An All-around Leader

"We save them money on print applications," says Grouzard. "Allstate knows we can print items cost effectively."

Over the past half century, the in-plant has evolved from a small duplicating shop with about 60 employees, to a massive 350-employee, three-shift operation housed in a 425,000-square-foot facility in the Chicago suburbs. To justify its size, the in-plant tracks every job and compares prices with commercial printers. These numbers are used to compile monthly profit and loss statements, which are passed on to upper management. Because it tracks its costs so well and provides such fast, efficient service to Allstate, the in-plant has the strong support of the company's senior management.