Sheetfed Print Capabilities Expand with Inkjet Technology from Fujifilm

Gilson Graphics, Inc. in Grand Rapids, MI, continues to expand its business and post strong numbers thanks to its diverse menu of services, high-quality print work, and increased focus on marketing.

At the same time, the print firm faces challenges in the year ahead in the form of fewer ready acquisition targets and increased costs, most notably those related to health care.

Gilson positions itself as a one-stop shop, offering a wide variety of services including large-format, mailing, traditional sheetfed offset, short-run digital black-and-white and color, specialized composition, programming, web development and websites, kit packing and fulfillment.

Clients include medium to large corporations “because they need and purchase our services on a regular basis,” said president Dave Gilson. Among its largest are American Seating, Wolverine Shoes, and Wonderland Graphics.

In all, the company recorded sales last year of approximately $23 million, and business in the early summer months of June and July was brisk, up about 5 percent.

As so many printers have found, the market is in transition. Nearly 40 percent of Gilson's work is offset printing; a decade ago, it was closer to 90 percent, according to Gilson. "Offset,” he noted flatly, “is not growing."

The staff includes 19 sales people, “each of whom sells some but not all of our services,” Gilson explains. “Most of our clients buy several of our services; few, if any, buy all of them.” In marketing to potential clients, Gilson and his staff “can appeal to a larger audience through offering more services, and offer solutions to areas where they may be having issues. We also can then grow our business through offering more services to existing clients.”

Expansion through acquisition has proven a successful strategy for Gilson. Over the years, the company has acquired eight different local companies, each valued at between $1 million and $2 million. As a result, its employee ranks have swelled from 45 to 165. Cross-training his staff, Gilson explains, “has allowed us to be flexible when one portion of the business happens to busy yet another may be slow.”

The company operates out of three locations: two in Grand Rapids (one a 165,000-sq.-ft. facility, the other a 30,000-sq.-ft. plant for traditional offset and bindery) and a 5,000-sq.-ft. composition facility in Atlantic, IA.

Enter Inkjet

Formerly known as Gilson Press -- the original letterpress shop was founded by Gilson’s father in 1948 – the firm’s Rapid Print Group still houses three 40-inch sheetfed (offset) presses and a full bindery. Over the course of the last three years, Gilson and his management team have concentrated on inkjet, both sheet- and web-fed, and the installation of a new MIS system. The firm added the Fujifilm J Press two-and-a-half years ago and is currently running two and a half shifts on it.

"The J Press is extremely productive," said Gilson. "It has substantially higher margins than 40-inch offset. We run general commercial work on it," such as brochures and marketing literature. The J Press at Gilson is limited to 2,000 sheets for non-variable work.

The company also has Fujifilm W inkjet web press, which it uses for book and booklet work. Gilson called it "faster than toner." It is also used for medium runs of coupons and flyers at 600x600 dpi resolution. The unit now accounts for about 30 percent of the firm's work, he added, and that volume is growing at about a 10 percent annual pace.

Looking Ahead

Gilson will continue offering an array of services and maintain its focus on “key growth areas and cross-selling additional services to existing accounts,” its preseident reported.

Growth in the year ahead will come primarily in digital and design, he predicted. “I think that marketplace is growing, that there is a growing demand for it, and that we are good at what we do there. I think we’ve got the capability to give our customers what they want when they want it, and at a price point that they can afford.”

Marketing continues to be an area of focus for Gilson. The company brought aboard Kim Hasenbank in 2013 to serve as its first-ever marketing manager and developed a marketing department.  As he heads into 2015, Gilson says he is keeping his options open because “the crystal ball is cloudy.”

Geography and the marketplace may conspire to slow Gilson’s growth-through-acquisition strategy, he explained. “We’re always looking for an acquisition that might be a good fit, but I don’t necessarily see that happening. We try to limit ourselves geographically to within an hour or two’s drive, and I am not aware of any companies within that radius that are currently looking to be bought.”

The major challenge during the year ahead, Gilson projected, will be controlling costs. “Everyone talks about health care, but in the state of Michigan there is now, just as a small example, a 1 percent tax on your health-care payments. Obamacare has what my health insurance agent calls a ‘belly button’ tax (actually a ‘reinsurance fee’ paid by every company that provides insurance). Then on top of that, you have four mandated coverages that you didn’t have before that came into effect over the last two years.”

Gilson sees these as “growing, compounding costs on health care that are making it difficult for businesses to continue to offer the quality health-care benefits they want at a price point that they can afford.”