From two comes one: Neoprint thrives from merger of Northeast Offset and Sullivan Brothers Printing Company
By John Scibelli
In an era of ongoing industry consolidation, two Merrimack Valley region printing companies saw in each other a possible solution to their own mounting challenges.

Now, nearly two years after acquisition talks began between Sullivan Brothers Printers in Lowell, Mass., and Northeast Offset in neighboring Chelmsford, the new entity, Neoprint Inc., is asserting itself as a multi-dimensional printing and graphic communications firm to be reckoned with.

A strong combination of Northeast Offset’s multi-color printing in the mid-size sheetfed market, and a steady run of single and color work on web presses that has been the heart of Sullivan’s printing, forms a strong foundation for Neoprint.

Along with expanding services such as compact disk replication, mailing and fulfillment, Neoprint is 11 percent ahead of last year’s sales with less than two months to go in its fiscal year.

With a combination of prudent management, continued strong sales activity mixed in with a steady economy and good luck, company executives believe $10 million in annual sales is a realistic benchmark they can reach in the next year or two.

“The acquisition of Northeast Offset and the combining of Northeast with Sullivan Brothers has gone very smoothly,” said Tom Bellomo, who was named president of Neoprint after 13 years as chief financial officer at Sullivan Brothers. “It’s gone so well, we are very optimistic about our future.”

Owners’ dilemma: What to do with their respective companies?
The prolonged economic expansion of the 1990s, as well as other factors paved the way to strong profits for many printers. Northeast Offset and Sullivan Brothers were no exceptions.

Northeast Offset owner and president Joe Balboni had grown up destined to be his own boss. Raised in Somerville, he went to school to learn how to run a printing press. After working as a pressman early in his career, Balboni and two partners started Northeast Offset. Eventually, Balboni became sole owner.

“Joe brought the company to a level where it was in very good shape,” said Richard Errico, sales and marketing manager at the company for 15 years. “At one point, annual sales topped $10 million.

“Joe wanted to do other things and spend less time in the day-to-day running of a printing company,” Errico said. Balboni left Northeast Offset’s daily operations in 2001 and started a sand and gravel venture.

While the ending of the economic expansion of the 1990s was not a surprise, the recession that followed was. Business conditions changed dramatically.

“Joe had aging equipment, and like so many other print shop owners who come to that crossroads sooner or later, he had to decide what he wanted to do. To make major upgrades to a print shop to remain competitive is a serious financial commitment,” Errico said.

Balboni began to look for an exit strategy.

A few miles away in Lowell, Sullivan Brothers was already struggling with limited growth and its future prospects looked dim.

“We had been looking to do something different because in recent years the company was struggling to grow organically,” Bellomo said. “We figured the only way to grow was by acquisition.”

“The solution was about four miles away,” said Charlie Moulton, Sullivan’s vice president of sales.

“We started looking, and learned we didn’t have to look too far because Joe was getting ready to do something with his company,” Bellomo added.

A printing leader in horse racing
In its last full year before the acquisition, sales at Sullivan Brothers topped $9 million, of which about $7 million came from the company’s long ties to the horse racing industry.

Sullivan Brothers Printers was started in 1917. It developed a niche by filling the printing needs at Suffolk Downs in Boston, and Rockingham Park in Salem, N.H.

The company grew as horse racing became more popular throughout the 1950s and 60s. The Lowell printing company set up printing facilities at or near racetracks in Florida, Kentucky, Maryland, New Jersey and elsewhere.

Sullivan Brothers had the good fortune to fill all the printing needs for some of the best-known racetracks in the country including Churchill Downs in Louisville, Ky., home of The Kentucky Derby, the most famous horse race in the world.

Sullivan grew to be one of three printers in the country that supplied nearly all the printed needs for the racing industry including the bettor’s bible: The Daily Racing Form.

At its peak, Sullivan had 210 employees. During those flush times, 40-year employee General Manager Tom White traveled the country to visit all the plants. He saw a horse race or two along the way.

