Consolidated Graphics

(Editor's Note: The following was prepared by Compass Capital Partners, the printing industry's most active investment banker. Located in Radnor, PA, and headed by Chairman Harris M. DeWese, it represents only sellers and buyers of printing companies. Since 1996, Compass Capital has completed 47 transactions involving printing revenues exceeding $1.5 billion.) The U.S. printing industry is a bedrock of our economy. Yet, in this day of electronic communication, some are telling us that print-on-paper communication is about to be replaced by alternative media. Compass Capital Partners has been following the printing industry for 12 years. We have made our living from representing buyers and

Editor's note: Company rankings for the current and previous years are based on figures reported in 2000. Therefore, companies that revised their 1999 revenues may have changed their '99 ranking as compared with the ranking that appeared in last year's Printing Impressions 500. Similarly, the percentage change in sales is calculated on the most recent information provided.2000 Ranking:Previous Year's Ranking:Company:Total Sales (millions):Previous Year's (millions):Change (%):Principal Officer:Employees:Primary Specialties:Web Offset Units:Sheetfed Offset Units:Other:Ownership:Plants:1 1Quebecor World*, Montreal, Canada$6,540.00$6,160.00+6Charles G. Cavell44,000PUB 29%; ADV 20%; CAT 17%; DM 13%3,156985808Public 160*Parent: Quebecor Inc., Montreal, Canada  2000 Ranking:Previous Year's Ranking:Company:Total Sales (millions):Previous Year's (millions):Change (%):Principal Officer:Employees:Primary Specialties:Web Offset Units:Sheetfed Offset Units:Other:Ownership:Plants:2

Is commercial printing a dying industry? By looking at the boom in sales figures reported by some printers this year, the answer is a resounding no. BY CHRIS BAUER Looking for the answer of how to boost your annual sales by 20, 40, even 60 percent or more? Does that sort of annual revenue growth seem impossible? This might sound like some late-night infomercial, but it can be done. Several firms on this year's Printing Impressions 400 have reported tremendous sales growth in their most recent fiscal year. These are the movers and shakers of the printing industry. Sales figures can explode as a

BY ERIK CAGLE When history compares the years 1998 and 2000 in regard to consolidation in the printing industry, two starkly contrasting results will be evident to the naked eye. There really is no comparison, as the degree of major consolidation has slacked off dramatically. Perhaps it is more important to note that the state of the industry during 2000 was not all that dissimilar from 1998, at least not from close range. Hindsight may eventually offer greater perspective, but the fact of the matter is the economic condition alone did not cause M&A activity to take a back seat. Wall Street rubbed its

BY CAROLINE MILLER It's been a very good year. The prophecies that the Internet would eventually kill off print appears not to be coming to fruition, just yet. In fact, if 2000 is any indication, the Internet appears to have emerged as a most positive development for the catalog industry. Top 10 Catalog Printers CompanySegmentSales(millions)Total Sales(millions) 1R.R. Donnelley & SonsChicago$1,350$5,000 2Quebecor WorldMontreal$1,111$6,540 3 Quad/GraphicsPewaukee, WI$705$1,500 4 Banta Corp.Menasha, WI$215$1,270 5 Arandell Corp.Menomonee Falls, WI$181$197 6 Perry Judd's Inc.Waterloo, WI$96$320 7 Spencer PressWells, ME$88$98 8 Avanti/Case-HoytMiami$77$155 9 Consolidated GraphicsHouston$62$625 10 Brown PrintingWaseca, MN$60$376 According to PIA's Vision 21 study, "As recently as the late 1990s, conventional

DAYTON, OH—Standard Register (SR), the $1.4 billion electronic and paper document management company based here, has seen a number of major changes to its operation in recent weeks, and heads into the second half of 2000 a significantly different company. Topping the list of changes is a change at the top: Chief executive Peter Redding departs this month. Redding, 62, is retiring. Taking the helm is Dennis L. Rediker, 56, former CEO of English China Clays plc and a Standard Register board member for five years. "Dennis is a visionary leader with superior team-building skills," explains Paul H. Granzow, SR's chairman. "He has

As the consolidation march pauses to take a breath, the sector's leaders are taking the time to prove to Wall Street that they can manage their new empires. BY CHRISTOPHER CORNELL About this time two years ago, the trade press were using metaphors like "juggernaut" and "tidal wave" to describe the actions of a half-dozen companies in the graphic arts industry, as they began an awe-inspiring crusade to consolidate one of North America's more fractured business sectors. Any metaphor that implied inevitability seemed appropriate. Announcements of new acquisitions came, at times, weekly; sometimes they even appeared daily. What a difference two years can make.

Balderdash! Phooey! Cow chips! "We have met the enemy and he is us." All right, ya'll, get in here, sit down and listen up. I've got a hell of a lot to cover this month. You probably are all wondering who first said the words and phrase at the top of this column. Well, if any of you illiterate slugs ever read your history books, you would know. The late, great Sir Winston Churchill first said "Balderdash!" Sir Winston said it when Lady Astor observed that he was drunk. Sir Winston replied: "Balderdash. Tomorrow I will be sober and you will still be ugly." The late

I am writing this on January 1, 2000, and there's trouble brewing in the old print shop. Yep, Joe Davis, chairman and CEO of Consolidated Graphics, announced in a press release that he "believes lower-than-expected sales volume is attributable to general industry conditions." Davis believes this statement because Andrew Paparozzi, chief economist for the National Association of Printing Leadership (NAPL), published a report that said, for the first time in 15 years, real print sales (RPS) is lagging behind gross domestic product (GDP) growth. According to Paparozzi, printing industry sales growth will slow to 3 percent to 3.5 percent from the 4 percent to 5

BY CHRISTOPHER CORNELL Each little drop in the bucket doesn't amount to much, but after a while it can turn into a torrent; that's the metaphor that applies to the graphic arts industry in 1999. Each individual merger and acquisition during the course of the year didn't affect the industry that much, but, in the aggregate, 1999 will likely be remembered as the year in which the number of companies in it noticeably shrunk. The biggest news story of the year was one just about everybody saw coming. Just after mid-year, following weeks of industry speculation, Quebecor Printing and World Color Press signed a