Lebon Press: Leap to color is critical to third generation family-owned company’s success
By George Linkletter
Each year roughly half of all new businesses in the U.S. fail, according to statistics compiled by the Small Business Administration. So a company like Lebon Press, founded in Hartford, Conn. in 1925 and still operating more than 80 years later, deserves accolades, if only for its remarkable longevity.

But dig a little deeper and the story of Lebon Press becomes more intriguing. During the past six years, when the business and economic environment in New England was anything but kind to printers, Lebon Press, has grown by about 40 percent, according to Andy Lerner, the firm’s third-generation owner.

Good luck and good timing
How has the firm, which employs 35 workers in its 30,000 square-foot site, prospered during a difficult period when an estimated 40 percent of its nearest competitors went bust? By investing in new capabilities, by streamlining internal workflows, by producing a top quality product, and by providing the best possible customer service.

Lerner admits that it also took a bit of luck, or at least good timing. Lebon Press made a huge investment in a new color press in 1998 which, in retrospect, gave the firm two solid years to establish the new capability with customers, and speed its return on investment, before the region’s economy weakened in 2000.

Had the same investment in the five-color plus Aqueous coating Sakurai press been made just two years later, Lerner believes he may have missed a closing window of opportunity due to the changing economy. Looking back, his timing was right on the mark and lebon Press was able to establish new accounts in the four-color market. Without that investment in 1998, Lebon Press might be a statistic today instead of an 80-year-old business, with a healthy 70/30 mix of full color and two-color work, and good prospects for continued growth.

A strategic shift to color printing
“There is no doubt in my mind that if we had not made the investment in color printing capability when we did, and opened the door to more sophisticated and higher volume work, we would not be here today,” Lerner said. That’s a pretty strong indication of the importance of color printing today, as well as the limited prospects for firms that try to specialize in anything less than full color printing.

At the time of the investment, the shift to color printing was a huge move for the firm. Lebon Press was already successful and had prospered for decades by focusing primarily on printing two-color work. Indeed, Lerner’s grandfather Samuel Lebon, who founded the firm, weathered no less an economic downturn than the stock market crash of 1929 and the ensuing Great Depression by relying on the nuts and bolts of printing stationery, business cards and simple legal documents.

Throughout the company’s early years, the firm’s focus on high quality, single-color work — and superior customer service — was steadily bolstered as it added new technologies, such as linotype and other typesetting equipment, and expanded its capabilities in copy and layout services. And the stream of work, which now included extensive legal briefs, announcements and miscellaneous brochures, kept pace and was easily handled by the firm.

New leadership brings fresh ideas
The second generation became involved in 1958 when Andy’s father, Robert Lerner, joined Lebon. Robert handled sales for many years and became closely attuned to the changing needs and expectations of customers. For example, he championed the need to keep abreast of change by expanding into offset printing, which paid off for Lebon via higher quality output and faster speeds.

After 50 years at the helm of Lebon Press, Samuel passed away in 1977 and management of the firm passed to Robert, known as ‘Bob’ in the industry. He continued making regular investments in new and upgraded technology, most notably through modest press-size upgrades and additional two-color presses, as well as expanding into products such as business forms and envelope printing that local printers typically did not handle.

Andy Lerner, the third generation to work at Lebon, officially joined the firm in 1984 after graduating from college, but he actually started working while still in high school, helping out in the shipping and receiving department by wrapping and delivering packages of finished product to customers.

Naturally inquisitive, he continually asked questions and soon become intrigued with the business. He continued working at Lebon Press during vacations in high school and college, and decided to join the firm full time. Soon thereafter he took an estimating class to better understand cost analysis.

“That course gave me a great overview of the business and helped me understand the key principles, especially how the various costs of production, coupled with the performance of equipment, impacted productivity and profitability,” he explained. “The same printing job can vary dramatically in cost and quality, simply because of the different equipment and workflows used by different shops. The experience really underscored the need to keep technologies and procedures up to date and to match our capabilities with customer requirements.”

After joining Lebon, Lerner held a series of positions including estimating, customer service, inside sales, production, and scheduling. These covered almost every aspect of the business and he eventually rose to the position of vice president of operations. He became president in 1994.

In fact, he believes that the comprehensive hands-on exposure he gained to the business, both early in his career and immediately after college, provided an exceptionally solid foundation and helped prepare him to eventually run the company. He also credits the patient and knowledgeable mentoring provided by his father.

“Unlike some other family businesses, both my grandfather and father had no trouble delegating responsibilities and ‘letting go,’ he said. “That willingness to share responsibilities, and yet still be available to openly discuss new ideas and approaches, was invaluable. It showed they knew change was inevitable and wanted to find the best way to satisfy the customer and grow the business. They always looked to the future and were more interested in whether an idea had merit than who may have come up with it. That kind of openness stimulates new ideas and leads to flexibility and innovation.”

