Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, January 23, 1994 TAG: 9401240260
SECTION: ECONOMY PAGE: EC-6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: JOHN GIBBONS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Long
In the seven years B. Boyd Johnson has owned Jamont Press, there have been a lot of fresh starts. But the most recent one has been the most obvious to casual observers.
Having a giant frog looming over downtown Roanoke didn't hurt the visibility of this new change. That billboard, initially quite a mystery perched over Billy's Ritz restaurant, ultimately advertised Jamont's Hoppy Copy store.
Thanks to the completion of a $62,000 renovation and expansion of the printing company's quarters, Hoppy Copy is now under the same downtown roof as Jamont's print shop on Luck Avenue.
Johnson said the expansion has allowed Jamont "to utilize people and equipment in a more productive manner."
By consolidating the operation, the printer also was able get leaner. "We probably had a decrease [in employees at Jamont] due to the efficiency of putting it all under one building," Johnson said.
But this change was only the latest in an evolution for Jamont, a process mandated both by the changing marketplace and the changing technologies.
One of the people at the company who has had a front-row seat for all of the not-so-obvious changes is Jon "J.D." Cochenour, Jamont's operations manager.
"The six years I've been here, it's just a different company than what it had been," Cochenour said.
"Gino's [Pizzeria] used to be next to us. After the third year I was here, [Johnson] bought Gino's, and now that's our bindery area. . . . And then a couple of years ago we bought the four-color press, did away with some small presses, got some new small presses in," Cochenour said. Jamont has "basically a complete new look all around," he said.
Jamont's new look is much more sophisticated. Jamont has "definitely become more high-end," Cochenour said. "We've got much more capabilities."
Cochenour, 28, is no stranger to upgrading capabilities personally, either. In the six years he has been with Jamont, he has gone through some growth of his own. He started as a press operator "and then worked my way through the shop and ended up here [as operations manager] the first of last year."
As operations manager, Cochenour explained that he is "basically running the shop, making sure everything gets done correctly, make sure everything gets done on time."
Cochenour seems to fit the mold for qualities Johnson sees as important for employees in the 1990s. Johnson says that, "What we are looking for more and more are employees who can handle change, because our industry is evolving and changing very rapidly and change that - technology-wise - used to take five or 10 years now occurs in 18 months, 24 months," Johnson said.
He adds that "You've got to have people who are willing to learn new skills constantly and have a commitment to being willing to relearn and be retrained," he added. "Those people who are only willing to do their same old skill level are going to become less and less valuable to the marketplace and to the employer they're with. "
Cochenour was a little more pointed in what he sees as important qualities for success in today's market. He says, "In a small business, everybody needs to work as a team, going from the front door to the back door," Cochenour said. "Everybody has to be able to work together. You can't have one person slacking."
He explains that, "With the printing industry, the technology changes every day. So you've got to watch what you do and how you do it. . . . When I first started, there were about 30 people here. Now we're down to about half that with more capabilities."
While such a change might have been bad news for some workers, Cochenour explained that for the company it means the ability to do better work more efficiently, which in turn means a lower price and a faster turnaround.
`We really can't hire just anybody," Cochenour said. "The type of work that we do, they have to be experienced in what they do, as far as the printing industry. We've got to train them on the equipment they're going to be running.
"Even if you ran a Kord across the street, our Kord is going to run differently here. It doesn't matter if you've run that press before. Every press, they're like women: They're all moody and they all have their own little quirks."
Cochenour said Johnson has been careful to make sure that he buys only equipment that still can be used in five years without requiring massive upgrades.
On managing all the technological change he deals with, Cochenour points out that, "[Johnson's] the type of person that doesn't just jump out and buy everything new, or buy anything new, without making sure that in five years from now that with this technology, if we buy this piece of equipment, we're still going to be able to use it without getting another piece to replace that, but you can add on to that."
Johnson amplified on that philosophy: "To be a sound company doesn't always allow you to be as exciting as you would like to be because you don't jump on every technological bandwagon that comes down the road," Johnson said. "I would say that what we want to be in the long term is . . . to be the very best at what we do and what markets we choose to be in, not only for the area, but for the region, because that is how we are competing these days."
That regional outlook - which for Jamont means customers in Richmond; Northern Virginia; Washington, D.C.; and Atlanta - helped the company through some uncertain times in the early part of last year.
Johnson said, "Thank goodness we have a substantial amount of business outside the Roanoke Valley because that's what carried us in the early part of '93," Johnson said.
Thankfully for Jamont, however, Johnson said, "The last half of '93 ended up very strong for us."
And what does Johnson think Jamont contributes to the local economy? "I figured it up one time," he said. "We provide over $12,000 a year in meals to the downtown area alone."
On a more serious note, Johnson said, "We do a lot of non-profit work. I'm one of the few printers who sits on a number of the non-profit boards." This includes his being:
Past president of the Council of Community Service;
The only printer on the board of the Better Business Bureau;
Pacesetter Campaign Chairman of the United Way;
And last year he was in charge of Small Business Week for the Chamber of Commerce.
He adds, "We're a little bit more involved in the community and give back more to the community than some other companies have chosen to be," he said.
For the new year, Johnson plans "to increase our level of contact with our customers and to try to seek out and reassess the markets and the company and to say 'what are the needs of the marketplace?' Even though we are in the manufacturing business, we are a service provider, so to that extent we have to be responsive to our customers."
And, for a view of 1994 from the trenches, Cochenour says he sees "Larger volume, a lot more quality work. A lot more fitting our needs as far as the high-end equipment that we've gotten. Running the four-color a lot more, the big press stuff. I see a lot more of that coming."
He adds that, "You've just got to play everything by ear and roll with the punches," Cochenour said.
\ JAMONT PRESS INC.\ A FRESH START\ \ The company: Jamont Press is a commercial printer, in business since 1962, capable of handling all kinds of printing, from bound books with four-color art to bumper stickers. It also owns Hoppy Copy, a retail copy shop. In 1993, the company reported revenues of about $1.3 million.
\ Headquarters: 339 Luck Ave., Roanoke.\ \ Roanoke Valley operations: Jamont employs 16 people at its headquarters, print shop and retail store - Hoppy Copy - all under the same roof since a $62,000 renovation and expansion in June.
by CNB