Mail-Well Decides to Keep PrintXcel
Englewood, Colo.-based manufacturer Mail-Well Inc. announced Tuesday that the remaining part of its Printed Office Products segment, known as PrintXcel, is withdrawn from the market. A special committee of Mail-Well's board of directors, established to oversee the disposition of the company's discontinued operations, accepted management's recommendations to keep the PrintXcel division.

"PrintXcel has continued to perform as expected," said Paul Reilly, Mail-Well's chairman, president and CEO. "However, the price that the potential buyer was able to offer, given the present tight banking market environment, was in our opinion totally inadequate." The company declined to comment further on the buyer and the offer.

Kevin Lombardo, president and CEO of PrintXcel, said Mail-Well's decision is positive news for the distributors PrintXcel serves. "Being part of Mail-Well opens doors to new ideas that will help us deliver solutions to the marketplace," he says. "We'll continuously aim to extend our product and service lines to the distributor channel."

PrintXcel specializes in six categories of print products and services: documents, labels, direct mail, commercial printing, envelopes and business solutions.

In May, Mail-Well sold its food and beverage label business segment, Mail-Well Label, to Renaissance Mark, a privately held company based in Denver.

Mail-Well also announced that it expects second-quarter earnings before restructuring and other charges to be below forecasts, largely as a result of lower-than-expected revenues. Mail-Well had forecast proforma second-quarter EBITDA in the range of $26 million to $30 million (before restructuring charges) and sales of approximately $380 million. The company now expects EBITDA in the range of $16 million to $17 million and sales of approximately $345 million. "Although our strategic initiatives are making us a more streamlined, efficient company, they are not sufficient to fully offset the prolonged slowdown in sales," Reilly said.

IDS Acquires Volunteer Business Systems
Distributorship IDS Inc., Dallas, announced July 1 that it has acquired Volunteer Business Systems Inc., a distributorship in Chattanooga, Tenn. Frank Tatum, Volunteers' founder and president, and all Volunteer employees remain with IDS.

The acquisition expands IDS' warehousing capabilities and adds multiple shipping locations to help the firm meet clients' pick and pack, distribution, and fulfillment needs. IDS' 2001 sales were approximately $3.5 million. Volunteer Business Systems' 2001 sales were approximately $2.5 million.

IDS President Walt Smith, CDC, said, "We are very excited with the addition of Volunteer Business Systems to the IDS team. Having all of the employees of Volunteer, especially Frank Tatum, remain onboard is a real plus based on the success they have generated as a team for a lot of years" in Tennessee, Georgia and Alabama.

Integrity Graphics Acquires The Typehouse Group
Integrity Graphics, a commercial printing and graphics communications firm in Windsor, Conn., acquired the assets of The Typehouse Group, an e-solutions, electronic and prepress services provider in Wallingford, Conn. Integrity has annual sales of $12 million; Typehouse has annual sales of $3 million.

Integrity plans to change Typehouse's name to e-Integrity and use it as Integrity's e-business solutions division in Wallingford. Michael Sansone, son of Typehouse co-founder James Sansone, will lead the division. Integrity will consolidate Typehouse's prepress and printing divisions into its Windsor operations.

Weyerhaeuser-Willamette Deal Done
After 14 months, Federal Way, Wash.-based paper supplier Weyerhaeuser Co. completed Sunday its $6.11 billion acquisition of Portland, Ore.-based rival Willamette Industries Inc., bringing to a close one of the longest-running takeover battles in recent years.

In mid-January, Willamette tentatively agreed to be acquired for $55.50 a share and ended talks to enter into a business combination with Georgia-Pacific Corp.'s building-products unit. Willamette balked at Weyerhaeuser's initial offer of $48 a share. Both companies' histories go back nearly a century in the Pacific Northwest.

Weyerhaeuser, with $14.5 billion in revenue last year, was much bigger than Willamette, which posted revenue of $4.45 billion. But Willamette was regarded as one of the best-run companies in the timber industry, consistently generating profit margins above the industry average, The Wall Street Journal reported in January.

From Manual System to Online Solution
By Rita Tiefert
Print Solutions Magazine Assistant Editor

A health care system in Indiana faced cumbersome tasks when complying with Joint Commission on Accreditation of Healthcare Organizations (JCAHO) procedures. An auditing board visited the company regularly to inspect its written procedures, which were stored in at least 250 binders.

Before each inspection, the company printed procedural updates in house, distributed them to employees and relied on those employees to properly secure the forms in the correct binders. "For a couple of individuals, [this] was literally a 3 to 4-month-long process," says Jeff Shoemaker, director of program sales at distributorship RBF Inc., Lansing, Mich.

The end user asked RBF for an easier solution. RBF spent approximately two weeks evaluating the client's business processes, tracking the paper trail. After uncovering labor and materials waste in the end user's forms management procedures, RBF suggested consolidating the client's manuals to a single online system.

RBF created a system that's password-protected, allows real-time updates and provides optional signature capabilities. The distributorship tested the system for a few weeks to ensure links worked and functionality felt natural. At the client's request, RBF also added extra search capabilities.

