Rider Dickerson — Roommate Wanted

Barta joined the fold in 1988, after working as a certified public accountant (Rider Dickerson was one of his accounts). In 2003, Barta, by then a minority owner, purchased full control of the company from the Madden family, which had a stake in Rider Dickerson for nearly 70 years. Though Barta now calls all the shots, he uses the same philosophy employed by the Madden family: Let the customer base drive your technological focus.

Rider Dickerson provides sheetfed offset and digital printing to produce items such as sales and marketing materials, brochures, annual reports, point-of-purchase materials and stationery for verticals including unions, advertising agencies, education, graphic designers and corporate accounts.

Technically, the digital end is on hold; when Rider Dickerson sidled up next to Sleepeck, the decision was made not to transport its digital press, which was older technology. But Barta is currently huddling with his team to decide upon a course of action to get the company back on the digital horse.

Online Ordering Growth

One area of growth has been Rider Dickerson’s online ordering system, which has helped grow its stationery line. Customers can customize their letterhead, business cards, envelopes, etc., see a proof onscreen and then place their order.

“The Website has two functionalities. One is variable data, like the stationery, where we set up a template for the client,” he explains. “We also print and inventory for a lot of clients—store materials and drop ship or fulfill for them.

“Our online system serves as a tracking system, where customers can go into a password-protected portal, view the items we’re storing for them, and see the quantities on hand for those items. They place an order, receive a confirmation number, we fulfill the number, and the quantity is automatically deducted. We set up reorder points, so if the quantity of an item falls below a certain level, customers will get an e-mail notification alerting them that they may want to reprint. That takes a lot of stress off our clients.”