Category Archives: general news

Economic Recovery Failed to Save Dozens of Medium-Sized Print Firms in the NYC-Metro Area

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The New York City metro area lost medium-sized printing firms at a sharper rate than four other major metropolitan areas during the economic recovery, according to data compiled by print industry economist Dr. Joe Webb.

His numbers, published today by WhatTheyThink, span the period from 2010 (about one year into the recovery) through 2013 (the most recent year for which data are available) and are drawn from the Census Department’s County Business Patterns database. They indicate that the NYC metro area lost 75 medium-sized firms (10 to 49 employees) in the period as this sector declined from 513 to 438 establishments (-14.6%). This was a steeper drop among medium sized firms than occurred in the metropolitan areas of Los Angeles (-8.1%), Chicago (-13.0%), Washington, D.C. (-4.8%), and San Francisco (-12.1%).

The NYC-metro firms didn’t necessarily vanish without a trace. “Many of these would have shifted into the small employee range, while others would have closed or consolidated,” Webb writes. An upside of consolidation may be the fact that large firms (50 or more employees) declined by only -5.7% in the NYC-metro area, the smallest such loss among the five cities examined.

The NYC-metro area saw an overall drop of -10.1% in establishments of all sizes, higher than the -7.7% loss for the rest of the county (i.e., exclusive of the five cities, which represent about one quarter of all U.S. printing establishments).

Partly responsible for the decline is the reality that the key business advantage for metro area printers, proximity to metro-based customers, is not as potent as it once was. “There was a time when being geographically close to customers was critical,” notes Webb, “(but) since the advent of digital proofing and various surrogates, and e-commerce, geography is less of an issue than it used to be.” But, he still rates personal interaction as important to sales and customer retention: “It may no longer be a 10, but it’s probably an 8.5.”

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Printing Industries Alliance Tackles a Member-Centric Agenda at Board of Directors Meeting in NYC

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Dona Snyder-Reardon, incoming chair of the board of directors, Printing Industries Alliance, with Patrick Ryan (right), whom she succeeds in the position, and Timothy Freeman, the association’s president.

An old joke about sausage and law says that nobody should watch either one being made. The punch line doesn’t apply at meetings of well-run trade associations, where watching a slate of business being carried out can be as satisfying as observing a master chef prepare a gourmet meal.

I had the good fortune to be a guest at the June 18 board of directors meeting of Printing Industries Alliance (PIAlliance), the association for the graphic arts industry of New York State, northern New Jersey, and northwestern Pennsylvania. I’m a PIAlliance member myself, but, like most members of most trade associations, I don’t often get to see how the group I belong to operates at the executive management and policymaking levels.

The meeting took place at the Park Avenue headquarters of RR Donnelley in New York City. My notes from the session let me happily report that the association is in the good hands of people who are very serious about making PIAlliance grow in terms of both membership numbers and the range of services it provides to those who belong.

The group, a regional affiliate of Printing Industries of America (PIA), now has 335 companies on its roster. This is down somewhat from 12 months ago, given the contraction of the printing industry in the tristate region that PIAlliance serves. But, the group is readying a drive that will target more than 100 non-member companies deemed eligible to join the ranks. A special effort at recruitment is being made under the direction of Rich Barbaria in Long Island City, Queens, home to an important cluster of metro printing companies.

The mission of PIAlliance is to defend its members’ business interests and to help foster a business climate where their companies can prosper. Past, ongoing, and pending projects reviewed at the June 18 meeting indicated the breadth of the effort being made to achieve these objectives. Some highlights:

