W.E. Andrews successful formula combines local management with extensive capabilities of RR Donnelley parent
By Nancy Hitchcock
The slogan for W.E. Andrews, a Bedford, Mass., commercial printer, could be “Think globally, act locally,” since it was acquired by RR Donnelley in 2004.

Growing from a privately owned company with annual sales of about $30 million to a publicly held company with more than $11 billion in sales has allowed the company to focus on its local business, yet take advantage of all the capabilities that the world’s largest full-service print provider has to offer. Now, W.E. Andrews can respond to all of its customers needs by offering them cost-effective solutions produced on equipment in the Bedford facility or it can leverage the strengths of the other RR Donnelley locations.

RR Donnelley, which just acquired three new printers in 2007, provides services including book publishing, direct mail, magazine publishing, kitting, fulfillment, and business process outsourcing. Forbes magazine recently featured RR Donnelley in its Forbes Global 2000 special issue, which listed the world’s largest 2,000 companies based on sales, profits, market value, and leading qualities.

RR Donnelley was ranked number 847. Furthermore, Forbes magazine named RR Donnelley as one of Americas best big companies in the media industry category in its Jan. 8th issue earlier this year.

“We’re able to do so much with the breadth of what Donnelley offers as a full-service communications company,” says Stephen Andrews, plant president. “But what’s nice about the situation is that over time, we’ve been able to keep a very local profile —we’re still W.E. Andrews company.”

Transforming over time
Throughout the history of W.E. Andrews, one constant has been its ability to adapt to change. The company started as W.E. Andrews in 1949, then transformed with numerous acquisitions and mergers becoming Graphics Industries, the commercial print division of Wallace, then Moore Wallace, then W.E. Andrews again after RR Donnelley merged with Moore Wallace in 2004.

Warren E. Andrews, who was a pilot in World War II, opened W.E. Andrews in Waltham, Mass., in 1949 as a stationery shop. The company incorporated in 1953 to focus on commercial printing, then moved to its current Bedford facility in 1970. After being acquired by RR Donnelley in 2004, the company maintained its focus on producing commercial printing for local clients.

Today, W.E. Andrews produces approximately $50 million in sales. It operates 24 hours a day, seven days per week to print a wide variety of products including high-end annual reports, museum- quality posters, pocket folders, calendars, and brochures. The 182-employee shop uses four, six, and eight-color sheetfed presses and two Heidelberg six-color web presses. Two ink chemists work at the facility mixing special inks. “It’s a real plus for specialty work,” said Joe Kelley, vice president of sales and marketing. “If the color is not quite right on press, we can respond accordingly with our chemists mixing inks.”

A few years ago the company implemented a computer-to-plate system consisting of a Scitex Lotem 800 Quantum Thermal Platesetter. The workflow will soon change to a Prinergy system to maintain consistency with other Donnelley facilities. A Fuji Luxel Final Proof 5600 produces high-end digital proofs.

A robust online system — called CustomPoint — allows companies to have users all over the world that can customize templates and documents, set parameters, and order as many printed pieces as needed. The print management system enables customers to place orders, check order status, print jobs on demand, and manage their digital assets. The networked infrastructure connects all the RR Donnelley
locations.

Specialty printing services, such as Hexachrome and MetalFX, provide additional selling tools. Services also include inline finishing capabilities and full bindery capabilities.

Another beneficial move was bringing die-cutting equipment in-house 2½ years ago. “We were sending several million dollars of die cutting and scoring out and we were relying on outside services to provide that,” explains Kelley. “So we decided to put in a die cutter and pocket attachment. Now we can do our own pocket folders with scoring and that allowed us to maintain our quality level and keep a value added in the building.”

In keeping with Donnelley standards, the printer received FSC certification and ISO 14001:2004 becoming a Green Enterprise. It also became more efficient after achieving ISO 9001. “The return on investment is that you don’t have to reprint products,” states Kelley.

A balance of services
As Donnelley continues to grow and acquire new companies with unique strengths, W.E. Andrews has more services from which to draw. RR Donnelley’s recent acquisition of Banta, for example, which has additional inline finishing on its web presses in its Danbury, Conn., facility is now available for use for printing done in Bedford if necessary.

“Now we have access to a plant in the New England area that we can use for inline capabilities, mailing, and variable imaging inside and outside,” explains Kelley. “Upper management is pretty astute on how to balance out the portfolio. What happens now is that when the sales people talk to clients there might be a need that we can’t produce locally. But if they allow us to fit the product to the best machine, we can tie in the best manufacturing practice for the client. We can produce the best product more economically using the right equipment.”

