Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, December 16, 1994 TAG: 9501190015
SECTION: BUSINESS PAGE: A-19 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CLAUDINE WILLIAMS STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
"Everybody wants everything before Dec. 30," said Fred Kubik, customer service representative for Progress Printing in Lynchburg. "They are cramming it down our throats."
Under the new postal rates, the cost of mailing third-class advertisements will go from 17.9 cents each to 20.4 cents. Sending an 8-ounce catalog via third class will cost 41.6 cents, up from 36.3 cents.
As a result, some printing customers who might have waited until mid-January to send out promotional pieces will head for the post office in the next two weeks.
The increase was a bit of a surprise to many in the mail-order business. Postal costs were expected to rise, but many did not foresee a change before mid-January, said Craig Schaffer, spokesman for Progress Printing. And most major direct marketers and mass mailers were caught off guard when the rates increased by 14 percent instead of the expected 10 percent.
The increase eventually will limit the number of pieces mass mailers send, said Boyd Johnson, president of Jamont Press and Hoppy Copy in Roanoke.
But for now, "demand has exceeded supply for paper" for the first time in six years, Johnson said.
The printers' customers also are facing higher prices for many of the grades of paper used in mass mailing. Paper prices have increased 25 percent since August and costs for some grades of paper may rise another 10 percent to 25 percent by Jan. 1, Johnson said.
"The combination of postage increases and the rise in the cost of paper has had an effect on the industry," Johnson said. "Customers are taking a rifle-shot approach in sending out pieces. They are choosing their customers a little more carefully, so the quantity of mailings will decrease."
And mail-order merchants are working even harder to get their catalogs in the mail before the Jan. 1 deadline.
"If we wait until after the first of the year, we'll end up paying a few thousand [dollars] more," said Mike Lively, vice president of Direct Sports in Giles County. "But right now, it looks like we will make it. The increases in the past never hit us to where we have had to rush it like this."
Employees at Direct Sports, which publishes a national catalog of soccer equipment, will work all night two days after Christmas to prepare the catalogs for mailing. Part-time workers will come in three weeks earlier than usual.
by CNB