Original Smith plans for growth

Published: September 7, 2007
Section: Money
Page: C1
Source: Michelle Koetters; mkoetters@pantagraph.com

Caption: Original Smith Printing has started a $3 million expansion and remodeling project. Mark Deffenbaugh, vice president of operations, is excited about the expansion, especially two new state-of-the art presses.

BLOOMINGTON — Original Smith Printing expects to invest $15 million in its future.

The Bloomington printing business recently started a 48,000-square-foot addition and remodeling project that will increase the company's space by nearly 50 percent when work is completed in February, said President Rockie Zeigler.

Two new presses will top off the expansion project. "We've just outgrown our facility," Zeigler said. "We're on top of each other." It's a conclusion he's come to a few times already.

The project marks the company's largest single addition since it moved from its Empire Street location to a 10,000-square-foot facility at 2 Hardman Drive in Bloomington in 1980. The corporate office already has grown to 110,000 square feet after six other expansion projects in the past 25-plus years.

The majority of the latest $3 million addition and remodel will enlarge the production area, but the expansion also will double the building's office space, Zeigler said. Original Smith Printing also plans to spend $12 million on equipment, mostly on the two new presses. "Those presses are the most exciting part of the project," Zeigler said.

Mark Deffenbaugh, vice president of operations, also is looking forward to the state-of-the art technology with the first new press this January and the second arriving in January 2009. "The press is bigger and faster and can do more," Deffenbaugh said. Technologically advanced presses now can print on and coat both sides of material, which eliminates the two to eight hours of drying time and sends the product straight to finishing, increasing the company's efficiency, Deffenbaugh said.

"Basically, we're just losing a shift to drying time," Deffenbaugh said. New and improved equipment means the company doesn't have to hire more people to grow its sales, but new jobs will be added in the bindery, die cutting and finishing departments, Zeigler said. He didn't have a specific number yet. Original Smith Printing has seen strong growth in recent years, as the company grew from $28 million in sales to $40 million in a little more than three years, Zeigler said.

That growth ties into the need for the expansion, as well. "For us to expand ourselves, we just needed more room," he said. "We're working at capacity."

Also as part of the project, the business will add a conference room that can be divided into smaller rooms but also will be large enough to fit all 238 employees and a lunch room that's three times the current size. The company also will have new furniture, computer hook-ups and phones, Zeigler said.

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