2009 Top 100 High Rollers Go All In

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Making it into Quick Printing’s Top 100 list is an honor any time, but maybe even more so in years such as this one. During a strong economy, the high rollers of the industry play to win, but in the current conditions, most players are just trying to break even. Their smart business strategies have dealt these printers a pretty fair hand at a tough table.

The Top 100 reported 2008 sales of $606,892,677, down 6.37% from last year’s group. A large chunk of that loss can be attributed to four large companies that were removed from the group for failing to report updated figures. Last year’s #3 Vision Integrated Graphics Group, #4 Copy Craft Printers, #10 LAZERQUICK, and #35 Minuteman Press Naperville represented a loss to the list of $88.59 million. Nonetheless, when compared against its own figures for the year, this group’s sales increased by 1.87% on the year.

There are six companies in this year’s list with estimated numbers. ColorNet/Rockville Printing & Graphics, Brandon’s Communications Group (formerly Brandon’s Printing), and MarketPlace Direct were estimated for the first time. Ginny’s Printing, Trukmann’s Reprographics, and Professional Duplicating were each estimated for the second time and will be removed from the list if they do not report updated numbers next year. The combined sales of the latter three amount to $32.91 million.

There are 13 new companies in this year’s list. The highest debut was posted by #18 MailMax Direct, which reported sales of $7,543,913.

Top 10 Players

The Top 10, rocked by the loss of three members, has seen a huge shake up this year, including a new name in the top slot for the first time in almost a decade. Balmar, which has been #1 since 2000, slid to the #2 position, ceding the #1 spot to CCI/Coakley Tech. Both are large commercial printers which break out the sales for their quick printing divisions for this study. Ginny’s Printing moved up to the #3 slot, ColorNet/Rockville Printing & Graphics is now #4, Direct Connect Solutions jumped to #5, Econoprint (Madison) slid up to #6, and Craig Fairbanks’ Copy Central took over the #7 slot. The three new entries to the Top 10 are Western Graphics at #8, Chuck Stempler’s AlphaGraphics at #9, and AccuCopy in the #10 position.

In 2008, the Top 10 companies posted sales totaling $178,994,901. They operate 52 locations, ranging from Copy Central’s 19 stores to Ginny’s Printing and Western Graphics, which are both single shop operations. Their average sales per shop (SPS) is $3.44 million. The top echelon provides work for 2,524.5 employees, more than half of all employees in the entire Top 100. Average sales per employee (SPE) for this segment is $70,903.

On a Roll

Even in a down year, there were companies that experience significant levels of growth. Coakley Tech, which merged with its sister company CCI to become CCI/Coakley Tech, grew by 43.07%. RESCO, debuting at #35, grew by 36.45%. This was also due in part to the merging of three companies. However, the figures it reported did not include sales related to the food services business that was part of that merger—another indication of the diversity and ingenuity of the entrepreneurs who make up our industry.

Leaders in sales growth were:

• CCI/Coakley Tech 43.07%
• RESCO 36.45%
• Frank Gumpert Printing of Annapolis 35.29%
• Miller’s Minuteman Press 33.33%
• Allegra Print & Imaging 23%

(The Printing Network)

Twenty-one companies experienced double digit sales growth, 25 posted single digit growth, four reported growth of less than 1%. The six companies that failed to report updated numbers were entered with no growth, and four others reported flat sales. In the negative column, two firms had losses of less than 1%, 22 were down by single digit figures, and the remaining 16 posted double digit drops.