Quick Print Giants
Many small commercial printing firms report solid sales as they try out new business models.
By Lisa Cross Senior Editor -- Graphic Arts Online, August 1, 2007
The small commercial and quick printing market is a hotbed for innovation and action. These firms are no longer simply “printshops with a cash register” serving a mostly walk-in clientele, but operations with solid client bases and savvy business and technology strategies.
Owners of firms, whose employee counts per location typically number below 20 (many large firms have multiple locations), tend to be entrepreneurs and fast to respond to change. Many were the first to add online ordering systems to drive print workflows.
Quick printers were also among the first to respond and form a coalition to take on software giant Adobe when it announced that its latest release of Acrobat and Reader would feature an option linking users directly to FedEx Kinko’s Print Online service. Adobe has agreed to issue another version of the software without the link.
These firm’s technology investments beyond copiers and duplicators—CTP and highly automated small format sheetfeds-—make it difficult to identify the difference between quick and commercial printers. At the same time, trends in the commercial market to short-run, fast- turnaround work on both offset and digital presses also blur definitions. The deciding factor is printing companies themselves, in how they choose to be defined.
Graphic Arts Monthly surveyed quick print firms to identify some of the top players by sales volume. These 40 printers reported strong sales growth; more than half posted double-digit growth, while six reported declines. (See the extended list at graphicartsonline.com.)
—Tim Avery and Rachael Young contributed to this report.
| Rank | Company, Headquarters, CEO | Current Sales ($000) | Prior Sales ($000) | %Change | Employees | Sales/ Employee | Locations |
| 1 | Vision Integrated Graphics, Chicago, IL, Douglas Powell | 29,800 | 26,000 | 15% | 180 | 165,556 | 2 |
| 2 | Ginny’s Printing, Austin, TX, Michael Martin | 26,200 | 19,950 | 31% | 225 | 116,444 | 2 |
| 3 | Coakley Tech, Milwaukee, WI, Chris Illman | 19,000 | 14,900 | 28% | 205 | 92,683 | 4 |
| 4 | EconoPrint, Verona, WI, David Roloff | 14,880 | 14,521 | 2% | 104 | 143,077 | 6 |
| 5 | ZipMail Marketing, West Sacramento, CA, Ron Weber | 12,000 | 3,000 | 300% | 56 | 214,296 | 1 |
| 6 | Western Graphics, St. Paul, MN, Timothy Keran | 11,810 | 11,053 | 7% | 77 | 153,377 | 1 |
| 7 | Indexx, Inc., Greenville, SC, Jordan Finn | 11,500 | 9,500 | 21% | 85 | 135,294 | 1 |
| 8 | Landmark Print, Stamford, CT, Carmine Iannacchino | 11,100 | 9,500 | 17% | 76 | 146,053 | 1 |
| 9 | AccuCopy, Greenville, NC, Tom O’Brien | 10,850 | 10,600 | 2% | 80 | 135,623 | 3 |
| 10 | AlphaGraphics, Seattle, WA, Chuck Stempler | 8,742 | 5,431 | 61% | 75 | 116,560 | 3 |
| 11 | PIP Printing (Dynamark Graphics), Indianapolis, IN, Tom and Scott Fulner | 8,680 | 8,500 | 2% | 66 | 131,515 | 5 |
