In-plant Profiles

Papa Johns Louisville, Ky. It sounds like a pizza lover's dream. In addition to the standing dollar-a-slice deal available to Papa Johns employees from the on-site pizzeria at its corporate headquarters, employees can also enjoy 50 percent off all other Papa Johns pizza purchases. Though this undoubtedly adds a few pounds to workers' waistlines, the pizza chain giant has been adding much more than this lately. This month, Papa Johns' 85-employee in-plant will add a new 11,000-lb., 36˝, four-color Process King press to help it gain more control over the company's printing and marketing needs. Jack Klausing, director of

Tyson Foods Springdale, Ark. Nobody knows which came first, the chicken or Don Tyson's idea for complete vertical integration. But Russell Gayer, manager of printing services for Tyson Foods, knows that his in-plant didn't always print such a tremendous volume of work. "It started out in 1975 as just a little room in the corporate office with a couple of duplicators," explains Gayer, "But over the years it's snowballed into what we have here today." And what the company has is a 62-employee in-plant that prints over 62 million labels a month. That's a lot of snowballing. Tyson's executives charted a course

If you've got a problem with your American Express card statement don't bother calling Mark Ostley, manager of document-related services for American Express Financial Advisors. He has nothing to do with it. He is, however, part of a team that oversees nearly everything else the credit card behemoth's in-plant produces. And it produces quite a lot. "We do everything from stationery to letterhead and business cards, all the way to digital color promotional material, such as booklets and brochures," explains Ostley. "It's actually pretty far reaching." Though the 248-employee in-plant outsources nearly 80 percent of its work, when it does decide to take on

Yale University New Haven, Conn. Yale University provides its professors and students an environment that's unlikely to be matched at any other campus—and that includes the services provided by its in-plant. "In the academic world, we're unique in the wide range of services that we provide to our clients," says Richard Masotta, director of Yale's Reprographic and Imaging Services (RIS). That boast isn't mere sales talk. With roughly 100 employees and workspace at three locations on campus, RIS's myriad offerings range from graphic design and Web site development to copier maintenance and electronic, color, laser and offset printing. RIS also manages a technology

Cigna Printing and Distribution Charleston, S.C. If there's one thing John Panhorst doesn't want to do, it's get his hands dirty. Not that Panhorst, assistant vice-president of printing in Cigna's Printing and Distribution department, has a problem with working; he just knows that the in-plant runs a lot more smoothly and efficiently if people don't get in the way of the machines. "We've got our systems so automated that when an order comes in to ship 500 books, the whole thing drops into the demand print queue automatically," he says. "We don't interface with it at all, and frequently we put those

Amway Ada, Michigan. Amway—the little business that could—went from a basement office in 1959 to an estimated $5 billion in retail sales 40 years later. But to long-term employees like Mike King, director of paper products, Amway's success is no accident; it's a manifestation of the pure entrepreneurial spirit of Amway's two creators, Rich DeVos and Jay Van Andel. "In the beginning, everybody thought they were nutso," says King, with a chuckle. "They would drive somewhere to meet 150 people for a demonstration and three people would show up, but they were committed to their idea and they stuck with it." DeVos and Van

Texas Department of Health and Human Services Austin, Texas After years of fighting to keep his in-plant alive, Robert McDaniel has finally been able to spend some time focusing solely on improving his shop. Six years ago, the Texas Council on Competitive Government consolidated 31 state print shops in Travis County, in central Texas, into a mere nine shops. These in-plants, which lack right of first refusal, were also mandated to operate on a full cost recovery basis and forbidden from printing for any type of commercial operation. The result? They were left fighting each other and commercial print shops in a limited pool

Parent company mergers, diverse products and a focus on color printing for the public eye seem to typify in-plants in the wholesale and retail trades. Dean Sutera hits the nail right on the head when he comments on the importance of in-plants in the wholesale and retail markets. "Because of the wide variety of printing that is needed by the retail environment," says Sutera, manager of the corporate print shop of Fred Meyer Inc., in Portland, Ore., "in-plants for retail operations are a lot more justifiable." Retail companies like Fred Meyer need everything from large, four-color signs to small flexo labels. And

Competition among insurance companies is fueling marketing efforts, forcing in-plants to turn out more four-color work than ever. Insurance is a huge market. Its providers make up a major portion of Fortune magazine's annual Fortune 500 listing, with giants like State Farm and Prudential ranking in the top 20. Behemoths like these know how important quality marketing materials are to their businesses, and many of them turn to their in-plants to get them. Because of the competition among insurance firms, these materials must be eye-catching and colorful, a fact that is bringing more color printing work into these in-plants. "Color will sell things

Despite the "glamorous" work going on in sound stages right down the hall, the real excitement for Paramount's director of graphic services lies in the print shop. There was a time when the sight of a Klingon chowing down in the company cafeteria would have made Hector Amaya's jaw drop in amazement. But these days the executive director of Graphic Services at Paramount Pictures would hardly give such alien tablemates a second glance. It's all part of life at the giant Hollywood, Calif., studio, where dozens of TV shows like Star Trek: Voyager, Star Trek: Deep Space Nine, Frasier and Wings are shot