And innovation is something that Lerner, like this father and grandfather before him, takes very seriously. The investment in a color press may be the most visible example of innovation at Lebon Press, but it certainly isn’t the only one.

President makes other investments
Indeed, it may have been Lerner’s steady and ongoing investments — to improve workflow and to upgrade other equipment such as prepress and binding equipment — that helped make the case for the color press. In effect, the other key aspects of the business had been bolstered on a regular basis, so there was less competing need for capital.

As an example, nearly 20 years ago Lerner decided to buy the firm’s first Apple Macintosh personal computing system, which greatly facilitated productivity and growth in the prepress department. He also advocated the purchase of the firm’s first 40-inch press, which enabled the firm to handle higher-volume book printing jobs as well as other oversized work that previously could not be printed internally.

More recently, the firm added an ICC color profiling capability, which allows the complete calibration of color print files for scanning, proofing and press functions using the same once-ripped files, and yields exceptionally high print resolution possible.

The firm’s color capability was further enhanced by the acquisition in 2004 of a six-color, 40-inch Heidelberg Speedmaster press with aqueous coating and perfecting
features. The Speedmaster broadens the firm’s color capabilities even more. The wider print capacity accommodates larger format jobs. And thanks to the use of the aqueous coating feature, jobs can be backed up and finished without the time-consuming wait for ink curing.

As a result, hundreds of hours of on-press time are added back into the production schedule, shortening the production cycle and yielding a more efficient press and bindery operation.

The most recent investment was a thermal Fuji Javelin computer-to-plate imaging device, which substantially upgrades the firm’s digital prepress operation.

“We are now on our second generation of CTP technology,” said Lerner, “and the Javelin increases our capacity, assures finer dot reproduction and higher level of quality, shrinks the plate to press process by hours, and minimizes the need for costly AAs (author alterations) on press.”

Taken together, these investments in color printing and prepress technology are a significant advance for small, family-owned company like Lebon — not to mention a departure from the firm’s one-color origins — but they are consistent with the efforts of Lerner, and his father and grandfather, to continually upgrade capabilities to meet the evolving needs of customers.

Other investments such as cutting and finishing systems are being considered.

Adding value by helping print buyers
Despite all that, Lerner is quick to point out that challenges still lie ahead. One is how to deal efficiently with the wide range of expertise among print buyers and graphic designers. “Prior to the shift to digital technology, many customers employed print buyers who were extremely knowledgeable about the printing process and the intricacies of laying color down,” he said.

“But as corporations have become more lean, many of these jobs were eliminated or combined, and that huge store of production knowledge has dissipated,” Lerner said. “Plus, many of the younger and newer people in the industry are extremely computer literate, but are inexperienced with the nuances of laying color on paper.”

The impact of the disparity in skill levels means printers must be flexible in its dealings with customers.

At one extreme, the firm works efficiently with those remaining veterans in the industry who thoroughly understand the color printing process and are savvy in building their print files. At the other extreme, the firm must work as a coach or partner and offer diplomatic advice and short cuts to those who are still learning the intricacies of sourcing print and placing job orders.

Lerner is also carefully monitoring the emergence of variable digital printing. He hasn’t invested in the capability yet because too few his customers are interested in the technology and “some of the giants who have already invested are having troubling selling their capacity,” he pointed out. It may be that VDP is still too new, or just hasn’t found enough converts in the markets he serves. For now, Lerner has taken a “wait and watch” position.

He is undecided about what level of additional investment in mailing he may make in the future, however, Lebon continues to meet the mailing needs of its clients today.

Another area that holds little interest for him is to provide graphic design or marketing services. “We deal with dozens of designers, who work either as freelancers or in agencies, and they bring us a wide variety and a large volume of work. I prefer to work with those professionals as clients and as a source of new business and not as competitors.

Future challenges await
Lerner still believes Lebon can duplicate its recent success and grow by another 40 percent or so over next five or six years. “We’ve already added larger sheet sizes, more colors, faster print speeds, enhanced print quality, and compressed turnaround times,” he said. “We have a great platform and all we need to do is maximize our production capacity. There’s strong demand out there for short to medium run color printing.”

Lerner sees other new business opportunities in the major corporations in the state, in the financial services industry, and to some extent in the health care arena as hospitals and health care facilities continue to step up their efforts to attract patients.

There’s only one factor that could prevent Lebon Press from achieving its growth potential, according to Lerner, and that’s a lack of exposure.

“Our presence has grown immensely in such a short period of time that many corporate print buyers and agencies may not be aware of who we are and what we do. My goal is to better market and communicate our expertise.

The significant investments and change of focus has helped Lebon Press leap into the color market.

“If we can just get the word out about our capabilities and our company’s cumulative printing experience of more than 400 years, I’m confident we’ll get more than our share of new work.”

About the author: George Linkletter is a freelance writer who writes regularly about high volume printing. He can be reached by e-mail at or by calling 860-350-4043.