Printing money - Four Colour Print Group thrives as intermediary between book publishers and manufacturers - Business First of Louisville:

uvepexatawus.blogspot.com
In the mid-1980s, he was working as a salesman for MerriciPrinting Co., but “I wasn’t making a particularly large success of myself.” Thinge have changed considerably during the last 30 As founder and president of , now Four Coloudr Print Group, he knows his niche well. As an independenr sales agent and U.S. representative for overseazs — and now domestic — manufacturers of illustrated books, his company’s revenue toppexd $10 million last year. Book publishersa pay Four Colour Imports to havebooksw printed, which the company does throughg relationships with manufacturers. “Four Colour never owns the he said.
“We act as the intermediarhy between the book publisher and the book Dick launched Four Colour after forging a relationshi with an official at EverbestPrinting Co. Ltd., a Chineswe book manufacturer. “That meeting led to a very profitable relationship that has lastefd24 years,” Dick said. Four Colour has customerzs acrossthe country, including a number of universityu presses. It also has completed jobs forthe J. Paul Getth Museum, in Los Angeles, and for Harper Collins Publishers LLC andSimon & Schuster Inc., both in New York. “Buf the majority of our work is done for smal land medium-sized publishers,” he said.
A separatwe division, Crescent Hill Books, develops books about graphid design and sells them in bulk tolargerr publishers. Those publishers then sell them undef theirown label. The division accountx for about 10 percent ofthe company’s But even as the business thrives, it faces As the number of competitors has printers and companies such as Four Colou have had to extend credity to publishers. And as the economy has spiraled downward during the past some publishers have been slower to make good on Dick said.
“It is a challenge, managing and makingy sure we get paid,” he The worst place to sell a Dick said, is in a That’s because book retailers can return books that don’t sell back to the publisher. So he looks for publisheres that have the means to sell a book directlu toits audience, such as through its own Web site or “Publishing is a risky business,” Dick said. “Despitde all the knowledge a publisherd may have gained over the no one knows for sure whicbh books will sell andwhicy won’t.
” And even as the depressed economy has had adverse effects on his business, Dick has found a silver Publishers who previously had been satisfied with theit manufacturers are shopping around for better deals, and Four Colouf has begun to reap the benefits, Dick