Larry Bradley, CDC, loves telling friends he worked his way through Florida Bible College as a stripper. He loves their reactions even more.
"I started so low in this business that I got promoted to making deliveries," says Bradley, president of PrintGrafix, a 5-year-old distributorship in Fayetteville, Ga. "I was in college and needed a job. I got a job at a printing company taking out the trash and cleaning the print shop." Within a few months, Bradley was promoted and began wrapping packages and making deliveries and later running the company's printing presses. Later, he took a position in a magazine publisher's film-stripping department.
But a career in the printing industry initially wasn't one of Bradley's goals. After serving seven years as an associate minister, he realized a ministry career wasn't what he was supposed to do with his life. Calling on his printing experience, he re-entered the printing industry and served as a sales representative for a small commercial printer. "I suppose printing got in my blood," he says.
In 1997, Bradley started PrintGrafix after leaving an Atlanta-based office products company he served for 15 years as a business forms sales rep. He used his extensive printing experience to grow his distributorship's product mix. Today, PrintGrafix offers commercial printing, traditional business forms, promotional products, labels, office products, direct mail, security documents and janitorial products. The distributorship also provides direct mail processing, warehousing, inventory management, e-procurement, and graphic design and web site design services.
PrintGrafix' most valuable service offerings are its flexibility and problem-solving skills, Bradley says. "We can give our customers accurate answers whether they're asking about business forms or toilet tissue," he says. "We listen to our customers' problems, then solve them."
Testing the Firm's Endurance
PrintGrafix places high priority on honesty, integrity and dependability. "We're a Christian-based company," Bradley says. "We don't wear it on our shirt sleeves or use it as our sales pitch, but we treat our customers as if we're as concerned about their business as we are about ours."
"Adding value turns us into partners instead of vendors," Bradley says. He views PrintGrafix, its manufacturing partners and its clients as members of a team working toward common goals. PrintGrafix shows its appreciation for its client partners by constantly adding to its product mix. "If a client walked in the door today and asked for something we didn't sell, we'd add that to the list," Bradley says.
Approximately four months ago, PrintGrafix began offering office products. "The office products world is run by the megastores," Bradley says. "Instead of offering just another place to buy office products, we wanted to offer customers a better way to manage the purchasing of those products." Customers can log on to the distributorship's web site and submit orders for thousands of office products from Des Plaines, Ill.-based United Stationers Inc., including purchase orders, file folders, mailing labels, audio/visual equipment, ink jet printer cartridges, office furniture and toilet paper. Clients also can set up purchase authorization controls to monitor transactions companywide. For example, when a customer places an order, an email instantly is sent to his or her purchase authorizer, who authorizes the order or makes changes. Orders to U.S. locations are shipped for next-day delivery, and ones that cost more than $50 (excluding furniture and machines) are shipped free. The site also links to Biggestbook.com, an office products information resource.
In 1998, PrintGrafix began offering direct mail processing services. "We found that the mail processing houses didn't want to process small jobs of 1,000 or 2,000 pieces," Bradley says. The distributorship purchased Bulk Mailer Plus mail sorting software and soon began taking on jobs such as a newsletter mailing to 1,200 country club members. The software allows the distributorship to presort first-class, periodical and standard mail; eliminate duplicate addresses, and print bar coded address labels. "Customers don't have to go to a designer, then a printer, then a mailer," Bradley says. "We can handle all three parts for them."
Clients have responded to PrintGrafix' flexibility with loyalty. More than 80 percent of PrintGrafix' customers have been clients since the distributorship opened.
Showing Some Muscle
G3 Racing, an auto racing team in Stockbridge, Ga., recently called PrintGrafix after experiencing problems with its auto decal provider. The team consists of four drivers and 13 vehicles, including one Thunder Roadster open-cockpit racecar, five 5Ž8-scale fiberglass Legends vehicles (replicas of 1930s and 1940s vintage roadster coupes and sedans capable of reaching speeds of more than 100 mph), and four 30-horsepower-engine Bandolero racecars (larger than go-carts but smaller than full-sized racecars and designed for drivers as young as 8 years old).
Once or twice weekly during the summer and monthly during the off-season, the race team competes in 1Ž4 or 3Ž8-mile races produced by Harrisburg, N.C.-based 600 Racing Inc., launched in 1992 to provide fun and affordable family-oriented racing opportunities. Races are held on oval tracks such as Lowe's Motor Speedway, Concord, N.C., and Atlanta Motor Speedway. Like other racecars, Bandolero, Thunder Roadster and Legends cars are covered with decals ranging in size from 4 x 6 inches to 3 x 4 feet, promoting the drivers and sponsors. Drivers also apply decals to their helmets, trailers, personal vehicles and "basically anything that moves and is visible from the stands," Bradley says. Cars often include 10 large decals and several small decals.
"In the racing business, there are guys who work out of the backs of vans supplying decals to go on the cars," Bradley says. If one of the racing team's cars is involved in an accident, it may need to replace the car's decals within a few days. Previously, the racing team often had problems locating its decal supplier. "He could be at Talladega (Superspeedway near Birmingham, Ala.) one week because he follows the racers," Bradley says. "The client had a problem and thought of us."
After obtaining logos from the racing team's sponsors, PrintGrafix' graphic design department used its Macintosh computers to design approximately 12 different 4-color decals. Constructed of a durable 3M vinyl material, the decals are imprinted on a GERBER EDGE® thermal-transfer digital printer that permanently fuses the high-resolution images onto the vinyl. The vinyl then is loaded into a Gerber cutting plotter that intricately cuts each decal. PrintGrafix provides approximately 20 decals monthly with 24-hour turnaround. "They know they can call us on Tuesday and have the decals on Thursday," Bradley says. The distributorship designs new logos when the racing team acquires new drivers or sponsors. PrintGrafix also designed the client's racing logo.
Kara S. Carpenter is assistant managing editor of Print
Solutions. Email her your comments at kcarpenter@PSDA.org.
Name: PrintGrafix
Founded: 1997
Location: Fayetteville, Ga.
Principal: Larry Bradley, CDC, president
Employees: 11
Business in Brief: PrintGrafix offers commercial printing, traditional business forms, promotional products, labels, office products, direct mail and security documents. The distributorship also provides direct mail processing, warehousing, inventory management, e-procurement, and graphic design and web site design services. It targets small- to medium-sized, locally owned companies. This month, it consolidated its two locations and moved into a newly constructed 6,500-square-foot facility that includes a 5,000-square-foot warehouse.
Quirk: "Humor is a big part of our business," Bradley says. When customers calling PrintGrafix are placed on hold, they hear routines from GRAMMY® Award-winning comedian Jeff Foxworthy instead of music. "I've had customers actually tell me, 'Put me back on hold,'" Bradley says. "And they mean it."