  • In August, a “lean manufacturing council” will commence work to help members master the techniques of waste-free production.
  • A program for customer service evaluation and training will be announced.
  • Administered in this region by PIAlliance, PIA’s annual wage and benefit survey, now in progress, lets participating members benchmark their labor costs against industrywide data.
  • PIAlliance members are receiving guidance in marketing from Marty Maloney, an advertising and public relations expert who joined the association’s executive staff last year.
  • A recent conference on human relations management drew 60 people for an overview of trends in employment law, labor standards, and rules governing eligibility for overtime pay.
  • On the public affairs front, PIAlliance is monitoring and responding to activities by New York State Industries for the Disabled (NYSID), an organization that aggressively seeks exclusive status as the preferred-provider resource for publicly let digital printing contracts in New York State.
  • PIAlliance recently announced that its popular workers compensation insurance program returned a 30% dividend in its 2013-2014 policy year, saving participating members nearly $2 million for the period.

Details about these and other programs can be found at the association’s web site and in the pages of Signature, its member newsletter.

The meeting also featured the passing of the board chair’s gavel from Patrick Ryan (Modern Press, Albany, NY) to Dona Snyder-Reardon (Snyder Printer, Troy, NY). Other officers serving one-year terms from now until next June are Eric Webber (Cohber Press, Rochester, NY), vice chair; Doug Bolling (Veritiv, Depew, NY), second vice chair; Kathleen Hartmans (Quality Bindery, Buffalo, NY), treasurer; and John Williams (Midstate Printing, Syracuse, NY), secretary.

Joining the board of directors for three-year terms are Robert Witko (Fort Orange Press, Albany, NY); Bryan Carr (TBN, Buffalo, NY); Marianne Gaige (Cathedral Envelope, Rome, NY); and Richard Schielke (Envelopes.com, Amityville, NY).

PIAlliance’s tagline words are Engage, Explore, Energize, and Excel. Judging from what I saw and heard on June 18, this member is confident that the group is Easily and Evidently Exceeding its goals in Each.

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Pratt Industries Leads Coalition to Increase School Recycling and Environmental Awareness
On Staten Island

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Pratt Industries Chairman Anthony Pratt (right) is welcomed by Staten Island Borough President James Oddo in announcing the program

Corrugated packaging producer Pratt Industries has announced that it will lead a unique coalition of government, private sector, trade association, and non-profit participants to increase recycling rates and environmental awareness among students and teachers in dozens of New York City schools on Staten Island.

Pratt chairman Anthony Pratt joined local leaders including Staten Island Borough President James S. Oddo in releasing details of the program, which for the first time will introduce a detailed anti-littering, pro-recycling curriculum across schools on Staten Island. The goal is eventually to reach more than 20,000 students in the borough, where Pratt has paper mill, corrugating, and recycling facilities.

Pratt and the Borough President’s office spearheaded the program with the Institute of Scrap Recycling Industries Inc. (ISRI), the national trade association representing the recycling industry. The curriculum was developed by ISRI with JASON Learning, a nonprofit organization and longtime partner of the National Geographic Society. JASON Learning was founded in 1989 by oceanographer Dr. Robert D. Ballard to inspire and educate children through real science and exploration. It also provides lesson plans and development programs for teachers and educators.

“This is a win-win for all those who call Staten Island home,” Pratt told students and educators in announcing the program at a local high school. ”Our company will take all the paper you collect under this initiative to our paper mill right here on Staten Island, where it will be made into new 100% recycled paper and then converted by us into brand new 100% recycled packaging, helping to deliver everything from your computers to tonight’s pizza.”

The syllabus will be introduced on a trial basis at 10 Staten Island schools over the next few weeks and then expanded borough-wide next school year to eventually include more than 35 of Staten Island’s public schools.

Borough President Oddo said that a key part of the curriculum would be an anti-litter component in an “effort to prevent the next generation of litterers, and the best way to do that is through education and increasing recycling rates.”

Staten Island is one of only three municipalities nationwide that ISRI is supporting for JASON Learning. The other pilot programs are being rolled out in Kalamazoo, MI and Baltimore, MD.

Pratt will cover costs and host the professional development of staff from participating schools at its Staten Island paper mill on June 4. The company will host school tours at the facility so that students can see first-hand how the paper recycling process works. The company also is donating recycling bins that have been placed in the participating schools.

