Hear How One Supplier Manages to Excel

Unified by a strong core infrastructure, PrintXcel serves all printing needs great and small.

Upon learning that Englewood, Colorado-based PrintXcel was named BFL&S' 2002 Manufacturer of the Year, chief customer officer Charles Stickler exclaimed, "This is good news for everyone."

For indeed the recognition proves that PrintXcel is on track and in touch with market de-mands, but it's also symptomatic of a healthy industry that's generating opportunities.

Yet, as President and CEO Kevin Lombardo observed, "The industry is currently experiencing the same softness that the overall economy is experiencing and there is a sensitivity to people's spending." He explained that customers are implementing better inventory management and cost structuring, which is resulting in pockets of growth and decline.

"For instance, traditional documents such as continuous forms and unit sets are experiencing market declines of 5 percent to 8 percent," noted Lombardo, "but there is definite growth in direct mail, fulfillment services, commercial printing and pressure-seal documents, as well as label solutions."

By now, it's evident to manufacturers and distributors alike that capitalizing on growth areas requires a business plan that includes technology, product diversity, service offerings—such as warehousing and fulfillment—partnerships throughout the value chain and a consultative, education-oriented selling style.

The key to PrintXcel's success, however, is not so much what it is doing, but how it is implementing these different strategies. "In building the company larger, we are making it smaller by emphasizing the importance of being close to individual customers," said Stickler.

"We want to support distributors—regardless of the size of their companies—with a broad product portfolio, and we want to do business with our customers as they want us to do business with them," added Lombardo.

Taking It to the Street

As for technological offerings, Lombardo explained that since technology is intended to solve business issues, the company uses the term e-business rather than e-commerce to describe its services. At present, PrintXcel offers more than five electronic solutions under the brand name eMasters.