Economy and Printing companies

[dgraves8rd]

Thought I would ask how printing companies are reacting to the economic downturn?
Are most companies having layoffs, wage cuts or going out of business etc. ?
Please list what part of the country you are in.....

 

[wildwhl]

The local print economy is somewhat depressed, and more competitive than ever. Shops are adding capacity while others close.

We've laid off where necessary, and become efficient everywhere else. Currently producing slightly above 2008 in sales, with about 1/3rd the production staff and no overtime.

It is amazing what tough times teach us. Look around, you'll like find waste everywhere that you once didn't notice.

WW
Reno, NV

 

[jlazerus]

Bad news from Denver, CO. One of (if not THE) oldest and most respected printers here, National Hirschfeld, abruptly shut down a few weeks ago. Meanwhile, my own shop, Spectrographics, told us Monday that they were closing. 250 humans out of work.

A side note: if this happens where you are, and you are a salesperson, please give a person like me a couple of days for the corpse to cool before you start caniballizing the clients we had and asking me to help do that. Especially if you only want to take the business and give me nothing in return, like some future employment. Really bad taste. Like the beans my family and I are going to be eating while I look for another job.

[email protected]
http://www.jefflazerus.com

 

[steppy]

slowdown

slowdown

We are a small, 30 employee, shop. Three months ago all overtime cut. Three weeks ago four folks laid off. Business has been up and DOWN. It's the streaky ups that make us crazy with fewer people to handle the work. So sometimes it seems busier. Managers working more hours and doing more production tasks.

Trick will be to not fall behind in maintenance, R&D and problem solving. Too often the temptation is to just get it done without understanding the why. Maybe that's a bit of a luxury that has to go.

 

[Packin'JP]

Us too a small shop (packaging) (about 25 employees).

It's all about the $.

If the other guy beats us out by a couple of dollars per thousand, He gets the job. Doesn't matter if we did it the last 20 times.

If the client has enough time to produce the job out of state, it's gone!

NYC can't compete with out of country or down south prices.

Luckily we have had no layoffs and have been busy!!!!!!!!!!!!
(KNOCKING WOOD)

NYC

 

[steppy]

forum activity??

forum activity??

So do you think the increase in posts is because we have a little more time on our hands from time to time? How much maintenance can you do? :>}

 

[OutSourceD]

We have downsized, cut our rent, dropped any and all unnecessary expenses, laid off 2 employees, looked under rocks to save money, diversified our services, doubled our sales effort and have managed, thus far, to sustain profitability. This economy is worse than any I have ever experienced in 30+ years. These are the worst of times...

 

[Lukas Engqvist]

So do you think the increase in posts is because we have a little more time on our hands from time to time? How much maintenance can you do? :>}

I think forum activity is we are all streched and need to stay sharp to stay alive