Print
Solutions June 2006
Cover
Story
TOP100distributors
Opening
the World of Printing in 3-D
PrintManagement
helps customers by being a distributor,
manufacturer and offering fulfillment
In Brief
A
distributorship ranked #62 on
the Top 100 list with $7.6 million
in sales during FY 2005 says its
ability to be a 3-dimensional
company has helped it increase
sales by 19.5 percent. The company
also does manufacturing, fulfillment
and mailing and is currently in
the process of rebranding.
Company:
PrintManagement #62
Headquarters:
Cincinnati
Founded:
1999
Principal:
Joe Desch, president
Employees:
42
Sales
increase from FY 2004-05:
19.5%
Some
companies distinguish themselves
with amazing feats of production
and logistics with the help of
supplier partners. Such is the
case with PrintManagement, Cincinnati.
The company completed a large
print job last December for Financial,
Administrative, and Credit Services
(FACS) Group, a division that
handles the credit card production
and processing for retail conglomerate
Federated Department Stores Inc.
For company President Joe Desch,
the project served as an example
of how PrintManagement offers
a lot more than a typical distributorship.
“If
you do just printing you’re
a one-dimensional company,”
Desch says. “We’ve
added production capability with
nine in-house designers. For some
of our costumers we even serve
as an advertising agency, which
is our second dimension. We also
do kitting and mailing ourselves,
which adds a third dimension.
I think we’re a 3-dimensional
company.”
 |
“If
you just do printing,
you’re a one-dimensional
company.”
Joe
Desch, president
PrintManagement
Cincinnati
|
Desch
says the $270,000 binding, printing
and fulfillment project for Federated
Department Stores was completed
in less than two weeks. “The
job was to put together all new,
personalized training binders
for all executives and store managers
with the Federated Department
Stores and May Department Stores
Company merger that took place
last year,” Desch says.
“We ran the job on our iGEN,
put all the binders together and
shipped them to hundreds of locations
on time and under budget. We did
it as a single source, though
they had originally approached
us only about the printing. Ultimately
the sales rep took care of the
data manipulation, binder printing
and personalizing, fulfillment
and shipping. Federated was trying
to find all the vendors who could
do this in a two-week period and
gave the job to us because procuring
and managing all of the components
in-house would have taken too
long.”
Desch
admits that PrintManagement was
not created with the intention
of being a one-stop shop for customers.
“We started seven years
ago as a pure distributor,”
Desch says. Since then the firm
has purchased the Xerox iGEN3
and a few Docutech 6180s. Currently
there are six presses and several
finishers. “But we’re
probably still about 60 percent
distributorship,” he says.
Most
of PrintManagement’s equipment
is for producing variable data
printing and direct mail programs.
“We took over the outsourcing
of a banking company that required
a significant investment in digital
equipment,” he says. “That
contract started about three years
ago, so two years ago we were
heavy in VDP. Within the last
year though, we’ve leaned
more heavily toward direct mail.”
But
even with its new technological
capability, Desch says the company’s
19.5 percent sales growth in 2005
was really “due to adding
mailing and fulfillment to our
plant and hiring a dedicated relationship
management specialist to pursue
this business.” Desch says
the staff member who was brought
on 10 months ago to help with
the Federated Department Store
job has a background in direct
mail. It’s her objective
to work with companies to help
them develop direct mail programs.
“So many of our marketing
customers need personalization
to drive their marketing and sales
goals. It helps to have data,
mail and fulfillment under one
roof,” he says.
—LaShell
Stratton
