Management

My heart goes out tonight to all of those entrepreneurs who have put their heart and soul into building their businesses only to have them impacted or even destroyed by a natural disaster such as Hurricane Sandy. Some might say that business owners should have been prepared for such disasters, but so often when someone is starting a small business they barely have enough money to run day-to-day operations, let alone have enough to invest in their disaster recovery and business continuity plans.

Lenexa, Kansas-based Gill Studios announced that Debra Hoerl has been promoted to vice president of customer services and Carl Gerlach has been promoted to vice president of marketing.

Eastman Kodak Company said that as a result of the significant progress made to date in its restructuring, it is now ready to begin discussions on a plan of reorganization with certain key creditor groups.

Bob Lederer learned a crucial business lesson at a young age: You can sell something and make money, particularly if there's no cost.

Rewards. Incentives. "You dun good" happy-time present joys. Whatever you want to call them, reward items are a huge part of the promotional products industry, especially when included in some kind of incentives program.

Last year, Keith S. Walters, chairman, president and CEO of Midlothian, Texas-based Ennis Inc., encouraged members of the industry to promote printing as “not only a solution for customers, but a more cost-effective solution than newer technologies.” 

Ennis Inc., a manufacturer of business forms and apparel headquartered in Midlothian, Texas, has announced its quarterly cash dividend.

Chicago-based InnerWorkings, a leading global provider of print management and promotional solutions, announced a print management agreement with the National Wildlife Federation (NWF), America’s largest conservation organization. The multi-year agreement is intended to achieve meaningful cost savings for NWF and foster innovation across the organization’s marketing supply chain.

At the end of this month, the U.S. Postal Service takes another step toward insolvency.

On Sunday, the service is required by law to pay the federal government $5.6 billion to fund health care benefits for retirees. But it won't do it, because it doesn't have the money. It will be the second time that the service has defaulted on a payment, the first occurring on Aug. 1.

Presstek Inc.’s top three executives could be paid a total of $3.2 million in severance if the proposed sale of the printing equipment manufacturer to the American Industrial Partners private equity firm is completed, according to the preliminary version of a proxy that will eventually be sent to shareholders for their approval.

The 50-cent-a-share deal—with an equity value of $18.7 million—would mean the end of Presstek as a public company, but neither the merger agreement nor the proxy spells out what will happen to the workforce at the Greenwich, Connecticut-based company’s biggest facility in Hudson.