Arandell Corp. to Expand Its Plant

Arandell Corp., one of the largest catalog printers in North America, is about to become larger – literally.

The firm plans to build a 106,596-square-foot addition to its Menomonee Falls, WI plant, bringing its total square footage to 565,325. The expansion might begin this week and the target completion date is Thanksgiving, according to marketing director Jamie Marquardt.

The building addition will be the new home to the company’s fifth perfect binder, and the future home to all perfect binding equipment.

“This will allow for the next wave of expansion for the press room, bindery, and logistics division,” Marquardt says. “The expansion will definitely allow us to work even more efficiently than we do now.”

By moving its perfect binding equipment to the new building and moving other equipment around, “we will be improving the entire process flow,” Marquardt adds. “If there’s a better way to do something, this expansion will give us even more of an opportunity to make it happen.”

She adds: “Lean is not about working harder. It’s about working smarter, which is exactly what the expansion will allow us to do.”

How many new jobs will be created?

“We really can’t put a number on this,” Marquardt answers. “It’s not so much about the number of jobs that we’ll be creating, but rather about the improvement in workflow efficiencies through technological advancement and restructuring the layout of our plant.”

Marquardt notes the cost of expansion is being kept private. Currently, the privately held Arandell employs 815 workers.

The purchase follows R.R. Donnelley’s acquisitions of Banta Corp. and Perry Judd’s in the last two months of 2006. Donnelley is North America’s largest printer, but Marquardt says Arandell benefited from those deals.

“Not only did we pick up business, but we have acquired some outstanding associates from all three of the companies,” she says. “Customers and associates were seeking stability, so they came our way. Over the past year, we have truly benefited from some of the mergers and acquisitions within the industry.”

She continues that “the Donnelley-Perry Judd’s/Banta trilogy was probably one of the best things that has ever happened to us.”

So is even more expansion possible in the future?

“This expansion is taking us all the way to the end of our lot line, so any expansion beyond this would require us to acquire more land,” Marquardt says. “As of right now, plans for that have not been determined.”