Headquartered in Conyers, GA, Pratt Industries is America’s fifth largest corrugated packaging company and the world’s largest, privately-held 100% recycled paper and packaging company. Its other metro area locations are a display division in Totowa, NJ, and a specialty division for retail merchandising in Edison, NJ.

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Edison Litho & Printing Corp.
Acquires Compass Display Group

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Edison Litho & Printing Corp. (North Bergen, NJ) has announced its acquisition of Compass Display Group (Kennesaw, GA), an award-winning company that delivers both temporary and permanent point-of-sale materials and displays. A leader in the point-of-sale display industry, Compass will become a new business unit of Edison Litho and will operate under the name Edison Compass Display Group. The Edison Compass transition will be led by Edison COO Joseph Ostreicher along with the existing Compass management team.

“The move to acquire Compass allows Edison Litho to offer our clients permanent displays and environmental graphics in addition to the vast printing options previously offered,” said Edison CEO George Gross. Ostreicher noted, “We are committed to embracing the new age and to servicing all of our clients’ needs and do whatever it takes to keep our customers happy.”

Edison Compass’s Georgia location provides a strategic complement to Edison’s existing location in North Bergen. With the Jersey plant working at near capacity, the acquisition of the Georgia plant will enable Edison to service its Southwestern client base in a more cost-effective way. With this increased capacity, Edison Compass will offer their services and seek new opportunities in the Southern markets.

A provider of large-format and high volume printing for many of the world’s biggest brands and retailers for over 55 years, Edison Litho has served North America’s largest companies in a wide range of industries including retail, product manufacturing, entertainment, and packaging.

Launched in 1998, Compass Display Group has been a source of temporary and permanent point-of-sale programs for the past 15 years. Among its honors are awards from the Path to Purchase Institute and Global Shop (POPAI). Compass also has been named by Creative magazine as one of the top 50 POP companies in the U.S.

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Printing Industries Alliance – Long Island Shows Them the Money with Program on Sources of Business Financing

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PIA-LI-finance-meeting.011415From left, speakers Richard Amsterdam, Thomas E. Dolan, Keith Lawlor, and Nicholas Terzulli, with Printing Industries Alliance – Long Island program organizers Greg Demetriou, Richard Schielke, and Bill Dirzulaitis

Smart printers never leave money on the table. The trick, though, is knowing where all the tables are. That’s no easy task when it comes to locating sources of public and private funding for business development, especially in the high-cost environment of Long Island.

The Long Island branch of Printing Industries Alliance made the search a little easier for members who attended its recent winter meeting on the theme of “Where’s the Money?” and how to go about obtaining it. As the guest speakers, a banker and three representatives of local government agencies said that financial assistance is available to printers willing to ask for it and able to work with providers that want to help.

The Babylon Industrial Development Agency, for example, lends a hand by doing whatever it can to make it easier for businesses to relocate to or grow within the town’s boundaries. Resources include fast-track bureaucratic approvals, tax abatements and extensions, and tax-exempt bonds. Thomas E. Dolan, a senior project manager for the agency, urged printers in Babylon or those thinking of setting up shop there to contact his office whenever they plan capital improvements or other kinds of expansion.

According to Keith Lawlor, a vice president for TD Bank, “there’s free money out there” for business development because of declining interest rates on commercial rates on commercial loans. Banks have to compensate by stepping up their lending volume. That’s good news for would-be borrowers, said Lawlor, but it also means closer scrutiny by the banks of the qualifications of loan applicants—even customers who have been doing business with their banks for decades.

