Return to Virginia Business - May 2004

Related links:
Uncle Sam helps fuel growth
The 2004 Fantastic 50

Fantastic 50 Profiles:
Government construction pays off for THR Enterprises
PSS reinvents itself and taps into government IT market
At AeroAstro, smaller is better
With Bob Vila on board, Lumber Liquidators focuses on hardwood floors

by Heather B. Hayes
Virginia Business
May 2004

Apollo Press touts itself as being a different kind of commercial printing shop. Founded by John W. Taylor and Eddie Dent, two brothers-in-law, the company is the only commercial printing plant in the Tidewater region that has a web press and a jet press and that can provide adhesive binding.

“We’ve found niches and we’ve worked those niches, and I think that’s been the key to our success,” says Taylor, president of Apollo Press, which has seen revenues grow more than 500 percent since 1999. “As a result, we’ve become a one-stop shop for printing needs.”

The company added another unique service in March when it installed a fully automated, short-run, quick-turnaround, four-color press. The machine, sometimes described as offering “print-on-demand” service, is one of just nine running in the U.S. While most traditional presses require 500 to 1000 press sheets to get started, Apollo’s new press, which cost $1 million, takes just 10 sheets to achieve perfect color. “These great big presses take three to four hours to get going and so they need to run very large quantities,” says Dent, the company’s vice president. “This one takes 11 minutes to get started. So we’ll be going in for the area of low-volume, very quick turnaround, high-quality work that isn’t really a cost-effective fit for the bigger presses.”

The new state-of-the-art press will also allow the company — which has focused on providing wholesale services to distributors and direct work for government agencies, corporations and nonprofits — to pursue work with advertising agencies and corporate public relations departments.

As a result of these new growth strategies, Taylor anticipates that the company, which has 25 employees, will top $5 million in revenues this year. It could reach $7 million, he says, if Apollo wins one of three big contracts it’s pursuing. “They’re on the table, and we’re just waiting for a yea or nay,” he says.

Taylor and Dent’s positive outlook comes on the heels of their toughest year to date. In May 2003, the company purchased and renovated a 26,000-square-foot building and slowly relocated their operations over a several-month period. Then, just as everyone was finally settling in, Hurricane Isabel hit. “We had no electricity and no communications for seven days,” says Taylor, an outage that turned out to be a fitting metaphor for a year that saw fairly flat revenues. “In October, we started acting like a real company again. It was a physically and emotionally draining year for us, but we survived and, by that standard, I would say it was a success.”

With the expansion and upgrades, however, Apollo Press will be able to continue enhancing customer service capabilities. The company already has put in place fulfillment and inventory management services for larger accounts and is setting up an online ordering system on its Web site. “We’ll be able to receive a file from California from our Web site, go directly through our workplace system here and be on our new press in 11 minutes,” Dent says.

For existing customers, the changes can only add to the strong appeal of Apollo Press. “They’re incredibly responsive to our needs,” says Meg Packard, a buyer-manager in the purchasing department at the Virginia Commonwealth University Health System, which uses the company to print forms. “They have a unique understanding that we face issues and challenges that other industries don’t, and that when I say I have an emergency, it’s really an emergency. They not only get it to me when I need it but they do a great job.”

Return to Virginia Business - May 2004