Mass Web Printing Company: Cold set web printing company on solid footing, sees bright future
By John Scibelli
Over 18 years of operation, the Mass Web Printing Company in Auburn, Mass. has achieved an enviable track record as a reputable cold set web printing company. The company has garnered steady growth due to consistent employee performance, careful planning, execution and oversight by on-site managers, and a hands-off approach from ownership.

As the calendar turns to December, the smiles across the faces of senior management is visual proof that 2005 is winding down as a much better year for business performance than any of the three previous years.

General Manager Dick Gooding, a 30-year industry veteran who has been at the helm at Mass Web for a year, said the company’s annual gross sales are near $10 million. He described the firm’s three to five percent increase in annual sales volume as “reasonable growth” and said the business outlook for 2006 is good.

The future is bright in part due to major capital investments such as a computer to plate workflow and collating equipment, a solid book of business, momentum in sales, and a committed workforce that takes pride in its work.

The Phoenix buys Colony Press
Mass Web Printing is one business unit of the Phoenix Media Communications Group (PMCG) of Boston, which is owned by Stephen Mindich. Mindich started The Boston Phoenix, a weekly tabloid that broke into the Boston market in the late 1960s as an alternative to the established metropolitan newspapers serving the marketplace.

The Phoenix succeeded in attracting a broad advertising base mixed with editorial content that focused on arts, entertainment and lifestyle topics geared to younger, upwardly mobile people.

Mindich’s paper survived and eventually thrived, spawning similar ventures in nearby Worcester, Providence, R.I., and Portland, Maine, all of which were printed at Mass Web at one time. The Worcester Phoenix was discontinued within the last two years, but the Boston, Providence and Portland editions are thriving. A fourth title, Stuff At Night, is doing well and is also printed at the Auburn printing company.

From its start, Mindich’s paper was printed at The Colony Press in Worcester. Mindich was Colony’s largest customer. Colony Press owner Donald Conant and Mindich developed a strong printer-client relationship over the years as The Phoenix grew in stature through the 1970s and 80s.

In 1987 Conant proposed that Mindich buy the company. Ownership of Colony Press transferred to Mindich on Oct. 1, 1987 and the company name was changed to the Mass Web Printing Company.

A common misconception is that the word “Mass” in the company name refers to Massachusetts. That is not the case. It means “mass,” as in a large volume.

Looking back, Mindich and Barry Morris, president of PMCG, never ran the day-to-day operations at Mass Web, and never anticipated owning a commercial printing company.

Today Mass Web Printing is one of the more profitable of the four business units within the PMCG umbrella, which has grown over the years to include a radio station and communications technology interests, and its newspaper operations.

Mindich and his second-in-command H. Barry Morris, who oversees the Mass Web operation, have been blessed with talented print managers who handle daily operations, develop strategic planning and pass their recommendations and funding requests up the corporate ladder for their review and approval.

There have been only two general managers in Mass Web Printing’s existence, and Gooding, the second GM, has just completed his first year.

Donald Orciuch, who spent all of his working life at Colony Press, went with the company when it was sold, renamed, and moved from Worcester to nearby Auburn.

Orciuch died suddenly in May 2004. Gooding, who has also spent his entire working career in the printing industry, joined the firm last fall.

Gooding depends on a group of key managers to keep the 75-employee company rolling forward. The management team includes Controller Chuck O’Malley, Sales Manager Bob Allen, Operations Manager Paula Burton, Prepress Manager Lori Kondratowicz, Pressroom Manager Charlie Cazeault, Mailroom Manager Kris Breen, and Facilities Manager Joe Zastawny.

Taking care of all clients
In addition to owning Mass Web Printing, PMCG also happens to be the printing company’s largest client, accounting for almost 50 percent of the printing company’s sales volume. The Boston and Providence editions of The Phoenix are printed at Mass Web as is Stuff @ Night, a newer tabloid title that comes stitched inside a glossy cover. The Portland Phoenix was once printed at Mass Web, but it made more business sense to have that publication printed closer to the market it serves.

