Region 6 Discusses Marketing Strategies
DMIA's Region 6 held a local forum Sept. 20 at the Marriott Courtyard-Oakland Airport, Calif. Eleven distributors, five manufacturers and two suppliers used the opportunity to network and discuss topics such as marketing, newsletters, email advertising and direct mail.
"Our hope was to bring the concept of the peer-to-peer format that has been
so successful at national meetings to the local level," said Gail O'Roke, CDC, a former DMIA president and president and CEO of Independent Business Group, Hayward, Calif. Regional Directors O'Roke and Georgene Hansen Witmer of White City, Ore.-based Sterling Business Forms, organized the event.
Dave Badilla, Appleton's marketing manager, began the meeting by giving an overview of general marketing. Three distributors shared stories of successful and unsuccessful marketing strategies. At a roundtable session, attendees discussed topics such as retooling companies to handle a broader range of products and the frustrations suppliers and manufacturers face when marketing to distributors. Click here for photos.
MeadWestvaco to Close Packaging Plant, Cut 130 Jobs
MeadWestvaco Corp. will discontinue operations at its packaging plant in Pine Brook, N.J., by Dec. 31. The facility converts bleached paperboard into folded, printed cartons, and prints labels and inserts for pharmaceutical and health care products. The closure will result in the elimination of approximately 130 positions and salaried employees will receive termination benefits. The company will transfer production to other MeadWestvaco health care packaging plants.
Ennis' Profit, Sales Double in 2Q
Ennis Inc. said its earnings and sales nearly doubled in the latest second quarter due to strong results in the print services segment related to recent acquisitions. Net income rose to $10.6 million from $5.4 million a year ago. Sales increased to $148.1 million from $73.4 million last year. Full story.
Cenveo Announces Appointments of Harris, Oliva
Robert G. Burton, chairman and CEO of Cenveo Inc., announced the appointments of Michael "Max" W. Harris and Thomas W. Oliva. Harris has been appointed to the position of vice chairman, president Commercial Print and Oliva is vice chairman, president Envelope and Resale. Both will report directly to Burton.
Prior to joining Cenveo, Harris co-founded OEM, an optical disc manufacturing company in Charlotte, N.C., in 2001. Prior to OEM, Harris spent 27 years in the commercial printing industry and started his career at World Color Press Inc.
Prior to joining Cenveo, Oliva held a series of senior executive positions at Moore Wallace Inc. Before joining Moore Wallace, Oliva worked for the Gravure Catalog and Magazine Division of World Color Press, later named Quebecor World. He started his printing career at R.R. Donnelley as a sales executive.
Burton is the former president and CEO of Moore who improved the company's bottom line and raised the stock price by slashing payroll and other expenses. Before turning around Moore (which was bought by R.R. Donnelley, Burton ran World Color Press, which merged with Quebecor Printing Inc. in 1999 to become Quebecor World Inc.
Hurricane Relief Update:
FormStore Incorporated continued its relief efforts for victims of Hurricane Katrina.
It already has shipped 14 to 15 pallets of relief supplies and materials into Katrina-hit areas. FormStore and Response Builders are assembling several thousand additional personal hygiene and school kits. The companies already have assembled 1,000 hygiene kits and are looking for places that can send them directly to people in need, said Paul R. Edwards, CDC, president of FormStore.
"If members can direct us to locations who can accept shipments, FormStore will ship immediately," Edwards said in an email to DMIA's member source broadcast email system. "If your company has dock facilities in or surrounding the hurricane impacted areas and know of specific needs for these types of materials, please contact me personally to indicate your interest and ability to help move these relief supplies down into the impacted areas."
The company also will send to schools approximately 50,000 pounds of 8 1/2 x 11-inch white paper. Call Edwards at (636) 343-6910, ext. 300, or email him at pedwards@formstore.com.
The Jerome Group Inc. hired two more Hurricane Katrina victims from New Orleans. Cynthia Reed and Patricia Vallery were rescued from flood waters. Vallery was using an inflatable mattress and Reed was in a boat along with her 83-year-old father, who had refused to evacuate from a balcony on the second floor. Earlier, the company hired Sarah Nixon to work in its lettershop. Nixon relocated to St. Louis with her two children after their apartment in Pass Christian, Miss., was destroyed.
MeadWestvaco Corp. announced Sept. 26 that its recovery and relief efforts after Hurricane Rita are underway at its facilities in Texas and Louisiana. The company hopes to begin normal operations as soon as employees are able to safely return to the area and power is restored. The facilities in the affected region include a paperboard mill in Evadale, Texas; the extrusion coating facility in Silsbee, Texas; and the chemical plant in DeRidder, La. The facilities sustained some wind and water damage from the hurricane. Key manufacturing equipment wasn't significantly impacted, the company said.
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DMIA has created a special web page for anyone in our industry seeking hurricane information and assistance. Go to www.dmia.org/hurricane.html. Were you affected by the hurricane or know of someone who was? If you would like to share your story for publication, click here.
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FDA: Internet Updates on Drugs Coming
Prescription drug information will be easier to read and updated quickly on the internet as part of an effort being launched later this year to improve information for doctors and patients, a U.S. health official said Wednesday. Full story.
SOLUTION OF THE WEEK
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A Win/Win Solution
A division of a multimillion-dollar manufacturing company on the West Coast wanted to increase its brand recognition among 700 North American resellers. The division tried several approaches, including co-op advertising, signage, point-of-purchase displays and direct marketing. Conrad Marquard and Bob Workman, co-owners of Tigard, Ore.-based Proforma Spectrum Print Graphics, an affiliate of Cleveland-based distributor franchise network Proforma, provided a value-added solution that would benefit the manufacturing company and its resellers. Full story.
Have a solution? Click here to be featured in Solution of the Week
TOP TEN
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Here are this week's top unusual source requests received by DMIA:
- Saddle stitched booklet with an integrated label on the cover and bind-in style envelope stitched inside; QTY=440M
- Registers to record check transactions as a stock item; QTY=Minimum
- Sterile labels used in medical device packaging; QTY=1500
- Pads; 18 x 24"; printed 2 colors; 100 sheets per pad; QTY=5M
- Bind provided post cards with wrap-around cover for easy removal of cards; 57 cards per book
- Cut sheet labels with removable adhesive and clear plastic face stock; QTY=7.5M
- Unit set with 8 parts and modulus 9 numbering on every part
- Cut sheet index; stock printed 1 color and numbered with a plastic pouch affixed; QTY=4M
- Custom imprinted junior legal pads; 5 x 8"; QTY=1M
- HIPPA compliant stock labels; QTY=Minimum
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 use the Source Hotline Database online. For new sales ideas every day, try our 1,000 Sales Ideas Database. Manufacturers, if you produce any of these items and would like to check your listing with the Source Hotline, please email Cheryl Rush.
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