| 12 | Print Tech, Mountainside, NJ, Russell Evans | 7,900 | 7,500 | 5% | 55 | 143,636 | 3 |
| 13 | Raintree Graphics, Jacksonville, FL, Mike Seethaler | 7,000 | 6,400 | 9% | 52 | 134,615 | 1 |
| 14 | MLI Integrated Graphic Solutions, Tampa, FL, Martin Saavedra | 6,200 | 5,700 | 9% | 55 | 112,727 | 2 |
| 15 | AlphaGraphics#4 (MKS Graphics), Tempe, AZ, Mike Sparaco, Darin Osborne | 6,122 | 5,017 | 22% | 40 | 153,050 | 1 |
| 16 | Brandon’s Printing, Norcross, GA, Jay Byars | 6,106 | 6,755 | -10% | 65 | 93,938 | 1 |
| 17 | Ditto Document Solutions, Pittsburgh, PA, Ken Shriber | 5,750 | 4,800 | 20% | 68 | 84,559 | 1 |
| 18 | Main Graphics, Irving, CA, George Haggarty, Rick Blomquist | 5,400 | 5,500 | -2% | 30 | 180,000 | 1 |
| 19 | Print Tech of W. PA, Pittsburgh, PA, Bob Weingard | 5,208 | 4,158 | 25% | 41 | 127,024 | 2 |
| 20 | Spectrum Printing & Graphics, Rockville, MD, Andrew Berman | 5,200 | 5,581 | -7% | 42 | 128,810 | 1 |
| 21 | Curry Printing, Westborough, MA, Thomas Gardner | 4,815 | 5,118 | -6% | 35 | 146,229 | 3 |
| 22 | Intergraphx, Charlotte, NC, Scott Nonokunski | 4,800 | 3,800 | 26% | 36 | 133,333 | 1 |
| 23 | Colt Print Services, Inc., Boulder, CO, Jim Colt | 4,200 | 3,200 | 31% | 29 | 144,828 | 1 |
| 24 | Allegra Print, Windsor, ON, George Kummer, Joe Haddad and Joe D’Agranno* | 4,128 | 4,068 | 1% | 27 | 152,889 | 2 |
| 25 | Allegra Print & Imaging, Louisville, KY, Gary Owen | 4,002 | 3,223 | 24% | 30 | 133,400 | 2 |
| 26 | Alphagraphics #14, 37 and 39, Scottsdale, AZ, Cash Bestor | 3,842 | 3,779 | 2% | 30 | 128,067 | 3 |
| 27 | Moran Graphics (AlphaGraphics), Chicago, IL, Richard Moran | 3,835 | 2,865 | 34% | 40 | 95,875 | 4 |
| 28 | Signature Graphics, Chantilly, VA, F. Scott Watkins | 3,775 | 3,950 | -4% | 39 | 125,833 | 1 |
| 29 | AlphaGraphics, Hartford, CT, Robert Dunbar | 3,766 | 3,588 | 5% | 27 | 139,481 | 1 |
| 30 | Accu-Print, San Antonio, TX, Chuck Ellis | 3,720 | 3,260 | 14% | 32 | 116,250 | 1 |
| 31 | A Dog Solutions (AlphaGraphics), Austin, TX, Jane Harvey | 3,600 | 2,600 | 38% | 30 | 120,000 | 3 |
| 32 | ProPrint, N. Kansas City, MO, Gene Hayes | 3,550 | 2,800 | 27% | 22 | 161,364 | 1 |
| 33 | AlphaGraphics #376, Carrollton, TX, Jim Hewell | 3,479 | 3,198 | 9% | 24 | 144,958 | 1 |
| 34 | AlphaGraphics #011, Phoenix, AZ, Larry Furlong | 3,341 | 2,184 | 53% | 26 | 128,500 | 1 |
| 35 | Impressions Printing, Oklahoma City, OK, John Braaten | 3,339 | 2,770 | 21% | 28 | 119,250 | 1 |
| 36 | Print Central, Inc., Fort Worth, TX, Dennis Denson | 3,262 | 3,534 | -8% | 15 | 217,476 | 1 |
| 37 | Salem Printing & Blueprint, Salem, OR, Brenton Field | 3,213 | 2,901 | 11% | 25 | 128,520 | 3 |
| 38 | FotoPrint LTD., Victoria, BC, Derek Allan* | 3,196 | 3,102 | 3% | 26 | 122,923 | 1 |
| 39 | Allegra Print & Imaging, Indianapolis, IN, John Long | 3,072 | 2,740 | 12% | 17 | 180,706 | 1 |
| 40 | MegaPrint, San Carlos, CA, Lee Browner | 3,024 | 2,944 | 3% | 16 | 189,000 | 1 |
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