El-Hi and Trade Fuel Optimism Among Manufacturers
Mergers and acquisitions in the print industry over the past year resulted in some changes at the top of BookTech Magazine's annual Top Book Manufacturing listing—ranked by book-manufacturing revenue.
One change concerns the perennial Nos. 1, 2 and 3 on our list. When RR Donnelley acquired Moore Wallace last year, it changed the way the $8 billion company breaks down its revenues. It used to report the performance of individual units, but now casts revenues into two major business components: publishing and retail services, and integrated print communications and global solutions business. The latter category accounts for 40.2 percent of RR Donnelley revenues. Of that percentage, Ed Lane, president of RR Donnelley's book publishing services business, estimates the company's global book revenues at around $700 million (which was calculated to be $698.4 million, based on an estimated percentage). That estimate would push Donnelley slightly ahead of Quebecor World, which reported its book revenue in 2004 as $695.3 million.
But an acquisition also affected Von Hoffmann, which ranked third on the list last year. Visant Corp., which combines the book manufacturing businesses of Von Hoffmann and Jostens Corp., pushed past both Quebecor World and RR Donnelley into the top spot, with book sales nearly double what Von Hoffmann reported last year as a single entity. Jostens and Von Hoffmann operate separately, but report their earnings under the Visant umbrella. Book manufacturing accounts for approximately 50 percent of Visant's overall revenue, as opposed to 100 percent when Von Hoffmann reported its earnings last year.
"Since these companies are now jointly owned, [we want to] list ourselves under Visant and show book revenues for the entire entity …," says Mike Ford, vice president of marketing at Von Hoffmann.
Competition and Pricing
In addition to the mergers, manufacturers are streamlining their operations, producing less waste and decreasing turnaround times to retain customers and attract new ones. The result: a competitive marketplace that may cause some manufacturers to lower prices to keep business.
