Quick Printing

NOV 2014

Quick Printing is the only business resource serving the quick and small commercial printing niche in North America. Quick Printing is the authoritative source for business information, emerging technologies, shop profiles and management insight.

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18 Q U I C K P R I N T I N G / N o v e m b e r 2 0 1 4 w w w. M y P R I N T R e s o u r c e . c o m At the same time, the print firm faces challenges in the year ahead in the form of fewer ready acquisition targets and increased costs, most notably those related to health care. Gilson positions itself as a one-stop shop, offering a wide variety of services including large-format, mailing, sheet- fed offset, short-run digital, specialized composition, programming, web devel- opment and websites, kit packing, and fulfillment. Clients include medium to large cor- porations "because they need and pur- chase our services on a regular basis," said president Dave Gilson. Among its largest are American Seating, Wolverine Shoes, and Wonderland Graphics. In all, the company recorded sales last SHEETFED PRINT CAPABILITIES Expand with Inkjet Technology from Fujifilm G ilson Graphics, Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI, continues to expand its business and post strong numbers thanks to its diverse menu of services, high-quality print work, and increased focus on marketing. By Howard Riell A blend of sheetfed offset and inkjet production keep this Michigan print firm growing, but mounting health-care costs have its owner concerned as 2015 looms. SHEETFED PRINT CAPABILITIES Expand with Inkjet Technology from Fujifilm year of approximately $23 million, and business in the early summer months was brisk, up about five percent. As so many printers have found, the market is in transition. Nearly 40 per- cent of Gilson's work is offset printing; a decade ago, it was closer to 90 percent, according to Gilson. "Offset," he noted flatly, "is not growing." The staff includes 19 sales people, "each of whom sells some but not all of our services," Gilson explained. "Most of our clients buy several of our services; few, if any, buy all of them." In marketing to potential clients, Gilson and his staff "can appeal to a larger audience through offering more services, and offer solu- tions to areas where they may be having issues. We also can then grow our busi- ness through offering more services to existing clients." Expansion through acquisition has proven a successful strategy for Gil- son. Over the years, the company has acquired eight different local companies, each valued at between $1 million and $2 million. As a result, its employee ranks have swelled from 45 to 165. Cross- training his staff, Gilson explained, "has allowed us to be flexible when one por- tion of the business happens to busy yet another may be slow." The company operates out of three locations: two in Grand Rapids (one a 165,000-sqft facility, the other a 30,000- sqft plant for traditional offset and bind- ery) and a 5,000-sqft composition facility in Atlantic, IA. Enter Inkjet Formerly known as Gilson Press—the original letterpress shop was founded by Gilson's father in 1948—the firm's Rapid Print Group houses three 40-inch sheet- fed (offset) presses and a full bindery. Over the course of the last three years, Gilson and his management team have concentrated on inkjet, both sheet- and web-fed, and the installation of a new MIS system. The firm added the Fujifilm J Press two-and-a-half years ago and is cur- rently running two and a half shifts on it. Inspecting the J Press 720 output are (from left) consultant Elizabeth Gooding; Terry Mitchell, Fujifilm VP of marketing; and Marco Boer of IT Strategies.

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