Joe Metzger started out at the family typesetting company in 1982. His brother Tom Metzger and his father started the business together in 1976. Joe’s Father had 5 children at home, was 41 years old at the time and told Joe’s mom he was “going out on his own.” Wow, is America a great place or what? Today Joe, leads the sales, marketing and new business development for Metzgers Printing. His brother Tom, is CEO and COO and heads up operations and finance for the Holland, Ohio based firm.

Since the evolution of the desktop publishing industry, Metzgers Printing has changed from - a conventional supplier, to a service bureau, to a color separator, to a pre-press house to quick printing and now a high quality commercial printing and mailing company. From disk to print to mail, Joe says, “We are the extension of your business.”.

Joe, in terms of revenue and employee size, how large is your firm?

Last year, our prepress and print sales totaled $3.7 million and our mailing volume was nearly $500,000. The mailing division was added in 1998 from scratch. We have been in business for 25 years. We have 33 full time people on staff, with an average employment term of 7.5 years.

Tell us about your internal capabilities.

Recently we have made several investments in new equipment, technology and people. We feel strongly that to be successful in this competitive industry we need to automate our processes, provide better quality and reduce our manufacturing costs.

In December 2000, we completed the installation of a brand new Sakurai 72 EDII. (A five color 20x28 press with an aqueous coater.) This is a fully automated printing press and allows for the fastest change over between jobs along with high run speeds and very high quality printing. We also added an MBO folder with continuous feed, a Muller-Martini system 325 saddle stitching line with 6 pockets and a cover feeder along with an automated stacker. We are currently adding another image setter and installing the Scitex Brisque workflow. The Scitex Brisque will also provide press room detail to the Sakurai press console-computer. Our plan for 2001 is to complete the integration of the Scitex system, and then add an Iris digital proofer.

We use conventional Matchprint, Dylux and color key proofs as well as rainbow proofers and color laser copiers. In the future, when we get closer to CTP, we will implement digital proofing. We had a Kodak Approval, but we were a few years ahead of our time on that machine.

Did you have to expand your physical size or location?

In November 2000, we added a 10,000 square foot warehouse for fulfillment and storage along with developing a complete online software system for our customers to track and order inventory online. It is called eFulfillment, and is located at www.point2pointmailing.com

Metzgers Printing is approaching $5 million in annual sales. How important are the relationships with suppliers?

We have a one on one relationship with each of our suppliers. We try to keep our supplier list short, and we pay all our bills within 30 days. If discounts are offered, we take them. Our technical reps are allowed to walk through the building, and meet with and talk with each employee. This opens up the lines of communications to make sure we are using the products and supplies correctly. Our suppliers are critical to our profitability and to our delivery times.

“On demand printing” has received much attention recently. What’s your take?