Remember a few years back—okay, maybe decades—when computers infiltrated the workplace and conventional wisdom assured us that print was dead? Wrong! The independent dealers we interviewed for this feature report that print and printed promotional materials isn’t just alive and well, but thriving. Lisa Veeck finds out what they have to say:
Who’s selling what?
At Office Express Office Products, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, print and promotional products account for 8–10 percent of the company’s $15 million in annual sales—and Benjamin Keel, president and co-owner, forecasts that number will rise. “We do more in the print area, but in promotions, we do a lot of trinkets, like stress balls, coffee mugs and frisbees,” he says. “Whatever companies want their logo on, we can do. Print and promo is far and away the most profitable portion of our business and a huge growth area for us because, honestly, it’s a segment we haven’t gone after before. Now, we are connecting with customers and letting them know we offer it. It can take a while to gain their trust, but once you have completed a project and have something to show them, the proof is in the pudding. It’s a great way to make up profit margins on office products lost to Amazon.”
Upon request, Office Express also creates portals that allow customer employees to order customized items the company has agreed they can purchase, which, Keel reports, breeds greater client “stickiness” and loyalty.
About 30 percent of Katy, Texas-based Butler Business Products’ $2 million in annual sales is attributable to paper and promo. Along with what most distributors consider “the usual—business cards, letterheads, envelopes and the like”—the company sells a lot of wearables.
“Being in Texas, we have a lot of customers in the oil and gas industries, but education is by far our biggest customer in the category,” reports CEO Stacy Duke. “The schools put their name and/or logo on anything and everything they can, from T-shirts to chairs to trashcans.”
Butler also produces complete exhibition packages, including flyers and brochures, walls and tents. Its promo offerings range from logo-inscribed chocolate in order sizes ranging from 100 to 200,000 to plush animals.
Print and promo accounts for 33 percent of sales—and 42 percent of gross margins—of the $15–20 million annual sales at Storey Kenworthy, Des Moines, Iowa. Interestingly, the company fell into the category a bit by accident.
“We had always sold a little print and promo, and we would broker the business out,” explains vice-president Lincoln Dix. “But 15 years ago, we bought another company. We did due diligence, but sometimes you don’t find things out until after the purchase. The shareholders thought it mostly sold furniture and office products but later realized it was also heavily into print. As John Kenworthy [owner] explained it, management had to take a step back and work out if this was an area they wanted to invest in, and they decided it was a natural fit.”
Storey Kenworthy divides the category into three segments: traditional print, like forms, letterheads and business cards; customer-branded products, such as mugs; and its most lucrative products, branded apparel. Because most orders are in bulk, the company offers send-on-demand. “Typically, it’s not a few keychains, but 500,” says Dix. “Sometimes we ship all 500, but often we warehouse them so they can have us send whatever number they need when they need them.”
Some of the most curious printed items the company sells? “It’s not super odd, but one of the most interesting is ballots for federal—including for US president—state and local elections,” replies Dix. “Every four years, we get a huge order; and we get big ones for the midterms. We also do ballots for unions, school boards and other entities. We have an excellent team because these require high accuracy and precision. We also handle mission-critical and security items. For example, a power plant was being brought back online and it needed high-visibility vests with a logo and a name patch for each employee. We do many of the jobs in-house, but in this case, we took them to a local seamstress. It shows the level of service and effort we are willing to take to help our customers.”
FriendsOffice, Findlay, Ohio, enjoys annual sales of $36 million, with $2.5–3 million coming from print and promo. Its main customers are in the education, healthcare and city and county government sectors. FriendsOffice has sold the category for about 30 years, but on a much smaller level. Five years ago, it bought a full-scale print shop. Today, the company offers both digital and web offset printing and employs three designers and four production assistants, according to print manager Jeff Seery. The company has 20–30 sales reps, all of whom sell some print and promo.
Strive Workforce Solutions, Portland, Oregon, has been doing print since its inception 59 years ago. Today, print and promo accounts for 5 percent of its $10 million-plus annual sales. Leading buyers include banks and other financial institutions, supermarkets, construction firms and technology companies. Most print orders are bulk orders that the company warehouses and ships on an as-needed basis, which anchors customers to Strive—especially those with multiple locations.
When it comes to promo products, the sky is the virtual limit. “On our custom promo website, we have literally hundreds of thousands of products,” attests president Jeff Lurcook. “Customers can go on the site, pick out the item they want—like a specific type of golf ball—upload an image and the program will show the image on the ball they selected. Before finalizing the order, they will see an online proof in real time and can make any changes necessary.”
The most successful promo item Lurcook has witnessed is one Strive produces for itself: “We do glass nail files with our logo on them for customer events and tradeshows and get mobbed. The women come and want one for themselves, their daughters and their moms. We’ve done them for bank appreciation days and especially the women employees all want the files.”
