INSOURCING PRINTING from outside organizations has become a common practice at in-plants. More than half do it, and that’s been the case for four or five years now, according to our surveys. Our latest research reveals that those who insource get an average of 13 percent of their work this way. A few of the more zealous insourcers say it makes up 75-80 percent of their business, while a handful of dabblers estimate that less than 1 percent of their work comes from insourcing. Most are in the 5-10 percent range. The half that doesn’t insource has its reasons. They’re worried customers will
Keith St. Clair
Bob has served as editor of In-plant Impressions since October of 1994. Prior to that he served for three years as managing editor of Printing Impressions, a commercial printing publication. Mr. Neubauer is very active in the U.S. in-plant industry. He attends all the major in-plant conferences and has visited more than 180 in-plant operations around the world. He has given presentations to numerous in-plant groups in the U.S., Canada and Australia, including the Association of College and University Printers and the In-plant Printing and Mailing Association. He also coordinates the annual In-Print contest, co-sponsored by IPMA and In-plant Impressions.
TWENTY-THREE YEARS ago, Keith St. Clair got a tip that a local print shop was looking for an employee. Knowing nothing about the printing business, he thought it sounded like an advantageous career path and took the job. “I didn’t know what to expect,” says St. Clair, now print shop production manager at Grocery Supply Co., in Sulphur Springs, Texas. “I thought I would just stand around and the machines would do all the work.” He quickly learned he would not be doing a lot of standing around. Born and raised in Sulphur Springs, about 80 miles east of Dallas, St. Clair graduated high school and entered
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