- This topic has 0 replies, 1 voice, and was last updated 9 years, 9 months ago by
.
-
Posts
-
Company Finds Digital Printing, Social Media Are a Boom for Business
Butler County company American Printing is a multi-generation business working to keep its operations up to date as it nears the century mark.
Started 93 years ago by the grandfather of president and CEO Ron Smith, the business is a full-service commercial and digital printer that handles design and layout, processing many files in-house in its pre-press department.
Located at 528 South 7th Street in Hamilton, the company prints everything from business cards, flyers, newsletters and annual reports to magazines, elections pieces and the printing needs of city and county governments.
“We’re no longer considered a local printing company because of not only social networking, but with all of the Internet options out there, a lot of our clients aren’t even based here in the local area,” he said. “That becomes a challenge, but it becomes a good opportunity for us for growth.”
Smith, 62, who came to American Printing in 1980, said he grew up around the family business as a child but thought he never would want to get involved.
“My father and I had this agreement … that I would try it out for six weeks (as a salesperson) and if I liked it, fine, I could stay on … and if I didn’t I would go back to Chicago, where I was living at the time and in a graduate program for a different field altogether,” he said. “After six weeks, I found out I really did like it, as a matter of fact, and I’ve been here ever since.”
The company employs 17 people in Hamilton and in Connersville, Ind., including Craig Smith, bindery supervisor, who is a retired business partner’s son and the fourth generation to work for the company.
“It’s also family,” Ron Smith said. “He’s my cousin.”
Q: What’s the biggest change the company has experienced in recent years?
A: “We’ve always been a commercial printer but digital printing is something we’ve been moving ahead on for the past few years. That seems to be a business area that is growing dramatically for us.”
Q: What are the major goals the company is currently working on and how is the company working to achieve those goals?
A: “Our philosophy has always been, we don’t consider ourselves just a job shop, we really try and consider ourselves very customer-oriented, working with a client and helping them develop their print needs and that’s been very, very important to us.
“Quality is just incredibly important to us. There’s no substitutes for that.”
Q: What are the biggest challenges facing the business today and why?
A: “Probably one of the biggest challenges for us in our field is the on demand. They need it right away, so … you learn to adapt, you learn to work with clients, you learn to schedule much more efficiently.
“I also think that it’s a very competitive field, so pricing is important. Nowadays you need to look to where you can save your customer money and still provide a high-quality product in a very efficient time frame.”
Q: What’s the biggest lesson American Printing learned from the recent recession and how is it being applied?
A: “Cross training. You do more with less, unfortunately. Our people have been cross-trained in all the departments now because one of the things that you have to look at is your labor costs. They’re one of the biggest things that we look at.
Q: Where do you American Printing’s growth by the time it reaches the 100-year mark in seven years?
A: “Hopefully, with the expansion of the social network websites, our ability to get our name out there is going to be even easier in the long run. I think networking is incredibly important nowadays. I don’t think people do as much cold-calling as they used to, so I think that is a way for us to develop with our sales reps.”
- You must be logged in to reply to this topic.