Industry Insiders Share Strategies for Thriving Amid a Shifting Market

In 2023, Printing Impressions explored print market trends in key segments within the commercial printing sector. Here, five industry professionals update us on the state of the industry from the standpoint of their business operating within a particular key segment. They share market changes, barriers to success, and key strategies. Although the individuals share their own personal experiences within their particular verticals, some themes ring true regardless of segment.

Some print service providers (PSPs) are seeing shorter runs with more frequent repeat orders, necessitating an increase in digital work; in some cases, there’s been a decrease in the effectiveness of email solidifying the power of print; a few have seen a heightened demand for online storefronts; and for many, there has been a continued move toward expansion into new markets and verticals.

Market: Books
Company: Maple Press based in York, Pennsylvania
Person: Andrew J. Van Sprang, vice president of sales and marketing

For York, Pennsylvania-based book manufacturer Maple Press, things are looking more along the lines of the way they were headed pre-pandemic, versus the anomaly of the past two years. One big change Andrew J. Van Sprang, vice president of sales and marketing, is now seeing is a reduction in the quantity of front list titles from publishers, which were very high during the days of COVID-19. Along with a general reduction in book quantities, he explains that publishers are going back to the need for shorter, more frequent runs, driving the use of digital printing technology.

“Reprints have been very strong,” he says. “During the pandemic, they were crazy. … Publishers sold from inventory [because] they had overprinted. They’ve made their way through the inventory and we’re starting to see now through the first quarter that we’re getting those reprints again with regularity.”

Van Sprang points to an increase in open capacity, something publishers are taking advantage of now that supply chain issues for key materials have eased. A reduction in job quantities with an increase in reprints means there isn’t carryover inventory for the customers, while the availability of materials means Maple Press can operate a more just-in-time printing model to meet customer needs.

One trend Van Sprang refers to that has been a barrier to success is the continued consolidation of publishers, making it more difficult for smaller book manufacturers to work with some of the larger publishers. It has given Maple Press an opportunity to “reinvent” itself when the “big guys” were taking a lot of the work.

“We’ve outlasted a lot of our competition as an independent printer,” he says. “We’re one of the few non-conglomerate types of printers out there, which has put us in a good position. … Being able to withstand and get to this point was not an easy task — trying to reinvent ourselves and go after different types of work when we needed to keep jobs coming in.”

This shift has led Maple Press to look at its digital printing technology as the face of its future. The company operates short-run digital, sheetfed and web offset equipment, including Canon varioPRINT 6330 TITAN digital presses, an HP PageWide T260 mono inkjet web press equipped with a Magnum Flexbook delivery system and a Konica Minolta AccurioJet KM-1e cut-sheet inkjet press. The shorter runs and increased reprints will drive that decision.

“We look at our inkjet as an eventual replacement for the sheetfed offset side of the business,” he says.

Market: Direct Mail
Company: Neyenesch Printers based in San Diego, California
Person: Natalie Neyenesch, vice president of operations

Direct mail is in a good place, according to Natalie Neyenesch, vice president of operations at San Diego, California-based Neyenesch Printers. Neyenesch explains that while the company’s general commercial quantities have gone down, its direct mail segment is growing — and one cause of that is the overuse of email marketing.

“Direct mail is going to continue to rise and be a highly utilized tool in the marketing space,” she says. “[Everybody’s] email inboxes are so overpopulated with so much marketing information. … If you receive a couple of printed direct mail pieces in your mailbox, you’re more inclined to spend the time to look at them, especially if it’s in a unique format, has a cool technique, or an embellishment. Standing out in the mail is critical.”

Some of the biggest trends Neyenesch is seeing in direct mail right now are colored envelopes and envelopes outside the standard #10 size. She says customers have been asking for unique size options so the recipient notices the mail and doesn’t just “toss it.”

“We’ve gone out of the box and custom converted envelopes to make them into different sizes and have them stand out, whether that be with spot UV or some kind of tactile embellishment,” she notes.

Neyenesch explains another way to make mail a little more personal. “I encourage customers to use stamps instead of just an indicia on a lot of direct mail campaigns because it does stand out in the mail and the recipient is more inclined to open it,” she says.

When it comes to the ever-rising costs of postage, Neyenesch doesn’t see that as a limiting factor for most customers. She believes most understand there are regular postage increases. It’s the customers that are trying to break into the direct mail space that might see an issue with the increases.

“When they hear that the postage increases a couple times a year, it’s not the easiest way to sell to them,” she says. “Whereas with email marketing, there are no increases when it comes to yearly budgets.”

In terms of technology, Neyenesch expresses similar thoughts to those expressed by Van Sprang of Maple Press. Since general commercial run lengths continue to shrink, more jobs are moving to digital printing. Additionally, customers are moving more toward reprints, rather than inventorying products.

“Companies are doing more renditions,” she says. “Maybe in the past they would have printed 1,000 copies of a booklet or brochure. Now, they’re ordering a couple hundred and then they revise it and do another run in a couple of months instead of one big one. … I’m seeing lower quantities but more frequently.”

Market: General Commercial
Company: Robin Enterprises based in Westerville, Ohio
Person: Brad Hance, president

Like many general commercial printers, Robin Enterprises, in Westerville, Ohio, has expanded into other segments, and like Neyenesch, Robin Enterprises is seeing its general commercial work, which still comprises 75% of its business, decreasing. At the same time, its folding carton and wide-format work is on the rise, while its direct mail jobs remain steady.

