The future of trade binding With the prevalence of digital printing and downscaled binding machinery, bringing this work in-house becomes even easier. Booklet makers are now everywhere (even in trade binderies) as are small format one to four-clamp perfect binders. Mechanical binding equipment has shrunk to the point where if you are running just a few books, you can buy some desktop equipment and bind your own. Even professional offices have large color copiers and some hand binding equipment and are able to put together many of their own individualized presentations to their clients. So this calls into question, where will the trade binding and finishing industry be in five years? A definition of binding versus finishing is warranted for the sake of this article. Binding is the preparation and assembly of printed material into usable form. Saddle stitching, perfect binding, folding, and mechanical binding fall into this category. Finishing is defined as a range of services such as die cutting, foil stamping, embossing — the embellishments designed to add style to the printed piece. And there are some gray areas — die cutting is often an integral part of the binding process. There is no question that the number of trade binders has decreased over the past few years and the percentage of printed work sent to trade binders is decreasing as well. From our own experience and what is occurring at other trade binderies across the country, however, we are being asked to fill more and more specific roles. Those roles vary according to the needs of our markets and the type of printers we are serving. Different binderies
for different niches Nearly all printers have basic bindery capability and send out overflow when they get busy, and most need services from time to time that wouldn’t ever be brought in-house. Since nearly all printers need a trade binder and/or finisher from time to time, relationships formed with printers are the key to success. The need for bindery and finishing consultation will never go away no matter how much experience the printer has on staff, and we all know that new members to the industry — such as new designers — will always need to know basic layout information. Finishing: A separate
breed from binding Binderies who have integrated finishing capability are going after the ‘one-stop-shop’ concept that printers love since it reduces turnaround time. It has been said that the level of customer service in our industry is terrible. There is a great opportunity for those who learn to do it well. Customer knowledge and education will help keep the trade services alive. There will always be new members to our industry who are not familiar with the requirements of the binding and finishing machinery. The job is never done We have to love the process of educating our customers. If we make it easy for them to buy from us then we can grow at the expense of our competitors. It is both great fun and exhausting work to execute smart strategy. The trade binder in five years will look very different from what we are now; the question is “What will we look like?” What is certain is that customer service and education will be what separates us from our competition. About the author: Frank Shear
is the president and owner of Seaboard Bindery, in Woburn, Mass. He
can be reached at 781-932-3908 or by e-mail at |
.
