Steve Landheer

BY CAROLINE MILLER When Steve Landheer's customers speak, he listens. The owner of Great Lakes Bindery—based in Grand Rapids, MI—knew that in order to remain in the trade bindery business, he had to find a way to meet his customers' increasing demand for faster turnaround. For the past 20 years, Great Lakes Bindery has specialized in mechanical book binding. Landheer's father decided to focus on mechanical binding after a major client agreed to exclusively use Great Lakes Bindery for its mechanical binding work as long as Great Lakes invested in the necessary equipment. And not much has changed in the mechanical book

With good help hard to find, the right tool for the job is the key to value-added finishing techniques. BY ERIK CAGLE There's no need to tell Joe Rigby that market demand for plastic coil binding jobs can be a finicky one. The owner of Delaware Valley Bindery in Trenton, NJ, may field four or five plastic coil jobs in one month, then nary a quote for three or four months. As job traffic goes, so does the number of added workers at Delaware Valley Bindery, who are temporary employees. "This kind of work goes hot and cold. We'll have a lot of jobs in a short