Orange County’s largest commercial printers posted only steady results in 2016, but the 29 companies on this week’s Business Journal list picked up the pace last year.
The firms’ combined annual revenue grew 7% last year to reach $654 million. Revenue figures are based on production generated from the 120 locally based printing presses and are used as the basis of the rankings.
Ten of the companies reported higher sales, eight saw their revenue decline, and 11 firms are Business Journal estimates.
The number of OC-based employees dipped 3.3% to 2,495, compared to last year’s workforce of 2,581.
The four largest commercial printers in 2016 remained this year’s big four:
• Trend Offset Printing Services Inc. in Los Alamitos is still No.1 with reported $222 million in revenue, a 19.4% gain over last year’s figure of about $186 million. Despite the growth, the company dropped 12% of its OC employees and now has 560.
Chief Executive Todd Nelson said the main driver contributing to sales growth has been the company’s national presence. It services the publishing, retail and catalog industries.
“We have three locations each within a single shipping day of 183 demographic market areas,” Nelson said.
• Primary Color in Costa Mesa, offering everything from trade show displays to studio production services, remained No. 2 with an estimated revenue of $64 million. Its workforce stayed at 325 employees.
• No. 3, Fontis Solutions in Irvine, inched up 1.2% to $41 million. The company operates two printing presses in OC and retained its staff of 60.
• No. 4, The Dot Corp. in Irvine, saw sales drop 4.7% to about $30 million while its workforce in the county climbed 5.6% to 190.
Climbers
The companies posting the biggest year-over-year increases were:
• Digital printer Crisp Imaging in Costa Mesa, formerly C2 Imaging, which grew significantly. It reported $19 million in sales, a 40.7% increase. Staff size grew by 15.9% to 146 employees.
The company, which offers services such as prints for commercial projects and document management, expanded operations this year when it acquired San Diego-based visual marketing firm Freeform. Gary Crisp, president and chief executive of Crisp Imaging, said adding shops and facilities throughout California, including Freeform’s facility, forged his company’s growth.
“All the segments that we do business in are very large segments, and we have great opportunity to grow market share,” he said. “I would say there’s less printing today [but] even though there’s less printing, there’s opportunity on the digital side.”
Crisp Imaging plans to open its 11th location, which will be in Riverside County, next month. It’s also testing a newly developed metadata software tool for the public sector called Docu-Dock that it plans to roll out nationally in the coming year.
• No. 28, South Beach Media Inc. in Fountain Valley, debuted on the list. Its sales rose 50% to $3 million as OC employees remained at nine.
• No. 5, Lake Forest-based Westamerica Communications, posted $27 million in revenue, a 25% increase, and added 10 workers to 108.
President and Chief Executive Doug Grant said it “hasn’t been a more exciting time for Westamerica than right now,” with additions such as new equipment and personnel.
Chairman Bill Berndt emphasized that its recent capital investments of nearly $4 million means the more than 40-year-old company is “now a true end-to-end provider with the latest technology.”
Declines
• Out of the eight firms that lost money, Westates Automotive Promotions in Buena Park had the biggest sales drop, 22.9% to $3.7 million. Ranked No. 27, it has 37 employees here, a 17.8% decline.
• No. 15, Meridian Graphics Inc. in Tustin, also had a sharp decline in sales. The company posted $14 million in revenue, a 16.7% decrease.
Chief Executive Officer Dave Melin said the company downsized operations last year but is focusing on expanding its packaging and digital print division to reverse its fortunes.
“The traditional commercial print has been impacted by companies using more social media to get their products noticed instead of ink in paper,” Melin said. “Our strategy moving forward is to focus more on packaging. That is one of the areas that is expanding in the print industry. We are also expanding our digital print division. We are going to introduce a web-to-print solution this year.”