While Gooding, his managers and employees all understand the importance of taking care of their parent, they never let the Phoenix’s position as largest client affect service in anyway to other clients.

With a client list dominated by one massive client, there wasn’t as much need for Mass Web to have a full-fledged sales staff, however, the corporate thinking began to shift in recent years and now there is no looking back.

Sales Manager Bob Allen has been with the company since 1991. He has steadily cultivated a nice assortment of other clients to broaden Mass Web’s customer base.

“Weekly tabloid products tend to be our wheel-house, however, tab books is a growing segment of our core business,” Allen said.

Allen has also brought in other weekly bi-weekly and monthly publications; and even clients who publish only once or twice a year. The frequency doesn’t matter to Mass Web. If a client needs their services, they gladly comply.

For many printers including Mass Web, 2005 is turning out to be a strong rebound from the past two or three years of flat sales.

“The high water mark for this company in terms of sales and profit was in 1999,” Gooding said. “Things began to tail off in late 2000 and sales stayed flat right through 2003. We gained a little in ’04 and are gaining more this year.”

He attributes the uptick in part to improved economic conditions — although energy prices and paper prices concern him going into 2006 — and offered praise for Allen’s leadership efforts in sales.

“The veteran sales guys get the orders that make money,” the general manager said. “Bob has been at this for a while now, and in the last few years we’ve gone aggressively after new accounts. The dividends are starting to pay off.”

One employee has shifted from prepress to splitting her time between sales support to Bob Allen and customer service support. And a second person is now devoted fulltime to sales. Over time, Gooding hopes to commit more resources to sales and customer service. He added, however, that it has been a long-standing practice that all customer-facing employees are involved with customer service and customer support.

Allen said establishing a relationship with a prospective client can take six to eight months before winning the prospect’s trust in securing a printing job.

“Once we get a client, we rarely lose them,” Allen said. Gooding added Mass Web’s exceptional print quality and superior customer service are winning factors.

“We’ve learned a lot from servicing our parent — our toughest client,” the GM said. “They keep us sharp.

“We stand on value,” Gooding said. “If we can’t sell somebody and tell them we’re going to be higher in price, then we haven’t established value in this business. We haven’t lost many customers, and as I look back over the years of this company’s history, not many bottom feeders are still around. They no longer exist.”

As any printer knows, bottom feeders is the unflattering term to a vendor whose bids for work are consistently below the bids of most competitors. The bottom feeders undercut competitors in a desperate attempt to win printing jobs. It’s a losing proposition because their bids are usually for less than the actual cost to do the job, (not including a small profit margin). Bottom feeders eventually go out of business. Their assets often end up in the hands of their more reputable competitors.

In its 18 years, Mass Web has never played that game. They bid fairly. If they get the job, they execute on all cylinders to uphold their side of the contract and more. If they lose the bid to a competitor, they move on to the next prospect.

Goss web press has years of life left
The company’s clients are primarily weekly tabloid newspapers whose publishers are benefiting from an enhanced ability for all cold set web printers to deliver four-color printing.

“There is more color being called for, and we’re gladly responding to that need,” Gooding said. Mass Web’s workhorse — and only — press is a 13-unit Goss International press that was installed in 1993.

“Stephen and Barry showed their commitment to Mass Web early in the company’s history when they bought a 13-unit press,” the GM said. “They knew they were looking at old equipment when the bought the company, and four years later, they made a major investment.”

Gooding and his bosses were pleased that a recent press audit showed there is a lot of life left on the Goss press. As a result, Gooding and his managers are planning capital investments to maximize the remaining years on the press.

Gooding said with add-ons and re-tooling, a lot of life remains on the company’s press. They are evaluating adding more color units to the press.

The present configuration on the Goss press allows Mass Web to run multiple webs through the press for multiple folds. Also, the color configuration on the press allows Mass Web to produce a 24-page signature that can be four-color process, critical to attracting clients who want multi-color food circular advertising inserts for newspapers.

