LSC Communications to Close Warsaw, Indiana, Gravure Printing Plant and Focus on Kodi Collective Offerings
Highlights:
- As customers — citing rising ink and paper costs — migrate from gravure printing to the company’s long-run offset offering, LSC announced last week the closure of its last remaining gravure plant in Warsaw, IN.
- The company’s long-run offset print facility in Maple Grove, MN, will join Kodi Collective, rounding out the brand’s portfolio of offset and digital print capabilities.
- Advanced document management, web-to-print, turnkey fulfillment, specialty sourcing, and a host of marketing execution services position Kodi Collective to effectively serve the changing needs of brands in today’s world of omnichannel marketing.
For over 150 years, LSC Communications (formerly R.R. Donnelley) has held its place as one of the largest commercial printers in the U.S. Long recognized as a company on the cutting edge of innovation and in sync with customer needs, LSC continues to evolve in line with the market.
As customers migrate away from gravure printing, they are turning to offset print in growing numbers, even for high-volume press runs. In the last six years alone, the gravure print market has declined over 65% and it continues to shrink. At the same time, gravure ink and paper costs continue to rise — up 55% and 30%, respectively.
In response to these changing market conditions, LSC announced last week plans to close its last remaining gravure print facility, located in Warsaw, IN, and focus on its growth platform, Kodi Collective, which provides a full spectrum of offerings for brands and publishers, including offset print, digital print, and marketing execution services.
When LSC Communications announced the launch of Kodi Collective in March of this year, the company’s print customers wasted no time tapping into the full spectrum of marketing execution services the business offers.
Now, with the company’s plan to exit the gravure platform, LSC’s long-run offset print facility in Maple Grove, MN, has been helping customers through the transition. “We are seeing an acceleration in customers ready to convert to offset, and Maple Grove fits the bill,” said James Richards, President and CEO of Kodi Collective. “We’ve recently upgraded our press equipment there and have the capacity to take on more.”
The business will be integrating Maple Grove into the Kodi brand later this year, expanding its print capabilities to include short-, medium- and long-run print; making Kodi a one-stop-shop for customers who print everything from individual, targeted mailers to two million plus catalogs.
“For our customers, managing brands in today’s omnichannel market has become increasingly complex,” said Richards. “In a world where brand integrity is everything, customers are looking for trusted partners who can execute their marketing campaigns and publications with consistency across all platforms.”
“Kodi Collective operates in a hub-and-spoke model, with the customer and our account support team at the center, surrounded by production experts in everything from photography and augmented reality to catalog production and branded environments,” Richards continued. “We care about your brand as much as you do, and we are here to help get the heavy lifting done.”
The name Kodi, in fact, is derived from the ancient Celtic word for helper and evokes the brand promise to “take it from here” and help customers achieve their marketing goals.
Kodi Collective includes the LSC businesses formerly known as Digital Lizard, Continuum Marketing Production Services, and Hudson Yards Studios, plus offset print operations in Lebanon Junction, KY (formerly Publisher’s Press) and in Liberty, MO, Pontiac, IL, Danville, KY, and now Maple Grove, MN (former RR Donnelley).
The preceding press release was provided by a company unaffiliated with Printing Impressions. The views expressed within do not directly reflect the thoughts or opinions of the staff of Printing Impressions.
