North Carolina printer continues to expand
and increase sales. By Howard Riell
D
avid Pitts likes to joke that the reason he
won the National Association for Printing Leadership's (NAPL's) 53rd Walter
E. Soderstrom Award recipient this year
was "lowered standards." But no one
has ever mistaken Pitts for an underachiever.
a member of a peer group called Print America. I've always been
very open to a lot of exchange of ideas with other smart printers. And I've benefitted from that—I've gotten more back than I
have put out there."
Breaking Out
Perhaps, but he must have received something: 2013 has thus
far been what he terms a "breakout year" for Classic. Thanks to
growth from existing accounts and having picked up a new and
sizeable client, which Pitts prefers not to name, the bottom line
this year is expected to grow by $17 million, to $75 million. He
notes simply, "It's a pretty good year."
Indeed, this has been a year of expansion for Classic, in a
physical sense as well. The company merged with Belk Printing
in January of 2011. "Our primary space at the beginning of the
year was 180,000-square-feet," Pitts recounts. That company has
added 58,000 square-feet for services such as material handling
Pitts, co-founded Charlotte, NC-based Classic Graphics with
business partner Bill Gardner in 1983, and under their leadership
the company has grown from $65,000 to more than $75 million
in annual sales. In the top two percent in the industry, Classic,
an employee-owned company, has grown to 300 employees—a
64 percent increase in just three years. The firm has also been
honored as an NAPL Management Plus Hall of Fame company.
Pitts is also a former member of NAPL's board of directors.
So what was the real reason? The association cites Pitts' willingness to share his knowledge with fellow printers. As he himself admits, "We have participated with PIA and NAPL and I am
Bill Gardner and David Pitts, co-founders of Classic Graphics,
are celebrating their company's 30th anniversary this year.
Classic's lobby reflects the company's progressive attitude.
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QUICK PRINTING / October 2013
and kitting. "We do a lot of complex kitting for
these big customers. It takes up a lot of room and
uses lots of people, and lots of conveyors, and lots
of hands putting stuff in boxes. Because of the rapid growth, we basically ran out of space to handle
all of the materials. We need more space for when
we get one large order in or, even better, two large
orders at one time. It's a lot more efficient now."
Efficiency has always been a core concept at Clas-
w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m