With over 90 years in the industry, St. Louis, MO-based Von Hoffmann provides a full component of services to the textbook market including product concept, design and composition through packaging and distribution services.

A 40 percent market share in the four-color textbook market allowed Von Hoffmann to report $379.4 million in revenue in 2002. It operates eight plants with 2000 employees. After serving as President for Von Hoffmann Graphics for two years, Robert Mathews replaced Robert A. Uhlenhop as President and CEO in February 2002. Mathews has been in the printing industry for 27 years with 23 years specifically in the book production segments of the business. He has been in senior management positions in book production, international sales, catalog, and commercial printing including R.R. Donnelley, Quebecor World, and Graphic Industries (now part of Moore Business), prior to his joining Von Hoffmann Corporation.

WTT: Some 75% of your business comes from books, 15% from catalogues and 10% from commercial printing. How do you see these industry segments growing in the future?

RM: We expect our market segments will, for the most part, track the economy. Our largest segment is educational books and we all know that quite a bit of focus has been placed on improving education, especially with the recently enacted No Child Left Behind Act. Assuming funding levels stabilize, we see growth in this area for the foreseeable future.