Quebecor World

Now in its 19th year, the Printing Impressions 400 provides the industry's most comprehensive ranking of the leading printing companies in the United States and Canada. The listings include company name and headquarters location; parent company, if applicable; current and previous year's rankings; most recent and previous year's fiscal sales; percentage change; primary specialties; principal officer(s); and number of employees, manufacturing plants and total press units. Each year, we continue to refine our list. As was done in several past years, we eliminated greeting card companies and several paper converters because they do not really compete in the commercial printing marketplace. In addition, those

By Erik Cagle Good news! In October, Postmaster General John E. Potter told the Direct Marketing Association's annual conference attendees that, because of its reform efforts that enabled the USPS to remove $2.9 billion out of its bottom line in fiscal 2002, there would be no rate hikes until "well into 2004." The bad news, of course, is that the general economy and volume reductions in mailings made 2002 a challenging campaign for those companies that provide direct mail solutions from the production end. Thus, in noting that there will be no rate hike in 2003 is akin to pointing out, "At least the

BY MARK SMITH Judging the strength of the printed catalog market segment used to be a straight-forward proposition. Catalogers merely had to compare the total dollar value of orders placed with the cost of producing and distributing their print programs in order to determine the financial return. The rise of online shopping is beginning to skew this traditional benchmark. If a shopper initially selects items by perusing a printed catalog, but actually executes the order via a Website and online catalog, which medium gets credit for the sale? Should each get partial credit? Top 10 -- Catalog Printers   CompanySegmentSales(millions)TotalSales (millions) 1Quebecor WorldMontreal$1,071$6,300

By Erik Cagle "Give 'em hell, Harry!" That's the rally cry for both trade publishers and their print production suppliers, who eagerly await the next installment in the Harry Potter series (give 'em hell J.K. Rowling would be more accurate). And why not? The four-book (and counting) children's fantasy series from Scholastic has sold a staggering 150 million copies worldwide (70 million in the United States), and many of the leading U.S. book printers have dipped their toes in the Potter pool. Who needs an Oprah plug when you have a multi-faceted marketing machine that has licensed movies, trading cards, action figures and all

MONTREAL—Marc L. Reisch, president and CEO of Quebecor World North America, has made a quick departure from his post, leaving the company he helped transition and integrate during the largest-ever merger in the history of the commercial printing industry. Reisch's departure, which had been rumored for several weeks, was made official in a brief company press release issued September 17. The release cited Reisch's desire to pursue other opportunities as the reason for leaving. His position will not be filled, according to Tony Ross, communications director for the world's largest printer. However, the company did announce that John Paloian and David Boles, respective heads

RIDGEFIELD PARK, NJ—Agfa recently concluded a three-day Apogee user conference in Ghent, Belgium. This was the third time Apogee users (185 from 21 countries) gathered to discuss workflow issues and solutions. Technology partners Adobe Systems, Enfocus, Hewlett-Packard and ScenicSoft joined Agfa to provide insights into the next generation of workflow automation, which the company says is essential to printing business growth. Jean-François Cuillerier, of Quebecor World, a co-developer of Agfa Delano, emphasized the positive results of automation at the printer. "We are in control," he noted. "There is less stress in the plant and less confusion. We have more predictability, and our customers

BY ERIK CAGLE "The printed word is important to me," stresses Rob Krehbiel III, CEO for The C.J. Krehbiel Co. of Cincinnati, and a 2002 Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame inductee. It is also clear that people are very important to him, as well. The two facets met outside of the world of commercial printing when Krehbiel was introduced to John Carney, a father of 10 who had not graduated high school and was illiterate. For Krehbiel, who had volunteered to help teach adults how to read, the thought that someone not being equipped to read was unthinkable. But, with Krehbiel's help,

BY MARK SMITH For better or worse, the fortunes of printers and paper producers are inextricably linked. If one sees this as an adversarial relationship, then the paper producers clearly are in a defensive position. Printing papers have been on a downward trend for some time and now are at or near historically low prices. Even the mega-deal consolidations among the major producers have yet to have any obvious impact on the level of competition in the marketplace. Lower paper prices are not necessarily good news for the printing industry, so say even those responsible for buying large quantities of it. "We

Keeping in line with the supersizing trend, BookTech—The Magazine's list of the top 25 book manufacturers has been expanded to include the 30 highest grossing book printers in the United States and Canada. The decision to add to the list was to offer a more expansive look at those manufacturers at the top of their field. The types of products offered by the various companies run the gamut from fine editions to best-selling paperbacks to trade publications to textbooks to yearbooks. More detailed information about each printer follows the list in the form of brief synopses.  Company / Contact '01 Book Mfg. Rev. (millions)

Keeping in line with the supersizing trend, BookTech—The Magazine's list of the top 25 book manufacturers has been expanded to include the 30 highest grossing book printers in the United States and Canada. The decision to add to the list was to offer a more expansive look at those manufacturers at the top of their field. The types of products offered by the various companies run the gamut from fine editions to best-selling paperbacks to trade publications to textbooks to yearbooks. More detailed information about each printer follows the list in the form of brief synopses. In addition to expanding the list, there have