Bank financing usually is the key to one company’s acquiring another, and on Long Island, said Lawlor, the pace of mergers and acquisitions has been brisk. The type of M&A lending that banks prefer is the arrangement in which the seller partially finances the transaction by holding a note of repayment, leaving the bank to provide the rest of the funding to the buyer. He said that selling printers should be realistic about what they can expect in terms of multiple of EBITDA, a calculation that determines the selling price. (EBITDA stands for earnings before interest, taxes, depreciation, and amortization. Desirable companies have high EBITDA multiples; less attractive companies, smaller ones.)

Lawlor urged printers to get their financials in order now, even if they are not yet at the point of applying for a loan. “It’s all about what’s on paper,” he said, explaining that applicants must be prepared to document their ability to repay what they borrow. The most challenging loans to finance, he said, are those for working capital in which the collateral is the borrower’s accounts receivable—a volatile asset that can be hard for banks to base decisions on.

The U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA) doesn’t make loans for working capital, but it does provide lending for fixed-asset acquisition through The 504 Company—a not-for-profit corporation it established in 1981 to administer the SBA 504 Loan Program in New York, New Jersey, and Pennsylvania. Coordinating it for the three states is the New York Business Development Corporation (NYBDC), represented at the PIA-LI meeting by Richard Amsterdam, its vice president.

Through the 504 program, he said, NYBDC can provide 40% percent of the fixed-rate loan amount in partnership with a bank that finances most of the remainder. All business sectors except the adult and gaming industries are eligible for loans that can range from $50,000 to $5 million.

The idea is to enable businesses to acquire fixed assets while retaining the working capital they need for growth and job creation. Amsterdam said the program recently worked well for a printer who obtained $4.3 million in financing to buy and install a new offset press using the invoice value of the machine as collateral. Processing and approval of 504 program loans, he said, takes only about 30 days on SBA’s end—the same as the bank.

High taxes on businesses, acknowledged Nicholas Terzulli, director of business development for the Nassau County Industrial Development Agency, represent the “biggest barrier to growth and entry in Nassau County—hands down.” He said that while his agency can’t necessarily lower the rates that businesses pay, it can help to protect owners against increases while making sure that they are taking advantage of all of the incentive programs available to them.

These include real estate, sales, and use tax exemptions; mortgage recording tax abatements; and financing through tax-exempt and taxable bonds. The agency’s Local Enterprise Assistance and Development Service (LEADS) program provides direct financial assistance and other kinds of help to the county’s small and mid-sized businesses.

Nassau’s IDA coordinates its efforts with those of state agencies and local utilities, connecting businesses with these entities to break logjams and move projects forward. On Long Island, said Terzulli, “everybody loves to work together on economic development” regardless of the turf or the politics involved.

Among Nassau IDA’s recent successes, he said, is the decision by automotive retailing software developer DealerTrack to build a $150 million campus in Lake Success following 18 months of negotiations with the county to craft a package of incentives. On a smaller scale, the IDA worked with a technology company that wanted to move from the South Bronx to a safer haven on Long Island. Taking part in the conversation that sealed the deal, Terzulli said, was the chief of police of Plainview, where the company now is located.

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Mark R. Hahn Forms
 Graphic Arts Advisors, LLC

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022815.mark-hahn-forms-gaaMark R. Hahn has announced the formation of Graphic Arts Advisors, LLC, headquartered in Mountain Lakes, NJ with an additional office in Dallas, TX.

Graphic Arts Advisors, LLC is a boutique strategic financial advisory and consulting firm focused exclusively on the printing, packaging and related industries. The firm provides financial advisory services to clients with both mergers and acquisitions (M&A) and capital transactional needs of up to $100 million and consulting services related to valuations, corporate restructuring and turnarounds, and strategic shareholder advisory services.

In establishing GAA, Hahn noted, “Now more than ever and especially in the dynamic and ever changing marketplace in which companies in the graphic arts and related industries now operate, they need a trusted financial advisory firm working with them and on their behalf that is exclusively focused on their industry in order to build or monetize shareholder value.”

