PADGETT PRINTING — DESTINATION: DIGITAL

Up front are Kodak Creo Trendsetter Spectrums and a Prinergy workflow. Where once the prepress department worked seven days to make plates to run on-press five days a week, plates are now made over five days to run on-press seven days.

The future game plan calls for Padgett Printing to bolster its digital and mailing equipment roster. The next investment on the offset front calls for a 12-color, 40˝ six-over-six sheetfed perfecting press.

“The word going around our plant is that we need 94 feet of space for the new 12-color,” Torok says.

Padgett Printing is a big fan of maximizing capabilities and getting the most of its 125 employees and 80,000 square feet of manufacturing space. At $29 million, Torok notes the company’s sales-per-employee ratio is double that of most in his competitive bloc. The short-term goal is to reach the $30 million-plus sales mark.

In order to enjoy continued success, the company needs to concentrate on the core fundamentals that have brought Padgett Printing to this point. “We must continue to look for ways to be more productive,” Torok says. “We need to continue growing without adding expenses in the office area. We understand that we’re successful when we hear plenty of noise out in the plant. That means we need to find those customers that are buying printing today; in our market, those customers are changing from year to year.

“This is a good business to be in, and it’s still fun to come into work every day,” Torok continues. “We’re really a lean machine. My management team consists of a vice president of sales, a CFO and a plant manager. After that level, you quickly reach anyone in the plant. So we’re big enough to afford the technology, and small enough to make quick decisions and understand that the customers are what are most important to us.”