Data Supplies

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

Large Distributors: Differentiate To Succeed Collateral printing and value-added services top the list of large distributorsÍ survival tools By Misty Byers In a highly-competitive industry one thing is certain„you canÍt survive if you arenÍt willing to differentiate yourself from your competitors. Successful large distributorships are meeting this challenge by increasing services and extending their product bases. Wauwatosa, Wisconsin-based Teuteberg is doing more commercial printing and ña lot more value-added services such as fulfillment and database managementî than five years ago, said Matt Teuteberg, executive vice president. ñInstead of just having forms in a clientÍs pick-and-pack program, we might include all of their literature,

Independents Forge Ahead Top distributors embrace technology as revenue continues to soar by Bill Drennan and Maggie DeWitt The independent forms industry juggernaut shows no indication of slowing its pace of growth. Last issue, we reported on the gains made by manufacturers and suppliers. This month, it is the distributors' turn to shine. Distributors had another strong year as sales for the Top 100 reached $1.756 billion, an 8.4 percent increase over last year's $1.620 billion. And productivity, as measured by sales per employee, increased by 2.6 percent to $294,737. This year the Top 100 reported that 46.8 percent of their revenue came from forms sales, with 9.6 percent

Riding High New growth results in record sales By Laura D'Alessandro Distributors had a great year. A strong economy resulted in fantastic growth that placed distributors on the threshhold of abundance as they round the corner into the millennium. According to figures supplied by this year's participants in Business Forms, Labels & Systems Top 200 Distributors, 1998 sales have reached an outstanding 17.8 percent growth over 1997 sales from $1.519 billion to $1.789 billion--a $270 million increase. These figures are based on sales provided by those companies listed. Not only is the amount of growth significant, but the areas in which distributors saw growth

Top 200 Distributors Precept Reigns Supreme 1997 Rank Company 97 Sales ($000) 1996 Rank 96 Sales ($000) Principal Officer 1 Precept Business Forms 159,335 1 110,574 David L. Neely 2 American Business Forms 136,000 3 101,000 Larry A. Zavadil 3 SFI 127,000 4 97,500 Tom D'Agostino Sr. 4 GBS 103,150 2 102,125 Larry Merriman 5 ProForma 79,700 5 74,600 Gregory P. Muzzillo 6 Data Supplies 66,516 6 62,048 James E. Combee 7 FGI Print Management 56,860 7 44,000 David A. Walters 8 Bank and Business Forms 27,956 10 26,695 Jerry M. Spears 9 Jerome Group 24,200 13 20,400 Gunther Kohn 10 FMC Resource