Prior to founding GAA, Hahn served as Senior Vice President of NAPL’s Business Advisory Group with primary responsibility for the group’s M&A practice. Before joining NAPL, he held several senior management positions at a diversified graphic services company, most recently as CFO/COO and Corporate Development Officer. Hahn previously served as a Managing Director of Brownstein Corporation, a nationally recognized financial advisory firm.

He is regularly quoted and published in several printing industry trade and management journals; and through his monthly blog, The Target Report, Hahn provides the printing, packaging and related industries with a high level overview of industry trends and a central source of information where owners, investors, lenders and other professionals can view information about the latest mergers, acquisitions and restructuring in the printing industry, broadly defined.

Graphic Arts Advisors, LLC is a boutique strategic financial advisory and consulting firm focused exclusively on the printing, packaging and related industries serving clients with revenues of between $5 and $100 million and transactional needs of up to $100 million. Additional information can be found on the company’s website.

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Scholarship Fund’s Holiday Bash Raises Spirits and Money on Behalf of Graphics Education

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122214.gcsf_holiday_bash.1Nearly 300 industry members mixed and mingled at The Art Directors Club during the GCSF holiday bash.

The mood couldn’t have been more festive, the setting more sophisticated, or the cause more worthy as nearly 300 members of the industry gathered at the Manhattan gallery of The Art Directors Club to celebrate the both the holidays and the outstanding work of the Graphic Communications Scholarship Foundation (GCSF).

The December 11 event was notable not only as a social get-together, but also as a revival of camaraderie among groups and clubs that continue to represent graphics professionals in the New York City metro area. Six organizations joined in supporting the holiday bash, while numerous individual friends of the industry contributed time, cash, and gifts to help make the evening a success. Veterans who remember the industry’s annual rounds of Christmastime banquets and parties of 20 to 30 years ago heard many echoes of those much-missed affairs in the clink of glasses and the buzz of conversation at the gala for GCSF.

To those who attended, the scholarship fund needed no introduction as the metro area’s leading source of stipends for young people taking academic degrees in graphic communications and related disciplines.

A 100% volunteer organization that operates without professional staff or overhead expense, GCSF has distributed a total of $416,000 in scholarships to 116 students of graphic design and production since the fund’s inception in 2002. The not-for-profit 501(c)3 corporation acts as a coordinator for a large number of individual scholarship funds and gives all of the money collected through them to students attending or bound for colleges and universities with degree programs in graphic studies.

122214.gcsf_holiday_bash.2Not-so-secret Santa David Luke, a past president of the scholarship fund, emcees with the help of its current president, Jerry Mandelbaum.

Although scholarship recipients can use their stipends at any school with a recognized graphics studies program, GCSF’s hope is that most of them will bring what they learn back to the metro area by pursuing their careers here. To encourage this, GCSF has established a one-to-one mentoring program that pairs students with industry pros for 12 months at a minimum of two contact hours per month. Fifteen students currently are taking advantage of this structured opportunity to gain hands-on experience in graphics-related career fields.

GCSF’s annual scholarship awards presentation ceremony is a high point on the industry’s calendar of events. The tentative hold date for the 13th Annual GCSF Scholarship Awards Celebration and Ceremony at the Hearst Tower is Thursday, June 18, 2015. About a year and a half ago, the fund’s governing committee also began to talk about a year-end celebration to raise additional awareness for the fund and to give the industry in the metro area a new focal point for its still-vigorous fraternal spirit.

The result was the December 11 bash, which included, besides GCSF and the The Art Directors Club, the participation of Printing Industries Alliance, The Advertising Production Club of New York (APC-NY), IDEAlliance, and The Navigators (a club well remembered by many for its Service to Industry Award program). The evening also featured the inauguration of memorial scholarships in the names of industry figures Nina Wintringham and Steve Server, as well as a toy drive on behalf of the Harlem Children’s Zone. (So many toys were donated that some of them were sent to Schneider Children’s Hospital as well as to the Harlem organization.)

