American Forms

Despite setbacks, the printed products industry staged a good performance. It was another big year for the Top 100 Manufacturers as total reported revenue climbed to $4.96 billion, up $580 million from last year's $4.38 billion. The total number of employees reported by the Top 100 in-creased by 514 to 30,945 from last year's total of 30,431. The total number of locations increased to 423 from 384 last year. It has been a more productive year as sales per employee jumped to $160,123 from the $143,843 reported a year ago. Sales per location also increased to $11.7 million from last year's $11.4 million. The increase in overall revenue

American Forms, which recently relocated its corporate offices from Wheeling, Illinois, to Plano, Texas, and Shade/Allied, Green Bay, Wisconsin, have merged operations. The combined company will operate under the American Forms name, with Al Vosper as president and CEO and Frederick Haas as vice president of sales and marketing.

Influencing People Why the Web will never replace face-to-face "To Ben Harris, selling is a way of life!" That's how an article in The Counselor started some 20 years ago. It was Charley Pahl's appraisal of a Selling Seminar Harris conducted for the Rocky Mountain Region's 6th Annual Sales Seminar. Pahl titled the article Ben Harris: The Fine Art Of Selling, and there was no more fitting description of the man or his message. I was privileged to attend a recent Selling Seminar, once again sponsored by the RMR and hosted by Harris. It was a testament to the Fine Art of Selling and Harris' message was

More Change Hits the Top 100 Changes in company ownership and product mix are having a dramatic effect on the industry By Bill Drennan, Maggie DeWitt & Danielle Litka Change has become the norm in the forms industry, as the past year has seen last year's top independent manufacturer by sales close its doors and directs going independent, in addition to the usual spate of mergers and acquisitions. CST/Star Products ceased operations last Spring. A few weeks later, American Tissue, a paper converting company, purchased CST/Star's assets and opened three of the eight plants as American Forms. With only a few months of operations, American Forms declined

Newsbrief American Buys CST/Star Assets American Tissue, Happauge, N.Y., has purchased the assets of CST/Star Products, Wheeling, Ill., which recently closed. The purchase includes all of CST/ Star's eight plants, presses and other equipment, accounts receivable and all brands, trademarks and copyrights. The new company, operating under the name American Forms, is led by President and CEO Alan Vosper. American has opened three of the purchased plants—Wheeling, Ill.; Plano, Texas; and Leola, Pa.—employing about 100 people. Approximately 85 of those employees formerly worked for CST/Star. No senior management has been retained. In addition to the three plants, American Forms has distribution agreements at several

Distributor-only CSRs and five plants are positioned to handle distributor orders The $2.43 billion direct-selling giant of the forms industry—Moore North America, Bannockburn, Ill.—has launched a business unit geared to the independents and joined the DMIA. The new unit, called Latitudes, is based in Iowa City, Iowa. According to Dick Dennis, vice president of the Resale Channels, Latitudes is completely independent of Moore's direct-selling divisions. Rather than reporting to a vice president of sales, Dennis reports to Patrick Brong, the president of Logistics & Operations for Moore. No stranger to the independent channel, Dennis previously served as vice president of sales for Vallis