In recent years, Bellomo and White took notice of the decline in betting at racetracks. The gaming money was moving to other venues.

Successful state lotteries steadily siphoned money away from racetracks. Over the past 10 years, the success of the Foxwoods and Mohegan Sun gambling casinos in nearby Connecticut accelerated the decline. Sullivan Brothers had to develop a new business strategy.

As part of the strategy to acquire Northeast Offset, Sullivan sold most of its racing work to The Daily Racing Form, one of its main competitors during the racing heydays.

Also, a number of Sullivan’s production workers who accumulated years of experience printing materials for racing, joined The Daily Racing Form. In a unique arrangement, those production employees work at Neoprint’s plant in Chelmsford. Some of Sullivan’s older equipment in use at Neoprint was also sold to The Daily Racing Form.

The sale of Sullivan’s printing business helped finance the Northeast Offset purchase as well as provide funds for equipment upgrades.

“We’ve positioned ourselves very well,” Bellomo said in reference to the seismic changes he and his team engineered to end a very long era in the history of Sullivan Brothers, and begin a new one for Neoprint. “We have very low debt, and we’ve taken a conservative approach. Now, we’re getting ready for an exciting future.”

While it’s not clear who initiated the original contact that led to the sale of Northeast Offset and the creation of Neoprint, it’s irrelevant.

What mattered, Errico said, was that a workable solution was created that preserved most jobs at both companies and took two struggling printing companies and created one new business with a bright future.

There are 47 employees on the Neoprint payroll, with 30 to 35 dedicated solely to production. The balance of the workforce is spread out among the four senior managers, five sales reps, three customer service representatives, and front office support.

The creation of Neoprint also includes connection to the original ownership of both firms. Ellen Sullivan, a third generation descendant of the founder of Sullivan Brothers, is Neoprint’s sole owner.

Joe Balboni still has a connection to the new company as well. He retained ownership of the building at 11 Alpha Road in Chelmsford — once the long-time home to Northeast Offset, and now the working address of Neoprint.

Building value by sharing knowledge and expertise
Most of Neoprint’s clients are in New England, although Errico said the company hopes to expand that. “We’re branching out. New England is a large enough region for a lot of printers like us to compete in, but the New York area including southern Connecticut is ripe for opportunity.”

He said the company is considering setting up a sales plan for the New York metropolitan area.

Neoprint’s clients come from a balanced mix of industries and fields such as education, financial services, health care, software and high technology and packaging. Less work comes directly from agencies, the sales and marketing manager said. “We like to work directly with clients.”

Errico, a 40-year veteran of the regional printing industry that includes stops at Fidelity Press in Boston (his first industry job), Acme Printing in Wilmington and Daniels Printing in Everett, is busy handling his own client base and managing five other full-time sales representatives.

Part of his work is to guide the sales reps to more sales. One strategy to achieve that is to get the sales reps to leverage their accumulated experience in printing to help clients.

Recently, they helped a designer out of tough spot with a large, well-known Massachusetts insurance company. The designer was hired to create collateral to be used in a direct mail campaign to attract more clients for the insurance company.

The designer came up with a wheel, two printed sheets cut in a unusual shape that were riveted together. The top sheet was to have a small wedge cut out so when someone moved the wheel, certain information would be revealed through the die cut opening.

Errico explained how the designer waited too long in the process before seeking help.

The designer had no idea how much a job like this would cost to produce. She exceeded the budget set by the insurance company’s marketing and communications chief for this job.

Errico suggested a meeting between him, the designer and the insurance company to find a workable solution. He walked everyone through the work required to get the job done. It was an eye opening experience for the insurance company’s marketing and communications chief. She was pleased with Errico’s investment of time, energy and sharing of his knowledge. The wheel was produced.

The groundwork was laid for more printing work from the insurance company. The designer was thrilled for Errico’s savvy save and learned to communicate sooner in the process with her printer.

