Lifelong Relationships

All businesses focus on revenue streams, especially during difficult economic times. This runs the gamut from shoring up or expanding existing revenue streams to looking for entirely new ones. In the printing industry, it has become common to see commercial printers look to the packaging segment as a source for new and, hopefully, steady revenue. One problem, however, is that the package-printing industry is highly competitive and getting a piece of the package-printing revenue pie is a difficult undertaking.

One company that successfully made the move into packaging is St. Paul, Minn.-based Impressions Incorporated (www.i-i.com). It made the move more than ten years ago at a time when its base business was on a steady increase.

Impressions was founded in 1967 by Mark G. Jorgensen as a small commercial printing operation with four employees. Jorgensen built the company on a foundation of strong relationships with major companies in the Twin Cities metro area.

According to CEO Mark A. Jorgensen, son of the company's founder, Impressions moved into folding cartons in the mid-1990s at the urging of some customers who were dissatisfied with their current packaging providers. "We had a long history of diecutting complex pieces, which made the transition much easier," says Mark. "Packaging now makes up 75 percent of our business."

Impressions is still a privately held, family-owned business that Mark owns and runs with his two brothers—Mike, who serves as president, and Mitch, the COO.

Today's Impressions

Impressions Inc. supplies its mix of packaging and commercial products into various markets, including pharmaceutical/nutraceutical, medical device, food, software, personal care, health and beauty, and private label. Strong relationships are still the key ingredient that drives the company's operating philosophy. "We work with our customers to create a lifelong relationship," explains Mark. "In order to cultivate these relationships, we rely heavily on the internal harmony and trust this company was founded on. Many of our employees have been with the company for 20 or more years and their children are now employees. We trust each person in our company to make decisions and produce the highest possible quality product for our customers."

Mitch believes that trust and loyalty have provided significant dividends for the company. "I believe our retention of employees is critical to our success," he says. "We hire cautiously and maintain healthy employee relations. Our vendor control and retention is also critical to success. We trust our suppliers and know we are manufacturing from a strong base point."

Many of the markets Impressions serves require quick turnaround times and the company supports this need by providing myriad in-house services. "We try to maximize our vertical integration by providing services in house—package design, graphic design, process engineering, prepress, platemaking, ink mixing, sheeting, diemaking, diecutting, inkjetting, window film, folding, gluing, and kitting/fulfillment," says Chris Sommers, director of sales development. "All in-house services are completed under the watchful eye of our ISO 9001:2000 Quality System."

To provide these value-added services, the company operates with about 250 employees from two manufacturing facilities—its 115,000 sq.-ft. headquarters in St. Paul, Minn., and a 55,000 sq.-ft. facility in Hutchinson, Minn. The operations of these two facilities are linked by a Radius Solutions (www.radiussolutions.com) Pecas Vision management information system.

Impressions Inc. uses sheetfed offset printing, running eight Heidelberg (www.us.heidelberg.com) presses from 20˝ to 40˝ wide and from two to seven colors. The printing operation is supported by a range of converting equipment including nine diecutters, two sheeters, four folder/gluers, nine folders, and window patching, flagging, and inkjetting equipment.

The company is an FSC- and SFI-certified printer, attesting to its commitment to sustainable forestry management. It prints on packaging stock from 40 lb. text up to 40 pt. board and papers ranging from virgin to 100-percent recycled. It uses in-house ink mixing through Kohl & Madden (www.sunchemical.com) and a variety of aqueous, varnish, and hybrid UV coatings.

Impressions relies on automation to run its presses efficiently, says Mike. "We continue to explore further automation improvements in both the pressroom and our converting areas. We are always evaluating new technologies. It is interesting to see the development of digital presses in the packaging markets," he says.

As one example of automation's benefits, Mike says the company has seen dramatic improvements in makeready times through the use of color management. "The color gamut for each press has been defined by printing test forms with IT8 targets [ANSI color specifications]," he says. "From these tests, and with the use of color bars, we can create accurate press curves and color profiles for our proofing devices."

Mike explains that Impressions has integrated its prepress and press operations even further by investing in the Heidelberg Prinect system. "A file is sent to the press console to preset the ink keys, and then the Image Control spectro device measures the sheet to get to color quicker," he says.

The company handles all its prepress work internally. "The many obvious advantages realized by having an in-house prepress department—costs, speed, quality—are augmented by the production advantages of always being at the forefront of new technology," he says.

Impressions also works with EskoArtwork (www.esko.com) as a beta site for new technologies. According to Mike, this collaboration has resulted in the use of high-resolution screening and expanded color gamut printing, called spotfree™.

Expanding customer offerings

Sommers calls the company a unique "hybrid" company, that produces both commercial printing materials and packaging components. "We strive to combine our unique packaging capabilities with our foundation of commercial printing customers," he says. "Having the print quality and prepress expertise of a commercial printer and the structure skill of a package printer presents a great value proposition for customers."

The company expanded this value proposition earlier this year when it introduced a new line of promotional products called iiPromo™. With this program, users can order a pen with a logo or more complex offerings with custom designs.

This was in addition to an existing product program called iiDimensionalMail™, which provides creative direct mail packaging designed to grab a prospect's attention. It is intended to provide unique packages that stand out from the typical flat pieces used in the majority of direct mail programs.

According to Sommers, Impressions is now in the process of combining iiPromo™ with iiDimesionalMail™ under the name of iiDimensionalMarketing™. "Our goal is to help marketers get more response and brand awareness for their products or services," he explains. "We are starting to gain speed with a few long-time customers. The new programs have also opened the door to new prospects as well."

Challenges/opportunities

As with all companies in this difficult business environment, Impressions is doing everything it can to take advantage of an upswing in business whenever it occurs. "This is the worst downturn in 80 years, which has changed everyone's thought process about where they will spend their money, including us," says Mark. "We are very proud that we have not laid-off one person. Impressions has found other ways to cut its spending (furloughs, restricted overtime, etc.) because it is our priority to keep each of our employees."

The packaging industry—particularly in the pharmaceutical and medical device markets—is an area that Sommers highlights for solid business opportunities. "We view these markets as more immune to packaging being sourced outside of the United States," he notes. "Impressions is also expanding its scope beyond the Midwest."

Mark sums up his company's position: "We are, and will be, survivors," he states. "Over the years our core products have slowly expanded. We were once a commercial printer and now we offer everything from packaging and graphic design to promotional product sourcing. I have been in the printing industry for more than 30 years and not a day goes by that I don't learn something new." pP