Richard Krasner, a past president of the fund and one of the event’s lead organizers, said that the joint support of the groups drove a turnout that enabled GCSF to cover the costs of the party at a ticket price of just $25. According to Krasner, more than a third of those who attended gave cash donations over and above the ticket price. Hearst and Time Inc. helped by buying blocks of tickets for employees.

Jerry Mandelbaum, GCSF’s current president, said that although fundraising wasn’t the primary reason for the holiday bash, the event pulled in almost $15,000 for scholarships from net proceeds, tickets and raffles, and group and individual contributions and donations.

122214.gcsf_holiday_bash.3GCSF stuffed a few holiday stockings with the help of a Chinese auction led by (from left) David Garcia, David Luke, Nick Patrissi, Diane Romano, Paul Nicholson, and Jerry Mandelbaum.

Krasner said GCSF hopes that the financial and social success of the holiday bash will turn it into a “legacy evening” that the industry can use as an occasion for celebration and good fellowship in years to come. A date for the 2015 edition of the event will be announced.

In the aftermath of any affair that comes off as happily as GCSF’s first holiday bash, thanks and recognition are due in abundance. GCSF gave a special shout-out to Olga Grisaitis and Hugo Verdeguer of The Art Directors Club for their help in making the first-floor space at the gallery on West 29th Street available for the party. Also thanked were those who contributed gifts for a fund-raising Chinese auction: Hallie Satz (Highroad Press), Paul Nicholson (Showtime), Diane Romano (Hudson Yards), David Garcia (LB Graph-X), and Ellen Hurwitch (RedTie Ltd.). Howard Weinstein got credit for sending personnel from Candid Litho to assist with setup and cleanup.

122214.gcsf_holiday_bash.4GCSF officers and trustees, from left: Jack Kott, Jerry Mandelbaum, Jessie Ann Murphy (also a GCSF scholarship recipient), David Luke, Diane Romano, Nick Patrissi, David Garcia, and Mark Darlow.

The planning committee for the holiday bash included Richard Krasner, Diane Romano, Ellen Hurwitch, and Mark Darlow. The current slate of GCSF officers includes Jerry Mandelbaum, president; Ellen Faith Hurwitch, vice president; Diane Romano, vice president; Steve Kennedy, treasurer; Nick Patrissi, secretary; and David Luke, immediate past president.

Our thanks and congratulations to everyone concerned for a swell affair and an uplifting reminder of the philanthropic unity of spirit that has always been our industry’s most distinguishing characteristic.

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Printing Industries Alliance Appoints Marty Maloney as Executive Vice President (announcement with commentary)

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marty_maloneyPrinting Industries Alliance, the trade organization dedicated to supporting the success of the New York State, northern New Jersey, and northwestern Pennsylvania graphic communications industry, announced the appointment of Martin J. Maloney as its Executive Vice President, effective on December 1, 2014.  Maloney, whose graphic communications career spans 40 years, brings a wealth of experience and knowledge in every facet of the graphic communications business to the position.

Timothy Freeman, President of the Printing Industries Alliance, stated, “We are very happy to have Marty Maloney on board. His vast printing experience and skill set will be immediately utilized in several areas, including membership, marketing, events and more.  His strong voice in support of the printing industry has been heard for many years, and we now look forward to his staunch support of the Printing Industries Alliance.”

Maloney commented, “Over the years I have promoted several printers, large and small, and many of the world’s largest suppliers to graphic arts industry. Now I am taking that experience and applying it to the industry at large in perhaps its most important market.  I am very pleased to be given this important opportunity.”

Maloney is currently Chairman of Broadford & Maloney Inc. (BMI), a full-service marketing, public relations, and advertising firm dedicated to serving the needs of the graphic communications industry. Starting in December, BMI is transitioning to a public relations and marketing consultancy that will serve only a few select clients.