Shoemaker describes the end user's reaction as "very, very positive." Administrators have one less task to manage. The company's in-house print shop now has more time for other projects. "It literally has given back hundreds of hours a year in processing time," Shoemaker says.

Web Trust is in the Details
Internet users pay attention to details. A study of 1,649 online users conducted by Stanford University revealed that little things, such as misspellings, could be detrimental to a site's credibility. Click here for more.

Paper Tickets vs. E-Tickets
American Airlines has been looking to e-tickets as a way to cut costs, and now says that over the next 18 months it will phase paper out of the process. Roughly 65 percent of its passenger tickets are electronic already. Delta Air Lines Inc. said last month it would issue only e-tickets on most routes and charge a $10 fee to passengers who want paper tickets. Northwest Airlines is doing much the same. Click here for more.

Part with Problematic Clients
If a client demands too much of your time and energy, consider ending the relationship. Customers who aren't cost-effective are literally more trouble than they're worth.

DMIA Proof Pocket Folders
Use these attractive, green and gray pocket folders to present proofs to your customers. Two pockets hold artwork, proofs and other materials, and the cover-weight folder protects materials in transit. 100 folders per package. Product Code PROOF1, $59.25. Order from our online Product Catalog. Contact Tina Brown for details.

Save on Shipping!
DMIA has formed an alliance with RPL Associates Inc., a licensed and bonded freight brokerage company in business since 1982. If you are a small to mid-volume shipper, you can save money on your truckload and larger LTL shipments.

When you call RPL, mention that you are a DMIA member. RPL has a staff of 17 professionals waiting to assist you. Ask for the Rate Department and be sure to say you are a DMIA member. For prompt service, the best rate and fastest deliveries, have the following information ready when you call:

The city and zip code from which the shipment will be leaving.
The city and zip code(s) to which it will be going.
The exact weight of the shipment, including the pallet.
The number of pallets OR the floor space needed if not palletized.
The commodity and class rating.

RPL takes it from there and becomes your traffic management department. It will monitor the progress of your shipments. Instead of receiving freight bills from multiple sources, your freight bills (audited) will come to you from RPL.

Call RPL Associates Inc. at (800) 382-1020, or fax your request for a rate to: (248) 353-4242, Att: Rate Dept. Hours: Monday-Friday, 7 a.m-6 p.m. EST; Saturday, 9 a.m.-noon EST.

i2002 Print Solutions Conference & Expo
Attend the nation's premier show for the business printing industry, Oct. 15-17 at the Donald E. Stephens Convention Center in Rosemont, Ill. Click here for more.

Are you interested in offering credit card purchases to your customers?
NOVA Information Systems, Inc. is an affinity partner to DMIA and offers merchants' bank card processing and equipment services programs. Credit cards include Visa, MasterCard, American Express, Discover and Welcome Check. Please contact NOVA at (800) 718-8583. If you do not get connected to a sales representative directly, choose the appropriate voice mail option and let them know that you are a DMIA member to get the special negotiated discounted rates:
1.68% + .25 per transaction fee - for retail processing only.
2.15% +.25 per transaction fee - mail/to processing only. No annual fees. Free cost comparison to DMIA members.

Here are the top unusual source requests received by DMIA:

1. Direct mail piece, 18" wide x 15" deep continuous form, 4cp/4cp printing, 1 part, fan folded, for data processing industry, 60# smooth opaque stock, Q=125M-750M
2. Translation services from English to Japanese
3. Scantron Forms, 11 x 17, 1 color printing, Q=100M
4. Thermal Film Rolls, for OYO plotter machines that print on film material, like laser transparencies but in roll format, 36" wide rolls by 200' long, for engineering company
5. Window labels, 2' x 2', will be used as a gas station sign, 3 color printing, Q=24
6. Postage meter tape, for Neo-post postage machine, for insurance company
7. 2-way CD/DVD Mailers, 60# paper, 2 color printing, w/ 2 transfer tape strips, for entertainment industry, Q=2.5M-5M-10M
8. Companies that sell parts for fold & seal equipment
9. Envelopes; 9-1/2 x 12; peerless tac; 1 color; Q=20M
10. Rubber stamps; self-inking; Q=100

If you have a source request--for anything--call the Hotline at (800) 333-2828 between 9 a.m. and 5 p.m. Eastern Time, or e-mail your requests to Cheryl Rush. Please have your DMIA membership ID number ready. For two new sales ideas every day, try our HOT product idea and our COOL product idea. Manufacturers, if you produce any of these items and would like to check your listing with the Source Hotline, please e-mail Cheryl Rush.

A Guide to Internet Lingo and Emoticons
When it comes to conveying emotions in email or instant messages, there has to be more to work with than just a smiley face made up of a colon and parenthesis. This site lists the most common--and some quite unusual--emoticons and acronyms. Click here to visit the site.

The Old Farmers Almanac
It's a classic, and now you can find it online. The Old Farmers Almanac web site has everything from recipes to weather reports to tide tables. It'll tell you this year's best days to go fishing, and its astrological timetable will let you know not only when to cut the hay, but also when to cut your hair. Click here to visit the site.

Click here to subscribe, unsubscribe or change your email address.
© Copyright 2002 Document Management Industries Association
Visit Print Solutions Magazine at www.printsolutionsmag.com