Printing Impressions 300 Fast-Track Firm: Salem One

The “Fast-Track” company profiles provide insight on why some companies on the Printing Impressions annual list of the largest printing companies in the U.S. and Canada have performed so well. We spoke with them to find out how they view their companies and the printing industry in general moving forward.

The businesses recognized as this year’s fast-track firms attribute their successes to a variety of factors, including investments in technology, business acquisitions, strategic relationships, and a narrow focus on the things they do well.

Read below why Printing Impressions recognized Salem One as a Fast-Track Firm.

Salem One | Winston-Salem, North Carolina

Most Recent Fiscal Year Sales: $52.2 million
Previous Fiscal Year Sales: $38.6 million
Percentage Change: 35%

A focus on strategic expertise is one of the contributing factors to Salem One’s 35% growth since last year, Phil Kelley (right), CEO, explains. Here he stands with Kevin Byerly, bindery supervisor. | Credit: Salem One

When it comes to growth and success, Salem One doesn’t necessarily feel like it needs to reinvent the wheel. In fact, Phil Kelley, president and CEO, notes, “Salem One is proud to ‘be a printer’ and loves the manufacturing — what we call execution — side of our company.”

That said, he also notes that “the old view of quality, service, and price are all now table stakes in execution. Strategic expertise and consumer-focused outcomes are the basis of our relationships.”

What does that mean, exactly, and how has the company turned that into double-digit growth in the past year?

“We want our brand associated with strategic expertise, focused specifically on corporate communications,” Kelley says. “We want to be agnostic for our clients, as we analyze each client opportunity, in what the right way to communicate is for each program. What matters to clients is response rates for direct marketing, consumer enjoyment for corporate signage, and supply chain dependability and efficiency for packaging.”

But getting to that point isn’t just a matter of sitting back and hoping the work will come in. Rather, Kelley points out that the growth Salem One is seeing now is a direct result of time, money, and efforts that have all been strategically focused on areas the company wanted to expand. And the results speak for themselves.

“We have spent a great deal of money and time growing the foundations for enterprise client success,” Kelley notes. “The chicken or the egg question is easy to answer but difficult to deploy. As the answer is, you must invest in the foundation prior to having the opportunity. In today’s world, you are only as good as your last month, having partnerships that understand this reality is critical.”

And Kelley isn’t planning to slow down any time soon when it comes to the investments, the expansion into strategic areas that complement print, and taking advantage of new opportunities as they arise. In particular, he notes he is paying close attention to right now as he determines how it will impact his business in the coming months and years.

“Data, data, data is everywhere,” he says. “Yet, the quality and understanding of data — with the ability to deploy specifically and relationally — is practically nowhere. We must stay focused. With exploding communication technology and opportunity, we must be careful not to chase the next hot thing. We must stay focused on results, while keeping up with the next technology, [which is] very difficult to do.”

Equipment investments to make the company more competitive is on his immediate agenda for next year. “We are in a strong growth phase with opportunities to move up the relationship chain in size of jobs,” he notes. “The challenge at each new level of size is throughput speed. Speed to market and absolute dependability to market are our bread and butter. We will invest heavily in new equipment and expertise, but we must integrate extraordinarily well along the way.”

Kelley is incredibly optimistic about the future, not only for his own company, but for the printing industry in general. He believes there will be continued growth in the coming years — not just for Salem One, but for all printers that embrace print as a critical component of a wider communication strategy.

“Now is the best time ever to be a printer,” he says. “We believe our entire industry is in the ideal position to seize the title of ‘the corporate communication experts’ in a world that seems to be communicating more and more poorly, with lower response rates, more communication technology continues to expand. Let’s all speak loudly and confidently about our abilities, the abilities of our industry, to answer that call. All boats can rise.”