Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, April 4, 1993 TAG: 9304020176
SECTION: CURRENT PAGE: NRV-3 EDITION: NEW RIVER VALLEY
SOURCE: PAUL DELLINGER STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: WYTHEVILLE LENGTH: Medium
THE WORD'S THE THING
A little print company based in Wytheville has been defying recessionary times.Wordsprint Inc. has been growing for six years while the trend nationally is in the other direction, especially with big national print customers such as Sears canceling orders for catalogs.
In its six years, Wordsprint has expanded from one building to two in Wytheville, opened a satellite shop in Galax 3 1/2 years ago and another in Marion 1 1/2 years ago, all tied together in a computer network. It plans to move next into the New River Valley.
"We anticipate opening a shop within that area within the next 12 months," said Bill Gilmer, 37, its president.
Since the end of 1988, Wordsprint's business has nearly tripled, he said. It has experienced about 30 percent business growth every year. It made $841,000 last year and has a $1.2 million goal this year.
"In the last two years, each year we've doubled our profit. However . . . this is not a high-profit business," Gilmer said. "If we make money, it goes back into new equipment, it goes into wages, it goes into the profit-sharing plan."
Thirty percent of the profits are distributed each month to employees in addition to their salaries. The company has 17 employees.
"So, yes, we are profitable, but nobody's getting rich," Gilmer said.
Wordsprint has bought about $250,000 worth of equipment in the past 2 1/2 years. Gilmer estimates its total equipment investment as approaching $1 million in replacement value.
"If you don't invest 10, 15, 20 percent every year in new equipment, you're not going to be a serious player. . . . Technology is changing every month," he said. "And in printing, you have got to be able to produce faster. . . . You've really got to have the leading-edge stuff."
Orders arrive on computer diskettes or by modem as well as on paper, and a variety of computers is needed just to read them.
And customers are facing their own rapid changes. Restaurants that used to reprint menus every two years now do so annually, or weekly, or even daily.
New processes often are set up at Wordsprint just for a customer's needs.
"And that's new. The customers are determining how we do things, but that is the key to survival in the '90s," Gilmer said. "The customer is telling us, and we have to figure a way to respond."
Wordsprint advertises with monthly mailers. It also keeps ahead of orders by reminding customers when a supply of printed materials is about to run out.
"They love it. They don't have to think about it," Gilmer said.
Doug Barber, Wordsprint's production manager, was hired when he walked in off the street. He had worked with large print companies in places such as Florida and Minnesota, but his parents lived in Galax and he wanted to live in this area. Brian Kuhens, director of marketing, used to live in Columbia, S.C., but he liked this area, too, and opened a graphic design firm in Galax. Wordsprint bought it and hired him.
"We are all here because we want to be here, rather than because we need to be here," Kuhens said. "Everybody in this company leaps out of bed in the morning eager to get to work."
Robert Kegley, director of operations, is from the area and returned after college.
"We have people way overqualified for what they're doing. . . . I think what it is, we're doing something that we love," Gilmer said. "Printing has to do with communication. . . . There's something very basic to human existence about communication."
Gilmer and Steve Lester, a Wytheville insurance man and businessman, are the major stockholders. But Kuhens, Barber and Kegley are part owners, too.
"The people that make the decisions here are the ones who are creating the product," Gilmer said. "I think this trend will continue. . . . I see us within a few years becoming an employee stock ownership company."
Half of the dollar volume of Wordsprint's business is with industries such as the TRW plant at Atkins, Consolidated Glass and Twin County Community Hospital in Galax, and General Injectables and Vaccines at Bastian. About 40 percent is with small retail businesses such as flower shops and hardware stores.
"Only about 10 percent is the general public," Gilmer said.
About 20 percent is with out-of-state companies from San Francisco to New York who have heard about Wordsprint by word-of-mouth.
"We don't preach price very much," he said. Wordsprint emphasizes quality and on-time delivery - even if on time means working overnight to turn an emergency order around and ship it the next morning.
"The price thing just comes along because of the volume we're doing," he said. "We printed over 15 million sheets of paper last year."
Wordsprint uses a lot of recycled paper, Gilmer said, and tries to be environmentally conscious in other ways. Last year it gave hundreds of Alberta spruce trees to customers.
"I've got three of them in my yard," Gilmer said.