Cedar Graphics' Secret Recipe to Success

Achieving customer loyalty is not an easy play in the graphic arts industry, as customers come and go too often depending on price. But Cedar Graphics, a multiple award-winning printing company located in Hiawatha, Iowa, has achieved the seemingly impossible: building an extremely loyal fan base, both within the local region as well as nationwide and even overseas. What's their secret?

There’s no one answer. Cedar Graphics’ existence began rather humbly – not unheard of in the printing industry – in the back of a grocery store, under the name FHC Printing Company. While business continued to grow, under the moniker Igram Press, it is under the leadership of current owner Haasan Igram (original owner Charlie Igram’s son), beginning in 1983, that the company, now called Cedar Graphics, found its footing as a modern graphic communications company, expanding into digital printing, wide format, e-commerce, and  fulfillment. Clients span Fortune 500 companies, publishers and agencies, storefronts, and entrepreneurs.

Cedar Graphics has won multiple awards – 25 in all, including several as Best Printer in the Corridor and Gold Addys – a testament to the company’s passion for the industry and the work it delivers, and its commitment to its customers. “Printing is a very rewarding and honorable profession,” said Justin McDonald, marketing solutions manager at Cedar Graphics. “It’s very much the story of America, and it’s important to tell that story every day.”

That passion is an integral part of Cedar Graphics operation. “This talk about whether printing is a commodity or a craft; a commodity is a craft that has lost his passion,” asserted McDonald.

“If you forget the passion of why you first got involved in this industry, and then communicate to other designers and marketers that you forgot the passion, not only does your print shop become a commodity, the whole industry does,” added McDonald.

Those are pretty heady words, easily construed as being over-sentimental or, even worse, hypocritical.

While being customer-centered is a claim that many in the industry reportedly adhere to, Cedar Graphics puts its money – and its business plan – where its mouth is. Its expansion into digital printing in 2002, web-to-print in 2004, UV sheetfed offset in 2006, fulfillment, and wide format graphics, all were the result of responding to customers’ needs.

However, while it considers itself a full-service printer, Cedar Graphics has drawn a line in the sand, choosing to not provide design and creative services. “A lot of printers have made a full leap into full service, to offer creative and other design-related services,” noted McDonald. “We made a conscious decision that we will not do that. We value our relationships with agencies and designers; everything we’ve done has been to support them. We listen and partner with our clients without stepping on their toes; we don’t want to compete with our client base.”

Some of Cedar Graphics’ offerings, such as cross media and web-to-print, are white label services available only to its designer and agency clients.

 “Our goal is to set our clients up for success, without being in the direct creative side and competing with them,” added McDonald. He also emphasized the importance of paying attention to your clients.

 “It’s crucial to listen to what your customers are asking for, and be willing to ask those follow-up questions,” said McDonald. “They will tell you what their demands are if you listen quietly. We were hesitant to get into fulfillment area, but more and more of our clients begin asking for the service.”

Today, the fulfillment end of the business requires handling a wide variety of shipping and distribution needs for clients both large and small.  In addition to a logistics department and traffic management team, the capabilities extend to Cedar Graphics operating its own truck fleet, in addition to common carriers such as well FedEx, UPS, and DHL.

Cedar Graphics technology picks ensure the company can produce the high quality work its clients demand. Using EFI Pace to automate its MIS, Cedar Graphics is able to efficiently move jobs throughout the shop, whether the final run entails hundred of thousands of pieces for a large entertainment company, or 50 labels for a local entrepreneur selling peanut butter at the farmer’s market.

By early July, it expects to have its latest UV press from KBA, its third, ready for action: this one is an eight-color KBA Rapida 106 with LED UV. Cedar Graphics also has two KBA Rapida 105 41-inch sheetfeds – a six-color and a 10-color five-over-five perfector, also UV.

We were very early into UV offset, explained McDonald. “With UV comes higher quality printing, the ability to run specialty substrates, lower dot gain, andcool effects online,” he said.

Cedar Graphics produces a lot of higher end work, he explained, “and even with the variable data work our customers expect the Cedar quality, but in digital. We do a lot of higher education work; beautiful personalized, data-driven pieces. So we saw the need to get into digital; not just digital, but high-quality digital.”

That requirement led to the company purchasing only Indigo digital presses –  a five-color (CMYK + white ink) HP Indigo 10000 and a six-color HP 7800, equipped with white ink, raised ink, and strike through effects.

It’s wide-format equipment includes a Fuji Acuity four-color UV flatbed with white and raised/varnish, and a 64-inch rollfed HP Latex 360 .

“Wide format is a touchy area for printers,” said McDonald. “It takes up a lot of space, and you are handling a lot of little orders. It requires a lot of management.”

But the investment has been worth the effort, opening up new doors and leading Cedar Graphics into the web-to-print arena, a big growth area for the company.

 “We are doing a lot more integration with web-to-print involving all the different processes we have in our shop,” reported McDonald. Cedar Graphics' web portal is self-hosted. “What we’ve done with the software and integration is unique; it’s our own little secret sauce.”

Along with the move into web-to-print, Cedar Graphics has also directed a lot of its efforts to the online world, recognizing that search engines play a big role on how people find solutions today.

“What we are seeing, instead of calling their local people, potential customers will type into their search engine ‘What is the difference between reticulating and strike through varnish?’ We just started answering the call,” said McDonald. “ If people are searching for information, we will provide it for them.” 

“The more info you put out there, the more response you’ll get,” said McDonald. “And if they don’t use us, if that information ends up paying the bills for a press operator in New Hampshire instead of Iowa, it’s all good.

He also acknowledged that graphic designers don’t typically have the same expertise on print production they did 10 years ago, given that so much of their work is done for the web. “There are so many more manufacturers, types of equipment, types of production processes – it’s impossible for a designer to stay on top of it all,” McDonald said.

McDonald’s advice to other printers: Open up your doors and let everyone see how you do it.

“We try to share a lot,” he remarked. “You have to share; you have got to open up your door and bring in the public, educate them, let them know about your capabilities – otherwise your equipment will get dusty.

“You have to offer the path of least resistance,” continued McDonald, “If you aren’t going to make it easier to do business with your company, that’s fine. I am. And they will come do business with me.”