In the last two decades, BMI’s long-term clients included HP Indigo, The New York Times, Xerox, DuPont, Procter & Gamble, Polaroid, Agfa and many more. Also served were hundreds of printers from RR Donnelley to the corner digital print shop. Before starting his own firm, Maloney was Chief Marketing Officer for Arcata, where he served on the LBO team to facilitate the nation’s first billion-dollar leveraged buyout. Previously he was Vice President, Marketing for the Graphics Division of John Blair & Company, which had 14 printing, mailing and marketing companies including Meehan-Tooker and Alden Press.

Concurrently with BMI he was a Board Director for Cenveo, a $2 billion printing firm with 90 plants. In this role, he served as Lead Director, Chair of Corporate Governance and sat on the Audit, Compensation and Search committees. He also was a founder and first Executive Director of The Print Council, an advocacy organization for the printing industry. On the legislative side he was Chairman of a 6,000-member PAC and served on the Finance Committee for a six-term Congressman.

Maloney is a longtime member of the Advisory Board of the department of Strategic Communications, Marketing, and Media Management (SCM3), part of New York University’s School of Professional Studies.  He recently concluded a three-year term as Board Chair.  SCM3 includes the master’s degree program in Graphic Communications Management and Technology, in which Maloney teaches graduate courses as an adjunct professor.  Maloney is also a 20-year member of the Franklin Committee and was a four-time chairman of the event; he continues to serve on the Franklin Luminaire Committee. Maloney is a frequent speaker at industry functions.

Maloney will work from the newly established New York City satellite office of the Printing Industries Alliance in Park Slope, Brooklyn, in the exact center of the five boroughs and also equidistant from Long Island, northern New Jersey, western Pennsylvania, and New York’s Westchester County.  The office is located at 195 Prospect Park West, Suite 1A, Brooklyn, NY 11215. The office number is 718-499-0401.  Maloney’s direct dial and cell number is 203-912-0804. He can be reached via email at m.maloney@bmcorp.com or mmaloney@pialliance.org.

About Printing Industries Alliance
Printing Industries Alliance provides a variety of consultative, informational, and cost saving services to support its members’ success and to provide a significant ROI on their dues investment.  In addition, the organization provides industry representation to a variety of governmental entities at the local, state, and federal levels. Printing Industries Alliance is a regional affiliate of Printing Industries of America and is headquartered in Amherst, NY.

For further information contact:
Timothy Freeman
President
Printing Industries Alliance
716-691-321 / tfreeman@pialliance.org

Commentary: Marty’s impressive list of career achievements speaks for itself. But, what the announcement may not convey to those who don’t know him personally is the depth of his charismatic and inspirational leadership style. I’ve enjoyed the pleasure and the privilege of his acquaintance for many years, and, speaking also as a member of Printing Industries Alliance, can say that I’ve never seen a better match of personality to position than the one that underlies Marty’s acceptance of this important job. In recruiting Marty, Tim Freeman has picked someone fully capable of sustaining the exemplary tradition of industry service established by Vicki Keenan, Marty’s predecessor in the role. The fact that he’ll be representing the association from a home base in Brooklyn means that at long last, NYC-metro printers will have a resident spokesperson and a problem-solver for the five boroughs in their midst once more. Here’s wishing Marty all the best, and here’s a salute to Printing Industries Alliance for a brilliant choice on behalf of its members everywhere.

—Pat Henry

 

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Joel Quadracci of Quad / Graphics Keynotes at PRIMEX East Conference in New York City

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PH & JOEL QUADRACCI @ PRIMEX EAST.081314 Joel Quadracci (right) is interviewed by Patrick Henry at PRIMEX East.

