Rider Dickerson — Roommate Wanted

That wasn’t the case. Rider Dickerson moved in alongside large-format sheetfed specialist Sleepeck—another printer with more than 100 years under its belt—in March with a legal agreement to share certain costs. There wasn’t a merger agreement, definitive or otherwise, to be found. Yet the companies now leverage their complementary product and service capabilities. Rider Dickerson can enjoy providing Sleepeck’s in-store/show floor standees or book components to its customer base, while Sleepeck can go deeper with its own clients by offering them brochures, catalogs and direct mail printing.

“We looked at combining the companies but, for a variety of reasons, we decided not to do so at this point,” Barta says. “Basically, we decided to just be roommates for a while. It’s worked out far beyond my expectations. We’re able to share occupancy costs, so we’re able to drive some costs out of the equation. The building is much larger than what we had before, so it will also allow us to expand.”

With $10 million-plus in annual sales volume, Rider Dickerson has certainly expanded its equipment base with the recent installation of a six-color Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 105 press with coater (erroneously cited as a four-color machine in the March Upfront section of this magazine). With client turnaround time requirements becoming more and more compressed, the printer sought out a press that could help remove time from the production equation. Also helping address the need for fast turn times was Rider Dickerson’s acquisition of Kodak InSite and Matchprint Virtual Proofing (MVP) systems.

“The speed and efficiencies of the XL 105 are unmatched with other 40˝ equipment in the marketplace,” Barta says. “We’re able to get jobs on-press and completed much faster. That’s a huge plus for us.

Onscreen Proofing

“The Virtual Matchprint, for many of our clients, speeds up the process where they can view calibrated proofs onscreen,” he adds. “It eliminates the need to send them hard-copy proofs. We don’t have to overnight proofs or wait for them to be forwarded on to other people for their approval, and then wait for them to get back to us. We’ve taken a lot of time out of the proofing stage without sacrificing quality. That makes it easier to do business with us.”