Adding new color units will allow Mass Web to double the number of pages in one signature from the present limit of 24 to 48 pages that can be produced using four-color process.

“The pressure on cold set printers continues to be to cut operating costs and to expand color capabilities and quality of four-color impressions.

“It comes down to color,” Gooding said. “Clients want more color, and it is our job to give it to them.

“The marketplace over the next few years is pretty good for us,” Gooding said. “It’s niche oriented. There is a proliferation of small papers, and one trend we’re seeing is despite things like the Internet, few organizations provide information on a local community or area as well as a small newspaper, or printed directory. The Phoenix continues to be in a strong position in its market as well. We’re pretty pleased with the future outlook.”

One goal management is already at work on is to reduce makeready time, lower startup times, and reduce the amount of waste from each job. Newer registration controls and color controls added to the press in recent years has helped. Cutting waste adds to the bottom line. Production is steady enough where Mass Web runs in the three shifts five days per week.

Not sitting still
Market pressures aside, ass Web spent upwards of $1 million in capital improvements in the last three years. The greatest concentration of that investment was in prepress, were the company spent $300,000 earlier this year to convert to a completely electronic workflow.

After lengthy due diligence, the company settled on a Creo platesetter, a Kodak plate-processor, and a NELA punch-bender that punches and bends the plate automatically and inline.

Prepress Manager Lori Kondratowicz, a 27-year company veteran, said the transition to CTP in August couldn’t have gone smoother and the new electronic workflow is working like a charm.

Now the Creo platesetter can process 38 23 by 35-inch metal plates each hour. Kondratowicz estimates the department is processing 3,000 plates per month.

“My goal was to have a smooth transition when we switched over to CTP,” she said. “It couldn’t have gone any smoother. We had three vendors in here to install three different pieces of hardware that all had to run together. They were installed simultaneously, all while our regular work continued.”

Now, 95 percent of files for printing arrive via file transfer protocol over two high-speed T-1 lines. Kondratowicz’s six-employee department preps the files and it’s not long before the platesetter is humming along. From the Creo platesetter, the Kodak processor, the NELA punch-bender, it doesn’t take long to get plates on press for printing.

Kondratowicz said the department has been running Creo imposition software for years and the department relies on Best XF color management software. “Best holds the integrity of the file well. It’s not the cheapest program out there, but it’s not the most expensive either. It suits our needs well.”

The prepress department relies on a Harlequin RIP for file processing, and steadily the majority of the files to be processed are arriving in PDF format.

Gooding has also beefed up the finishing area with the purchase of a Muller Martini Alphaliner collator which has the capacity to take six different preprinted inserts and wrap them all inside one outer shell at a rate of 13,000 to 15,000 per hour, an appealing feature to any printer whose vast majority of work is printing tabloid newspapers. Think of all the advertising supplements that fall out of the paper when it lands on your kitchen table.

Additional investments in the planning phase include a Videojet Wide Array inkjet mailing system for improved mailing capability. Mailing is a growing area for Mass Web, and a service that clients are inquiring about more and more. Kris Breen manages Mass Web’s growing mailing operation.

“Some clients we mail 100 percent, some only a portion of what we print,” Gooding said. “For example, on a print order of 10,000 pieces, the client may want to distribute 9,000 on their own and ask us to mail 1,000.

“Mailing is a very new value added service. The more additional value you are able to provide, the more your customers want to do business with you,” Gooding said.

Gooding estimates that 25 production employees are cross-trained and have sufficient hands on experience to move around the shop floor and pitch in where any bottlenecks may develop in the collating, mailing and bindery area.

“It helps us tremendously that we have talented employees who have such a positive attitude about doing whatever is necessary to get the work done,” he said.

About the author: John Scibelli is editor of New England Printer & Publisher magazine and director of communications for Printing Industries of New England. He can be reached at 508-804-4113 or by e-mail at .