September 11, 2008: By October 1, the Gravure Association of America (GAA) will complete the transfer of its headquarters to Paramus, New Jersey, less than 20 miles from Midtown Manhattan, to be closer to the home-office operations of many of its member companies, plus a number of their customers, accounts, and prospects.

Notes Robert W. Zumbiel, GAA chairman, "One-third of our membership is headquartered in the New York metro area, with another 20 percent located within 200 miles. Equally important, in just about every customer category served by our members, whether packaging, publication, or product, the New York City area and overall New York/New Jersey/Connecticut tri-state region ranks at or near the top in terms of business heft and concentration."

"Where we need to be"

Zumbiel adds, "To serve an industry so reliant on direct customer service, we will be located exactly where we need to be to give members maximum service and value." Zumbiel is head of Zumbiel Packaging Co., Cincinnati, which produces beverage carriers, folding cartons, set-up boxes, and custom products.

"We at Parade Publications in New York City-where gravure print quality, consistency, and long-run efficiency are integral to the success of our magazine-are thrilled by GAA's action," says Tom Meisel, senior vice president of manufacturing. Meisel, who reports that 32 million copies of Parade Magazine are distributed nationally each week via 400 newspapers, adds, "We look forward to some real advantages stemming from the close proximity to GAA's technical and marketing resources."

"For Hallmark Cards, putting GAA where our important customers are-especially those huge advertising agencies in New York-is great news," says Albert Green Jr., Hallmark's rotogravure operations manager in Leavenworth, KS. For Hallmark Cards, a GAA member in the product category, Green says, "This relocation will pay dividends for a long time."

Area concentration

"Within a short drive of our new office is located the headquarters and/or major offices of countless consumer goods, pharmaceutical, and packaging firms, along with publishers, ad agencies, and media corporations," says Bill Martin, president and CEO of the association. "Considering this huge concentration of major businesses, GAA member companies will be better able to tighten their relationships with area clients-to the benefit of all participants involved in gravure production."

Martin points out that the area is served by three major airports and is a gateway city to international destinations. "Also," he says, "the MidAtlantic region is a key highway and rail transportation hub linking Boston and New England in the north to Philadelphia and Washington, D.C. in the south."

In a stroke of fortune, Martin explains, GAA offices will be located in the same building as NAPL (National Association for Printing Leadership), a group serving the management, education, and research needs of the nation's commercial and quick-print industries. NAPL has agreed to share appropriate resources with GAA.

"We should all be especially pleased that GAA is co-locating with NAPL in Paramus," says Stephen F. Young, head of Mundet Inc., Richmond, VA., a major supplier of gravure packaging to the international tobacco industry. "This means the GAA office can focus on improving services for members, not funding back-office operations."

Update your records

Note GAA's new contact information: Gravure Association of America, Inc., 75 West Century Rd., Paramus, NJ 07652; phone (585) 436-2150. The web site continues at www.gaa.org, and e-mail address is [email protected].