Dome, Setting a Torrid Pace in Sacramento, CA, With an Augmented Set of Offerings

Change, it has long been said, can be a scary proposition, yanking us out of our comfort zone and depositing us in unfamiliar territory. Sometimes the need for change can be subtle, marked by a gradual shift in market conditions. Now and then, however, agents for change can storm your printing castle, waving blunt and heavy objects in a menacing manner. It's either act or be crushed.

The latter applies to Dome, a Sacramento, CA-based, full-service printer that has—in the past two years alone—transformed itself through a new wave of products and services, while fundamentally adjusting its approach to the market and adding critical, new gear in the process. The upshot is that Dome is averaging $5 million in new business annually and the company expects to reach the $50 million sales plateau by 2017, a bullish outlook for an enterprise that currently reaps $32 million in annual revenue.

"The recession had a profound impact on us, but we were in the same boat as everyone else: declining sales, eroding markets, clients disappearing and the atmosphere for new customers being very difficult," observes President Tim Poole, a 2007 Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame inductee and a partner in Dome, along with his brother, Bob. "In 2010 and 2011, it was like we were hit upside the head by a two-by-four...so what were we going to do about it? We knew we needed to make changes."

The Dome of 2014 bears little resemblance to the Dome Printing pioneered in 1969 by their father, Ray Poole. The company provides web and sheetfed offset, cutsheet digital and grand-format digital printing for a myriad of customers, including health care, gaming, big box retail, entertainment and education. Its evolution into a one-stop shop, with mailing, fulfillment and Web-to-print (through DOME Storefront), has been a driver, with wide-format digital printing, fulfillment and e-commerce among the latest offerings.