Victor Curran, sales executive, agrees, citing a recent example. “I had a situation exactly a week ago, where somebody gave me a job that had to be mailed yesterday for an event happening this Saturday,” he explains. “Our plant here was full. If this plant was the full extent of what I had access to, I would have had to turn that work down. What I was able to do was locate another Donnelly facility that could print the job, meet the deadline, and it dropped in the mail yesterday.”

Aimed at satisfying customers’ requests, employees explore all the available options for producing projects. “It’s a pretty unusual and desirable combination because you have this global capability, but the customer’s experience is entirely local,” enthuses Curran. “Recently, I was talking with someone about catalogs and direct mail and they said they had a 144-page, four-color book and asked if I could help with that. I placed it in an RR Donnelley book manufacturing plant in Virginia and met their budget and deadline. It was produced in Virginia, but their experience was totally local.”

As the company evolves, it now offers not just ink on paper, but services and solutions. “Being under the umbrella of Donnelley allows us to offer a lot of solutions and to come up with things that may not be typical of a traditional commercial printer,” says Kelley. “It could be something as simple as providing logistics. We have a logistics branch. If a company needs not only something printed but distributed across the United States, we can handle that now as opposed to using an outside resource.”

Maintaining flexibility
In addition to adjusting to corporate changes, the company must adapt to industry changes and the demands of its customers.

Because of the fluctuations in businesses and industries, the company purposely serves diverse markets including financial, educational, high-tech, retail, and advertising agencies and designers.

The management team meets weekly to discuss how to best meet customer expectations and what technology investments make sense. The team comprises Steve Andrews, plant president; Brian Hall, vice president of manufacturing; Kelley; Terri Zaccagnini, human resources manager; and Martin Lightcap, controller.

“Because the market’s fluid, we’re fluid,” says Kelley. “We have a huge amount of flexibility. That’s one of the benefits of being part of an $11 billion company: it gives us the stability and financial backing to make the adjustments we need. That’s helped us quite a bit.

“We ask our customers ‘where do you see yourselves in five years?’ because we have capital expenditures,” says Kelley. “We have money we’re going to spend. We don’t want to spend it on the wrong piece of equipment or the wrong piece of software. So it’s important for us to have that dialogue locally and decide what equipment or ancillary services we might need to add or subtract. We’re responding to their needs.”

Offering personable customer service is key to the company’s success. Therefore, it’s important for employees to continuously talk with its customers and reassure them that being part of a large corporation will not turn them into just a number. In speaking with business clients and prospects, employees determine their needs, expectations, operations, and pain points, for example.

“Once they’re involved with us, the way we’re structured is pretty unique,” explains Kelley. “Our sales service department interfaces with the sales rep and the customer or the prospect. Sales service handles everything up to production. When we get into production, we have customer service teams. Each team has a customer service manager. The business partner that we have will always deal with the same individual, so there’s continuity there.

It also allows us to develop a customer profile, and know their corporate standards, such as what they expect, how they expect their proofs, and where products should be shipped.”

Business changing to contractual versus transactional
Being part of a large corporation also enables the company to enter into larger contracts. Corporations are now looking to enter into contractual arrangements with print providers in order to streamline processes and save money.

“We have a few national companies that are trying to bundle their needs and then leverage their buy,” Kelley said. You’re talking about contracts that have sizable spend, and aren’t just printing, but kitting, fulfillment, mailing, shipping, digital asset management, online ordering, and literature management. We’re in a situation now where a client is looking for us to come in and manage their literature and distribution. That’s not uncommon now. Larger companies are asking us to manage portions of their business.”

“Contractual arrangements for volume can be a mutual benefit,” adds Curran, “because there are a lot of invisible costs that are connected with each transaction, such as the time it takes to write up a quote. If you have a contract in place and you don’t have to enter into that dialogue every time you print something; there’s a tremendous savings. It doesn’t show up on the unit cost of this piece, but over a year can save a company thousands or millions of dollars depending on volume.”

Gaining the resources of a huge corporation helps boost profits and manage challenges as they arise.

W.E. Andrews has the best of both worlds. By maintaining a local profile, the company can focus on taking care of its customers and growing its business, yet it has the support and financial backing of one of the largest print providers in the world.

Leveraging the strengths of the other RR Donnelley facilities enables W.E. Andrews to take on jobs that it might have had to turn away in the past. Furthermore, it has the opportunity to produce a wide range of quality products at the best prices.

About the author: Nancy Hitchcock is a freelance writer who writes extensively about the printing and graphic communications industry. She can be reached at .