Standard Register to Cut 500 Jobs
Dayton, Ohio-based manufacturer Standard Register will eliminate 500 positions and consolidate some operations after it reported a first-quarter earnings loss. While some reductions will come from attrition, the company said the remainder will result from plant closings in Illinois, Texas, Oklahoma and Missouri.
Standard Register said 70 jobs, mostly administrative positions, already have been pared from its Dayton headquarters. The company is cutting 235 jobs by closing its rotary printing plant in Kirksville, Mo. The remaining 195 positions will be lost when the firm consolidates four other plants and warehouses into one "supercenter" in Dallas that will handle fulfillment and print-on-demand services. The four plants--two in Dallas and one each in Oklahoma City and Spring Grove, Ill.--will close soon and bring the company's total employment to approximately 5,100 people.
Three Manufacturers Join UnigraphicsUSA
UnigraphicsUSA announced that Englewood, N.J.-based New Jersey Business Forms, LaGrange, Ga.-based Woodbury Business Forms Inc. and Vandalia, Ohio-based Printgraphics joined its strategic alliance of leading forms manufacturers.
Other members of UnigraphicsUSA are Wright Business Graphics, Portland, Ore.; B&D Litho, Phoenix; Skyline Business Forms & Commercial Printing, Denver; The Flesh Company, St. Louis; Superior Business Associates, Greeneville, Tenn.; and Specialized Printed Forms Inc., Caledonia, N.Y. Total annual revenues for the group exceed $165 million, and the alliance includes 15 plants nationwide.
UnigraphicsUSA's purpose is to allow members to better serve the growing independent distribution channel with nationwide coverage. Members retain their company names and continue to be owned and operated by their current managements. As UnigraphicsUSA grows, it intends to include only privately owned companies whose size, reputation, market area and financial strength will enhance the alliance. Members must market to the independent channel with documents, labels and/or commercial printing as their primary offerings.
Print Buyers Turning to Reverse Auctions
Pressured to reduce expenses, many print buyers are turning to reverse auctions and insisting that their print providers participate, according to the E-Business Council, a program of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation and Printing Industries of America, Alexandria, Va. Unlike traditional auctions, prices start high in reverse auctions and become lower via real-time internet bidding.
"If you have any customers within the Fortune 2,000 or you do work for local or regional offices of a large company, chances are one in four that your customers will be using reverse auctions in 2003," said J.K. Stoddard, an associate at Glen Ellyn Ill.-based Raine Consulting and the study's author. "By 2005, even large, local customers will consider it," he said.
Study Predicts Slow Growth Rate for Paper
The annual growth rate for paper will be less than 1 percent by 2021, according to "The Future of Paper," a study by Norwell, Mass.-based consulting firm CAP Ventures Inc. "Twenty years from now, millions of people will still receive daily newspapers on their front steps, read printed books and magazines, browse catalogs, receive bills in the mail, and print reports," said Jeff Hayes, a director at CAP Ventures. "However, the reality is the market for printing and writing paper is mature and growth rates are slowing."
The principal reason for the slowdown is behavioral changes driven by technological advances, the study said. Paper manufacturers and printing equipment vendors face important decisions about their core businesses and should consider product diversification, it said.
Moore Has Profitable First Quarter
Mississauga, Ontario-based manufacturer Moore Corporation Ltd. said its first-quarter profit more than doubled despite a slight decline in sales, as costs were lower because of prior restructuring activities. The company, which operates mainly from Stamford, Conn., reported net earnings of $29.2 million, or 26 cents a share, for the quarter ended March 31. During the same quarter last year, its net earnings were $12.5 million, or 11 cents a share.
Weyerhaeuser to Reduce Production
Federal Way, Wash.-based paper supplier Weyerhaeuser Co., the country's third-largest maker of paper and building products, said it would reduce production and work shifts at four of its mills because of poor market conditions. The company said it would begin downtime at three softwood lumber sawmills in Canada and one in western Washington, resulting in the loss of 60 million to 70 million board feet of production.
In 2001, Weyerhaeuser completed a $5.4 billion takeover of smaller rival Willamette Industries Inc., based in Portland, Ore.