On June 19, 2014, I had the privilege of interviewing Joel Quadracci, chairman, president, and CEO of Quad / Graphics Inc., in his keynote presentation at PRIMEX East, a leadership conference in New York City sponsored by IDEAlliance, Quad, and other industry partners. Answering my questions on behalf of WhatTheyThink, and fielding numerous additional questions from the audience, Quadracci covered a wide range of subjects relating to the state of the industry and Quad’s role in it. IDEAlliance has now posted the video recording of the nearly hour-long interview along with recordings of most of the other PRIMEX East sessions. These include remarks on the outlook for the U.S. Postal Service by its Postmaster General, Patrick R. Donahoe; and a report on the continuing turmoil in the periodical distribution industry by a leading authority in the field, John Harrington of Harrington Associates.

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Canon Hosts Printing Industries Alliance in First Tour of Its New Corporate Headquarters on LI

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pialliance_visits_canon.031314.1 When Canon U.S.A. Inc. opened its new corporate headquarters in Melville, NY, last year, it invited printers to use the facility’s elaborate showroom and demo center as a learning resource. On March 13, the Long Island division of Printing Industries Alliance (PIAlliance) became the first industry group to take Canon up on its offer by bringing more than 40 members to the site for a guided tour.

The 12,000-square-foot showroom is the centerpiece of a 700,000-square foot-building designed to promote Canon’s corporate philosophies as well as its technologies and products. Canon executives briefed the visitors on the layout and construction of the building, emphasizing the great lengths to which Canon has gone in order to make it sustainable and environmentally friendly. Product briefings followed, including overviews of some of Canon’s most advanced systems for production digital printing.

“Kyosei” is a Japanese word for the idea of living and working harmoniously—a concept that Canon says it strives to honor both as a profit-making business and as a responsible member of the communities where it operates. Environmental responsibility at all stages of the life cycle is paramount, and the headquarters building, the visitors were told, has been engineered to be as environmentally friendly 100 years from now as it is today.

Among the steps taken toward that goal was laying out the building in a way that permits 75% of it to receive natural light—an architectural strategy that cuts consumption of electricity. The structure has no indoor thermostats, relying instead on external sensors that modify the interior climate according to changes in temperature outside. Benches on the property’s park-like, 52-acre campus—formerly a pumpkin patch off Route 110—are made of recycled toner cartridges.

pialliance_visits_canon.031314.2Dennis Amorosano, vice president of the marketing division of Canon’s business information and imaging solutions group, gave the visitors a corporate overview of a $35.5 billion supplier of consumer, B2B, and industrial imaging technologies that employs more than 194,000 people worldwide. Amorosano said that Canon invested a sum equal to more than 8% percent of last year’s net sales in R&D and received 3,825 U.S. patents, making it the third-largest holder of U.S. patents in 2013.

The company had $2.2 billion in net income last year. 2013 also saw the completion of Canon’s integration of Océ, a digital print systems manufacturer it acquired in 2009. Frances Cicogna, commercial print segment manager, said that the Canon-Océ combination represents the industry’s broadest portfolio of solutions for cut-sheet and continuous production printing in color and black and white. In 2012, she said, Canon and Océ equipment produced 68 billion digital pages—about 20% of all digital pages output in the U.S.

Although the tour of the showroom focused mostly on production systems and workflow, it also familiarized the PIAlliance visitors with Canon’s extensive lines of consumer cameras and personal imaging products. The exhibit space—equal parts library, museum, and machine demo room—features numerous hands-on product stations and interactive displays that trace Canon’s history from its founding in the 1930s.

The showroom also houses examples of Canon technologies that are not well known to the general public, such as devices for medical exams and a “mixed reality” imaging system that can inject computer-generated graphics into real-time views of the physical world.

The Canon visit was one of a number of activities scheduled this year by PIAlliance’s Long Island chapter, which is chaired by Richard Schielke. Upcoming are a golf outing, a fishing trip, and a town hall-style meeting for members in May.

Printing Industries Alliance is a regional affiliate of Printing Industries of America (PIA), the national trade association for the graphic communications industry. Printing Industries Alliance represents graphics firms in New York State, northern New Jersey and northwestern Pennsylvania.

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