I've encountered two package printer stories of late which oppose each other but I surmise are typical of the state of things for package printers right now in this economy. Printer A recently added a digital press to its arsenal to address customer demands. I approached this printer to see if it would be interested in participating in our March digital printing feature. I wanted to profile the printer and talk about its successes, particularly in the digital printing arena. Phone calls and emails were exchanged, the deadline for response came and went. Finally I gave the printer a call to see if something was wrong with the questions I sent or to see if my contact there required more time. It turns out, the printer was struggling with reconciling the idea of championing digital printing and its successes with it with the reality that economic conditions called for recent staff layoffs. In the end, we both agreed it would be better to wait until we cover digital again to proceed with our profile. The idea was that hopefully by that time the economy would improve and the laid off employees would be back to work.
I met a Printer B employee at a recent conference. I asked if his business was taking a hit due to the bad economy and he said it really hadn't, that things had slowed down a little bit, but not to the point where the brass at his company are concerned. After lunch, I overheard him talking to someone about how his company doesn't lay people off at times like these. In fact, 20-30 years ago, during a downturn, the presses weren't running, but the pressmen were working, earning pressmen's salaries. The owners put their pressmen to work around the plant, painting buildings as well as a variety of other tasks until business picked up again.
Two opposing ways to handle these hard times, and neither one is better than the other. It all depends on what financial pressures you face. Remember—everyone is affected by what's happening in the economy today. You can see it in the pages of packagePRINTING every month. Let's face it, the issues have been smaller this year than last year so far. Everyone's tightening up, and if printers aren't buying new presses and ancillary converting equipment, then suppliers aren't making the money to put into marketing budgets that help finance our printing costs every month. And this doesn't even scratch the surface of what magazine publishing is going through right now between paper costs, postage costs, down ad revenue, etc.
But, here's where we're looking to help.
In the not too distant future, we'll be writing an article on what you are doing to get through this. We want to hear it all—good and bad, mild and extreme, and the painful. There is no right answer here, and the goal is to present an article that features peers helping peers. There's no easy way to get through this, and while Printer B agreed, at least in theory, that packaging is recession-proof, Printer A is probably thinking he should issue his employees recession-proof vests. We are all truly enduring the current economic climate. We're all wondering how to put bread on our tables and when things are going to turn around, and we all have creative ways of helping each other out—from paying employees to paint the buildings, to the banker that cashes out on his business and takes the money he made and gives it all back to his employees.
So let us know how your company is coping. You can send your recession solutions to tpolischuk@napco.com, cmcloone@napco.com, or missysmith@napco.com.