Although there are certainly PSPs that have yet to move into new segments, convergence isn’t uncommon. Brad Hance, president of the company, explains that after COVID-19, there was a big shift since Robin Enterprises was involved heavily in the retail space. He says the company needed to be creative to stay alive and keep everyone on the payroll.

“We started to get into the folding carton business, and we got into wide-format printing a lot heavier than what we were prior to that,” he points out. “We now do a lot more warehousing, pick-and-pack, and hand assembling. We’re kind of getting away from what I would call ‘traditional commercial printing.’”

So what does that mean for Robin’s predominantly general commercial business? It means it’s doing what it can to stay relevant, and one of those things is leaning into its custom digital storefronts.

“Clients that we’ve done business with for many years just want an easier way to place their orders,” Hance says. “They don’t want to have to go to the internet and do everything from scratch; they want to be able to place [an order for] their letterheads, or their business cards, or their notepads — all on their own website.” Building customized online storefronts started as a solution to a customer need.

“We’re not exactly a ‘build it and they will come’ kind of company,” he explains. “We’re more of a ‘our customers come up with a need’ kind of company, and then we fill that need.”

The company had a client with a specific vision of what they wanted, so Robin put together a very customized website. It wasn’t streamlined with the company’s MIS, but over the years, the company has added more storefront software and has developed a sophisticated workflow system. It’s been 15 years since Robin Enterprises introduced online storefronts and the growth doesn’t show any signs of slowing down.

Market: Nonprofits
Company: POV Solution based in Chagrin Falls, Ohio
Person: Chris Yuhasz, president

In keeping with the theme of convergence, POV Solution in Chagrin Falls, Ohio, has capitalized on diversification. One of the driving forces behind that diversification is the erosion of commercial work, which has led the company to branch out into new markets, including packaging. However, POV Solution President Chris Yuhasz explains that the company still does “a lot” of commercial printing, with much of it in the nonprofit space.

“I haven’t seen nearly the attrition in the nonprofit industry as I have in the commercial printing side of things,” he says.

The company does large runs — it’s working on a 70,000-piece job for a Chicago-area nonprofit right now — as well as smaller runs.

While POV Solution still produces a lot of annual reports, postcards, brochures, and pocket folders for the nonprofit segment, one of the hottest products it sells right now is a self-contained mailer. The self-contained mailer is essentially a roll-up brochure with a glue strip and tear-away section.

Like Neyenesch, Yuhasz points to email fatigue as one of the main reasons print remains a strong marketing option for nonprofit organizations. “The reality is, just how many emails we all receive,” he says. “Marketers have seen that it can’t all be done online.”

In addition to email fatigue, in-person events have kicked up again after years of turmoil during the pandemic, further driving the need for printed products for nonprofits.

Although POV Solution does still do a fair amount of commercial work, especially with nonprofits, it has moved into packaging through the acquisition of a small packaging company — an area it intends to continue to grow.

“We’re finding out that our commercial printing plant is slowly starting to support the needs of our self-contained mailers and our packaging side,” Yuhasz explains.

Some of the biggest challenges POV Solutions experiences are the “exhaustion of learning” about new markets and technology and controlling the growth of the company, Yuhasz says.

“We need to make sure … we maintain control of our capacity as we’re growing so that we don’t get into chaos management,” he says.

To do that, Yuhasz says his company focuses on the numbers because metrics “don’t lie.”

“The data will help us navigate what our capacities are,” he says, “and if we’re growing, to understand how much product we can put through here.”

Market: Healthcare/Transactional
Company: PCI Group based in Fort Mill, South Carolina
Person: Chris Kropac Jr., president

According to Chris Kropac Jr., president of PCI Group in Fort Mill, South Carolina, the healthcare space is “very robust.” The company, which is a 100% transactional printing establishment, does a lot of work in the healthcare space.

“Volume is way up,” he says. “The biggest challenge is the need for more compliance. … The HITRUST certification has become infinitely harder to get.”

It’s also expensive. Kropac equates it to millions of dollars in investments each year just to stay in compliance, but it’s worth the investment as healthcare providers continue to grow.

To complement the printed side of things, PCI Group offers email services and even texting options for customers, which work in tandem with print and offer another way to communicate with clients. Many customers like to receive a paper bill and then pay electronically, which is what Kropac sees the industry turning toward more. If an email fails to make its way to a client, a printed communication is initiated.

“We have what’s called a waterfall process,” he says. “If you get bounced back three emails, we send a hard copy out.”

Alternative ways to communicate with clients are growing in part because of rising postage costs, Kropac says. He explains that while labor, infrastructure, security, and compliance costs are going up, the company can’t really pass those increases on to the customer. Rising postal rates, however, can be. That has driven an increase in the number of emails that PCI Group sends out, necessitated by budgets that have remained the same for some clients and can’t account for the higher postage costs.

“We went from sending out a couple million emails a year and now we send out 50 million emails,” he says. Comparatively, it’s a fraction of the 500 million hard copy packages PCI Group sends out annually. However, Kropac expects that number to eventually grow to 100 or 150 million emails sent annually.

With the increased risk of a ransomware attack, security has become a top priority for PCI Group. Kropac explains that the company uses encrypted data, resulting in layers upon layers of security. In fact, the company is currently working on a FIPS 140-3 build-out for a customer that requires a hyper-secure environment. The company plans to be FIPS 140-3-ready across its entire network by 2025.

It’s the ability to adapt and change to meet customer needs that has kept PCI Group growing, something Kropac admits wasn’t always certain. “For 30 years, I’ve been saying, ‘In 10 years, we’re going to be out of business,’” he quips. “But nothing’s changed. It’s still a great way to communicate to clients. Mail is still a living, breathing part of our world.”