It will be another year of double-digit growth for Costa Mesa-based digital printer Crisp Imaging—at a time others in the commercial printing industry are struggling to keep up with the digital revolution.
Co-founders Gary and Julie Crisp said their roughly 162-person company is projected to close the year with $23 million in sales, a roughly 22% year-over-year increase.
The husband-and-wife team reported $19 million in 2017 sales, up 41% year-over-year.
Crisp Imaging, which provides a variety of traditional print services, as well as digital printing and marketing offerings, ranked ninth on the Business Journal’s April list of Orange County’s largest commercial printers.
Two years ago, when it was called C2 Imaging, it was ranked 14th. It rebranded as Crisp Imaging last year.
Clients include Edwards Lifesciences Corp. (NYSE: EW) in Irvine and Pac Comm Technologies Inc. in Anaheim.
More growth is on the way, according to Gary.
“There’s a tremendous amount of opportunity for us to grow, even in a shrinking print market,” he said. “We see ourselves by 2030 being a $90 to $100 million business. That’s our vision.”
Double Dealings
Part of the recent growth is being spurred by two acquisitions made this year—Marathon Reprographics in Murrieta and Freeform in San Diego.
The deals totaled just under $6 million; they added about 30 employees to operations.
The Crisps said they’re in talks to buy another company soon, as well as open a 12th location in the next six months.
Along with acquisitions, growth has been fueled by growing digital printing and marketing offerings.
It’s ramped up efforts to grow technology-based services, such as scanning and document management, which now account for about a quarter of business. This year it completed the test phase of proprietary metadata software tool Docu-Dock, which is now used by the Anaheim School District but could soon be rolled out to others.
The software allows those in the public sector to find electronic planning documents, such as plumbing blueprints, from as far back as 1927 in as few as three clicks.
The founders said they’re working on a date to officially roll out the service.
Julie said the company has also expanded traditional printing services beyond banners and posters to helping interior designers create and print wallpaper, and to on-site services, whereby equipment is placed at a customer’s chosen location and the printing is managed on site.
The Freeform acquisition has also opened the door for Crisp to provide more robust color printing services in the retail sector for new clients, including Rubio’s, TaylorMade Golf Co. and Luna Grill.
“It’s not the simple blueprint [printing] business anymore,” Gary said. “You really have to be in front of what the customers are looking for.”
“In some areas, you’re seeing less printing, for example general contractors, but they have other needs in the technology space that weren’t products we had available in the past.”
Big Order
Crisp Imaging’s investment in technology and the broadening of existing offerings follow an industrywide trend.
Graphic communications think tank Idealliance’s chief economist, Andrew Paparozzi, said in a statement that companies continue to diversify offerings and have found ways to “get involved in their clients’ work earlier, stay involved longer and satisfy a broader range of their communication needs.”
The U.S. commercial printing industry has about 26,000 firms with combined annual revenue of $82 billion, according to an August report by Austin, Texas-based research firm First Research Inc. The report indicates the sector will grow at an annual compounded rate of 2% from this year to 2022, almost entirely from digital.
But the shift has meant smaller firms are unable to afford the costly investments in digital presses and equipment, opening the door for firms like Crisp Imaging to scoop them up in order to scale.
Gary, who spent more than 20 years overseeing sales and marketing at Unilever and Pepsi Co., and Julie, who’s held stints at Unical Aviation Inc. and Compaq Computer Corp., opened their first location in 2002 in Orange.
Less than two years in, they received a $72,000 print job for a hospital construction project that ushered in a new era of working with large corporate clients.
Company investors include Rob Ukropina, managing partner at Black Diamond Ventures in Newport Beach, who founded delivery service Overnite Express, selling it to Norco Corp. in 2008; Greg Lundeen, former chief executive of Consolidated Reprographics in Irvine; and venture capitalist Jeff Brown.
Stadiums, LBX
Crisp Imaging is working on the LA Stadium in Inglewood, the future home field of Costa Mesa’s Los Angeles Chargers, and the University of Southern California’s $300 million Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum renovation.
Julie points out that much of its work for LA Stadium involves managing plans.
“We’re not doing as much printing, but we’re there helping them organize all their plans,” she said. “There’s so many plans and so many changes that they need someone there to make sure they always have a current set. I feel like we’re an air traffic controller.”
Burnham USA Equities Inc. founder and Chief Executive Scott Burnham said his Newport Beach-based real estate development and investment firm has worked with Crisp on several projects, including the Long Beach Exchange, a nearly 30-acre retail and lifestyle shopping center near Long Beach Airport that opened this year.
“With a project like the size of LBX, there are a lot of moving parts and a lot of tenancies,” Burnham said. “You’re dealing with a lot of national and local tenants, but as their plans change, may it be space planning or otherwise, we need to be able to work with somebody that is responsive to get things back to us in a timely manner, and our experience [with Crisp] has been really positive.”
Burnham said that on top of the firm’s customer service, he finds it refreshing that the business has captured other areas of the printing market instead of focusing simply on blueprints.
“Every time I turn around, they’re doing something more, so we’re trying them in other areas,” he said. “The more we can deal with one central vendor, the better it is for us as a company.”
