Sandy Alexander is among the best run companies in the printing industry and is very likely THE best in North America. WhatTheyThink.com's contributing editor Jean Marie Hershey recently interviewed Sandy's CEO Roy Grossman. Headquartered in Clifton, N.J., the privately owned, $140 million company augments its extensive web and sheet fed printing capabilities with inline finishing and inkjet imaging, digital and 1:1 marketing solutions, flexographic label printing and a wide variety of digital and electronic media services. The interviewed was published yesterday.

Comments from Roy Grossman:

- "Our total investment (in environmental initiatives) last year was close to three quarters of a million dollars, a sizable commitment with a very good tradeoff and real client advantages. In addition, in the first few months we garnered probably $2-3 million dollars in easily identifiable business we would not have gained without it."- "We've set ourselves up for high-end type of work because it's extremely difficult to compete against commodity printing in the New York area, where it becomes a price game. We're trying to compete in the end of the market where the focus is on the quality of the printing as a critical component of our clients' communication strategy."

- "We also purchased 50 percent of N.J.-based TBC Digital about two years ago, and we've experienced better than 20 percent growth in each year since then. We intend to buy the remaining 50 percent of the company in the near future. Our specialty in that business has become web-to-print, which has resulted in a tremendous amount of digital as well as offset business. We think our digital business will exceed $10 million within three years."

- "When we recognized that some years ago, we saw that massive web runs would decrease over time, and we asked, 'How will that impact our business several years from now? What do we need to do?' That led directly into custom imaging on our Florida webs, and that led us to find a partner in the digital business."

- "We don't describe ourselves as printers at all, although printing is a big part of what we do. We help our clients achieve their communication objectives and increase their business."

- "Our sales per employee are consistently in the top one percent of the industry. We have people whose full time jobs are to think about ways to increase our productivity."

- "Traditional offset is declining, but you can do extremely well by garnering a larger share of a declining market. That said, we expect the offset business will be very healthy for a very long time."

View the full interview here. (A subscription is required.)

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