Offset Printing
First web press fueling growth plan for Boyd Brothers Printing
Tuesday 04. November 2008 - High-quality Florida commercial printer expands with Goss Sunday 2000 system
The advanced capabilities of the Boyd Brothers Printing operation – including a new Goss Sunday 2000 web press – belie the humble roots of this high-quality commercial printer that traces its origin to a $175 transaction back in 1931.
That modest investment by the grandfather of current president James Boyd, Jr. has blossomed into the current version of Boyd Brothers. The Panama City, Florida commercial printer serves the southeast United States with a complete digital prepress department, state-of-the-art sheetfed presses and a comprehensive postpress and mailing operation.
One of the primary reasons for Boyd’s success has been a management philosophy of never being content to rest on past accomplishments or present capabilities. That thinking prompted Boyd to examine his company’s sheetfed orientation and to expand into web offset earlier this year. His choice was a Goss Sunday 2000 press, a four-unit, highly automated system with a 57-inch web width designed for fast makereadies and low waste. The gapless press went into production in the summer of 2008.
“Our perfectors, including roll-to-sheet presses, are extremely productive and efficient,” says Boyd, who has been involved in the family business for about 11 years. “But we had gone as far as we could in the sheetfed environment, and we knew it. At a certain run length, web presses become very competitive, and we had customers who were sending web work to other printers. We saw that the webs could provide excellent quality and excellent service, and if we could bring that option to our customers, we would capture that chunk of business.”
The expansion into the web arena was made relatively seamless, thanks to a thorough education and training effort. “We were very fortunate to be able to hire a couple of key people with extensive web backgrounds,” says Boyd. “Then we took three of our younger pressmen and trained them along with the new hires. We took a long term view that this was going to cost substantial money up front, but we gave everybody proper training. We insisted on a slow ramp-up period to give our people every opportunity to succeed.”
The acquisition of the Goss press is just one example of the company’s overall investment in its future. The Sunday system is the fifth new press in the last six years and the first inhabitant of a new, 50,000-square-foot facility constructed right next door to the original facility.
“We basically look at the new plant we’ve built as an integrated manufacturing process,” says Boyd. “The paper rolls in at one end, and finished books come out the other end. Everything travels in one direction, nothing back tracks, so we are minimizing labor and maximizing efficiency. More importantly, there is substantial room for growth, and we will undoubtedly add a second web press in the not-too-distant future.”
“Still, it’s not just a matter of producing higher volume,” he cautions. “The only way to last in this business is to be able to produce work more efficiently than anybody else. This plan started forming years ago, and it is not something you do overnight. In the long term, the Sunday press gives us a tremendous jump start on reaching our long-range objectives.”