Print and promo generates about 2 percent of annual sales at Tempe, Arizona-based Wist Business Supplies and Equipment, with the largest customers hailing from education, state and local governments and the private sector, such as insurance companies, law firms and car dealers. While the segment may not represent a huge portion of its business, it is still a meaningful one.
“It’s a highly profitable category for us because the profit margins are stronger than, say, paper towel, toilet paper and copy paper,” explains president Ian Wist. “I’ll never walk away from the $600,000 we make from it. It’s an area we want to grow, especially for our loyal customers. A lot of the promo we do is mugs, but I have right now a foam truck sitting on my desk and today we just finished a promo for a school: a big red pencil with our name and logo. We also do a lot of embroidery for apparel like shirts and hats.”
Up for the challenge
The dealers all emphasize that—unlike office products, which tend to be transactional—customized business is very high-touch and can require time and patience.
FriendsOffice’s’ Seery identifies several other challenges: “Sales is the most difficult part. It can seem daunting for reps used to selling office supplies and it requires constant training to keep them at the cutting edge. There is also the competition. The market is concentrated, especially in the promo field. Further, many of the smaller shops have been bought up by big conglomerates, so pricing is an issue. Sourcing the cheapest, yet most consistent, quality paper can also be challenging. There are issues with mills not being able to find what we need and we have to source alternatives. Also, we look for paper globally and we try not to raise our prices, but sometimes it’s unavoidable. For example, paper prices in the Middle East have gone way up.”
At Strive, the biggest issue is customer awareness. “We provide so many categories—office products, jan/san, MRO—that it’s a challenge getting the word out that we do print and promo too,” admits Lurcook. “That is part of the reason why, when we rebranded in 2020, we decided we didn’t want ‘office products’ in the name.”
Reaping the benefits
Still, the consensus is that these challenges are far outweighed by the advantages, including repeat orders. “It creates a lot of loyalty,” says Duke. “We can send an email asking if they want any changes to the copy. We have had some of the same customers for the last 15 years because it’s easy for them to reorder.”
Seery agrees: “We do punchouts and print on demand, including for banks and hospitals that have hundreds of forms. Once we set them up, customers can go in and reorder as required. It also means we can better serve our customers’ needs; and customized items are warm and fuzzy—so ‘stickier’—compared to office products. And the whole process, from order to invoice, is automated.”
Strive’s Lurcook believes this automation is an advantage—as is the finality of the orders: “We send a quote and a proof for approval electronically. Once they sign off on a special order, there’s no going back.” Other positives he appreciates include longer lead times and larger orders. “Unless they are new, most customers who place special-order print orders understand that they take time to produce,” he elaborates. “We can accommodate just-in-time orders, but customers usually know they won’t be as high quality and will cost more. So too will smaller orders; the highest printing costs are setup and press time. So, if a customer wants 250 business cards, we will explain that ordering 1,000 is much more cost effective.”
According to Wist, not all the benefits are one-sided: “It’s a category that isn’t often discounted, so customers are less likely to shop around. Customers know who they are dealing with; they already know and trust us. So, it’s convenient for them to be able to bundle it with their regular orders and get one bill.”
Inside and out
Whether to keep everything in-house or use outside vendors varies by dealer. For example, Butler, Strive and Wist outsource printing, though sales reps often get involved in the creative process. Story Kenworthy employs a full-time designer. At FriendsOffice, “Most of our jobs are done in-house, but two of our production assistants focus on outsourcing for jobs that don’t fit or can’t be done on our equipment, like larger laminate jobs that don’t fit on our 28-inch laminator,” says Seery.
Prime promo
For those looking to get started or dive deeper into print and promo, Butler’s Duke recommends: “Buy an existing company. In 2020, we bought Proline Supply, an office products company that did a lot of print and promo, and it really helped our business.”
Storey Kenworthy’s Dix suggests: “If you are interested in it, do it. It’s a great piece of business to add on. But it requires training. We have been doing this for 15-plus years and just found out there is a certification for print and promo salespeople. It’s offered through PPAI [ppai.org], an association similar to ISG. We had no idea it existed; but whether your team get certified or not, training is very important, as it adds credibility.”
Seery from FriendsOffice agrees: “It’s really important to have a diversified workforce trained in the category. It can be painful, but it’s a must. Otherwise, you are never going to get off the starting line.”
Strive’s Lurcook echoes these recommendations: “Have someone on staff with print and promo experience. If you don’t, hire them. We hired Tyler, who has a print and graphics background, 15 years ago and every special-order project crosses his desk. He also deals directly with customers. Some things in printing can get pretty technical and Tyler can explain them better. If someone sends a picture, he can tell them we need it in a JPEG or GIF format, better than the salesperson. So, pay a little more and hire someone with experience.”
Wist concludes: “Be specific in the details so the customers get exactly what they want and it’s a positive experience. Otherwise, it’s not a complex category. It’s not hard to do, so don’t be afraid to get into it.”