Growing the client base
The insurance company is just one example of how Neoprint nurtures new and existing clients.

Errico estimates eight of every 10 Neoprint clients have been with either Northeast Offset or Sullivan Brothers for 10 years or so. “Today, if you get a new client and keep them for five to 10 years, that’s very good.”

Print runs for multi-color work average 10,000 to 15,000 pieces. The work includes brochures, booklets ranging in size from 16 to 32 pages, annual reports. One relationship with a publishing client has blossomed nicely. A special interest book on tennis had a print run of 30,000 copies.

Neoprint has gained several new clients, including one that is worth $400,000 in annual sales. Understandably, company managers were reluctant to even disclose the industry in which the client operates.

The company picked up more work from existing client CVS, the Woonsocket, R.I. drug store chain with stores throughout the northeast.

“A team effort is in play to grow that account,” Errico said. “We as a company are growing as we grow accounts such as these.”

Most of the work on the non-heatset web presses includes community telephone books, directories, Want Ad catalogs, real estate guides and similar jobs.

First, spot colors were introduced on the web presses, then color covers were in demand. Color covers for web work are printed on the six-color presses. “The availability of color on a web press opens doors to more work,” said Tom White, the general manager.

About 65 percent of Neoprint’s current work is commercial, high-end work of four colors or more, mostly produced on its fleet of 40-inch sheetfed presses.

The closing technology gap among press manufacturers
The company completed installation of a new Komori press in May, and it has been turning out work at impressive speeds since. Pressroom Foreman Steven Fletcher is already comfortable running the 40-inch six-color Lithrone that came with a coating tower. He said the press is unlike any press he’s operated before. The Komori installation has eaten up precious space in the production area, but as long as the press is cranking out quality work, management is pleased.

Floor space is at a premium, and there is already talk that Neoprint may need bigger quarters in the future.

Being in the business 40 years, Errico is convinced there’s little difference in technology in the mid-size sheetfed presses among the top press manufacturers.

“They’re all good. There is virtually no difference anymore in the quality of the presses and the work they produce,” he said. “Heidelberg builds the most expensive press. It’s a press that will last for 100 years or more, but in our business, we don’t need presses that will last 100 years anymore. We need presses that can turn around quality work quickly. They all do that.

“We decided on a Komori,” he said. “They’ve got a winner in the Lithrone, but who’s to say Mitsubishi or another press manufacturer won’t be on top in two years?” he said. “For the money, for the performance, for having all the bells and whistles, Komori is the performer for us. Will it last and do what we need it to do? That’s the question.”

In addition to the new Komori, Neoprint has a six-color 40-inch Mitsubishi with coater, a Miller with four over two perfecting ability, which Errico said “still prints well, but it is not speedy.”

The company brain trust is already crunching the numbers for another mid-size six-color press. A new one though also will need to have perfecting capability as well as a coating feature that exists in the new press. Look for the company to likely replace one of its aging six-color workhorses within the next year or two.

Senior management plots the future
In addition to assessing ongoing offset printing needs, Bellomo and his team are investigating the best way to enter the digital reproduction arena. White pointed out, however, that getting into the shorter run, on-demand market is not as simple as buying a piece of digital equipment and hanging a shingle. A major part of a successful push into that space is learning how to sell the service.

“We’ve looked at a couple of digital shops,” Bellomo said. “We’re doing our research. We’d have to retrain our sales force to sell that service. Because of that, an acquisition that includes the personnel who already know how to sell the service may be the way to go. That could complement us nicely.”

Vice President of Sales Charlie Moulton described Sullivan’s acquisition of Northeast Offset as a “blessing.” White used the phrase “reawakening.” Errico, said when the future didn’t look so bright “it was hard to get up and get excited about coming to work each day.”

“It’s exciting once again,” White said. ‘That’s not to say it’s easy or going to be easy, but it is exciting to see the future prospects for this company and to be in a position to affect the outcome.”

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