The Johnson Group is an award-winning printing group comprised of four independent companies. Johnson Press, the original of the four companies, was started in 1957. The Group is a thriving printing organization with more than $40 million in sales annually, four operational locations and one sales office. The Group is headquartered in Rockford, IL.

In 2001, The Johnson Group won a Gold award from NAPL for overall management excellence in Category 5 printers - those with annual sales of $25+ million. The company has won other Gold awards in recent years, as well as management awards from PIA. American Printer has proclaimed it as one of the top 50 fastest growing printers.

Ms. Tonya Meister’s grandfather started Johnson Press, the original printing company of the group. She has been with the company for 13 years and is responsible for the group’s marketing efforts as well as acquisitions. Prior to joining The Johnson Group, she worked at General Mills and also Grey Advertising. Ms. Meister graduated from The Wharton School of Business and received her MBA from The Kellogg School at Northwestern. She has three boys: ages 12, 8 and 2.

WTT: How has your company coped with the ups and downs in the economy?

Ms. Tonya Meister: We’ve been able to cope with ups and downs probably better than most companies due to the fact that we have multiple printing plants. We are able to better balance the workloads among plants, thereby leveling out the peaks. In addition, we’ve continued to rely on a very talented but lean staff. There‘s little to no "fat" left in each of our plants.

We work hard to work smart, keeping our mission of "meeting customer needs profitability" in the forefront of our minds. We try to stay in close contact with our customers, making sure we are doing everything we can to meet their needs.

If we focus on customers first, value and then profits follow. Managing in a down economy makes strong customer relationships even more paramount. If you haven’t done a good job at that all along, down economies present price pressures and make client retention and profits elusive. We watch costs, cater to clients, and plan for contingencies.


WTT: Do you have a written, long-term plan for the company? If so, how have you had to change the plan to cope with the recession?

Ms. Tonya Meister: Yes, we have a long-term plan for the company. We continually monitor changes in the economy and most importantly, changes in our customer base. The recession is worldwide, not just affecting a few industries. We’ve had to extend terms with customers, find creative ways to reduce our costs, find innovative solutions that save clients money, and examine purchases carefully. We have built strong partnerships with vendors and customers and the strength of those relationships reduce the impact of a financial downturn. Also, multiple plant sites give us purchasing power and production flexibilities that others are not able to enjoy or fall back on.


WTT: What percentage of your work is done with CTP?

Ms. Tonya Meister: We use CTP and have been doing so for about 5 years now. About 90-95% of our work is done using our CTP workflow.


WTT: Looking down the road, what technologies are you considering adding to your company?

Ms. Tonya Meister: We are considering variable digital printing. Many of our customers and our customers’ customers are using customized, shorter runs, as well as color in their marketing efforts. We always try to be responsive to clients’ needs but at the same time, want to make sure the technology delivers reliable quality that will meet our client’s expectations and that it is affordable enough to justify in the minds of our clientele. We try to do our homework with our customer base and make sure there is support/demand for it before making any investment.


WTT: What new products and services are you considering?

Ms. Tonya Meister: We are providing real-time, on-line inventory management systems, reliable and consistent color reproduction of digital photography, master template services, on-line proofing options, and Hexachrome printing....all of which are already on the leading edge of products and services. In addition, as mentioned before, we are strongly considering customized digital printing applications.


WTT: Describe the tasks and roles of the sales and marketing people in your organization.

Ms. Tonya Meister: Sales drives our organization. We have a team of talented and seasoned account managers who are responsible for prospecting (new business) and growing existing customer business. They have always had a consultative style and strive to find creative solutions to client’s print and print-related needs. They are excellent problem-solvers.

They are responsible for determining customer’s pain points and finding ways to alleviate that pain and/or to achieve their marketing objectives. They are highly involved in client’s business and manage their projects as if they were their own. As the Vice President of Marketing, I work closely with our Vice President of Sales to provide lead generation, support material, motivation, training, etc. to make them successful in their roles. I help coordinate the efforts, but my goal is to make our sales peoples’ time more and more effective. Time is a precious commodity and making the most of it is key.


WTT: What is your overall outlook on the future of offset printing?

Ms. Tonya Meister: The future of offset printing remains bright. People always need print. We see a bigger demand for short run, digital printing, print-related add-ons that save time and money for the clients and better, more efficient ways to integrate with clients’ existing technology and information systems.

If we view ourselves as problem solvers, how we solve the problem will take care of itself. Technology is going to continue to evolve, so offset printing may evolve eventually into a more and more digital environment. Keeping our eye on what business we are really in - solving our customers needs for print - makes the future bright.


WTT: Speaking in general terms, what are printing companies doing a good job at and how could they improve?

Ms. Tonya Meister: Generally, printers tend to do a good job with customer service and quality printing. We can all improve the value of the services that we offer. We tend to give things always without reminding customers of the value of what we are giving them. There are plenty of customers out there just waiting for great experiences with their printers.

We can do a better job of finding ways to hold or reduce costs. This will require partnerships. We need to find more cost-efficient ways to reach potential users of our products and identify buyers. The high costs of direct selling will force creativity in this arena.

In general, the printing business is fun, challenging and ever-changing. Attracting a talented pool of young people is always a challenge. Working together to promote printing as a career will help us all in the long-run.


Thank you Tonya. We appreciate your time and sharing with our members.