In-plant Keeps 'Soup' Cooking

Book publisher Health Communications struck it rich with the book "Chicken Soup for the Soul." Now its in-plant has its work cut out for it.

If the staff of book publisher Health Communications Inc. (HCI) believes in the curative powers of chicken soup, it's not without good reason. Five years ago the Deerfield Beach, Fla.-based company was struggling to survive as a publisher of pamphlets and books dealing with drug and alcohol treatment. Then company president and co-founder Peter Vegso read a manuscript that made him cry, and he decided to publish it, not knowing it had been rejected by 33 other publishers.

That book, "Chicken Soup for the Soul," has become a publishing industry phenomenon, spawning a series of 16 related books (e.g. Chicken Soup for the Mother's Soul, the Pet Lover's Soul, the Teenage Soul, etc.) that collectively have racked up global sales of more than 30 million copies. Needless to say, this has been very therapeutic for HCI's once-anemic bottom line.

Taking a chance on the original Chicken Soup recipe is characteristic of a company that has little in common with its publishing industry peers. Perhaps its most significant divergence from industry norms is its captive printing and binding operation.

"Most publishers outsource printing, but we prefer to handle printing in-house because it gives us maximum control of quality, scheduling, inventory and costs," says Terry Burke, vice president of sales and marketing. "Having our printing facility here allows us to respond to market needs quickly."

HCI's four sheetfed presses and one web press are housed in an 80,000-square-foot facility that currently is being expanded to 120,000 square feet. Presses include a 371⁄2˝, two-color MAN-Miller perfector, two 40˝ Komori presses, a 371⁄2˝, five-color MAN-Miller perfector and a two-color 38˝ Timson web with inline finishing. An 18-pocket Muller-Martini NORM binder handles perfect and lay-flat binding.

This arsenal of equipment did not exist when the company started back in 1978. Its only printed products back then were a tabloid newspaper and some brochures about drug and alcohol abuse. The author of a book called "Adult Children of Alcoholics" approached Health Communications, and the company agreed to print the work. All it had at the time was a small sheetfed press, which made the job a bit of a chore to produce.

Nevertheless, the book became a hit, and Health Communications gradually began adding equipment and taking on more books. Today it prints about 450 titles, Burke says. In addition to books, the 50-employee in-plant prints catalogs, flyers, direct mail, bookmarks and similar items, he says.

Since a book's cover is a critical marketing tool, printing of book covers gets special attention.

"We produce 1.5 million books a month, and our five-color MAN-Miller press runs three shifts a day, seven days a week to print the covers," Burke says. "That makes paper stock a critical issue for us, since we can't afford to slow down to accommodate paper that doesn't meet our runnability standards."

All soft-bound book covers at HCI are printed on 10-point Tango coated one-side (C1S) cover stock from Inland Eastex. "We began using Tango (then called TexCover) in 1989 when the paper first came out," Burke says. "We were looking for a cover stock that would offer better runnability and better cracking resistance, and Tango met all of our specifications. It has great ink holdout and excellent folding properties, and takes UV coating well."

Tango's calcium carbonate coating reportedly yields less cracking and a glossier finish than traditional clay-coated paper. Cracking resistance is particularly important, Burke explains.

"By the time a book hits the retail shelf, it's been handled numerous times in production and by distributors and retailers," he says. "Books with cracked covers don't sell, so covers that cost us a nickel each to print can wind up costing us many times that amount in returns."

Cover sheets are cut and trimmed to HCI's unique size requirement by its paper broker, Coral Paper, from roll stock. Palletized loads are shipped to the publisher on a just-in-time basis.

Over the years, HCI has evaluated new cover stocks that have come onto the market, however Burke remains satisfied with Tango.

"Cover stock is just too important to us to risk problems," he says.