvent the wheel, but want to tap into what already works."
By Cynthia T. Graham
Western States Branches Out
For the second consecutive year, Western States Envelope & Label, Butler, Wis., has ranked No. 5 on BFL&S' Top 100 Suppliers list—reporting $99 million in sales for the latest fiscal year completed.
The company is down only $1 million in sales from last year, and Mark Lemberger, president and CEO, attributed this year's success to a number of reasons. "In addition to our continued investment in the latest manufacturing equipment, during the past year, we have invested heavily in process improvement technology," he explained. "We are currently implementing the Lean Manufacturing Process, which helps us improve our efficiencies, lower costs and shorten response times."
One of Western States Envelope & Label's newest endeavors is label manufacturing. Lemberger said that sales to its traditional envelope customers are up almost 40 percent. "Stock and custom pressure-sensitive labels are an outstanding addition to our product offerings. Our customers are finding us to be an economical, efficient and reliable source for labels," he said. Lemberger also noted that the company's new Mark Andy DT press with UV ink-jet and laser die-cutting features allows customers to be competitive. "The press gives us the ability to print one- to four-color labels on demand," he explained. "This capability has enabled our customers to get business that was previously impossible for them to pursue."
To ensure that customers receive the best possible service, Lemberger said that sales representatives undergo a rigorous 18-month training period. "During the first 12 months, we concentrate on the technical and customer service aspects of the job. Trainees spend time in each department—including the shop floor, operating equipment and learning all aspects of the company," he explained. "We find this experience to be invaluable to our customers because it produces a salesperson who fully understands the business." In addition, Lemberger said that the company's sales representatives are currently participating in the APEX/MAX sales training program—an intensive, 12-week course aimed at helping them better identify and serve customers.
When it comes to the role that distributors play in Western States Envelope & Label's success, Lemberger admitted that as recently as 1994, distributors were a minor part of the company's account base, but have since become a major part of its success. "As distributors have become a key component in the marketplace, we have learned how to satisfy their needs. We have expanded our distributor business into a significant share of our overall business," he said.
In the upcoming year, Lemberger said that Western States Envelope & Label's goal is to help its customers grow their envelope and label businesses. "We would like to get all of our loyal envelope customers to also use us as a resource for labels," he said.
After enduring several years of an unstable economy, Lemberger said that he is finally seeing improved conditions in the print market and looks forward to helping his customers take advantage of the improved conditions.
Founded in 1908, Western States Envelope & Label has 760 employees in five locations in the United States.
By Cynthia T. Graham