The domino effect Dec 1, 1998 12:00 PM
, CATALOG AGE STAFF
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Every silver lining has its cloud-or so the tale of spiritual and Christian
gifts cataloger APG-Direct suggests. Stable paper prices and healthy sales
growth encouraged many mailers to boost their holiday circulation at the
eleventh hour. But according to APG-Direct president Jim Fitzgerald, these
circulation increases created a backlog at the bindery line, forcing the
$1.5 million cataloger to mail its 40-page In the Spirit book more than two
weeks late.
"Our printer ended up having to outsource the binding to a third party,"
Fitzgerald claims. "We'd wanted our fall/holiday catalog to mail on Sept.
10, but we couldn't get it in the mail until Sept. 28," although APG-Direct
had contracted its bindery time several months prior to its August print
date. Calls to World Color, APG-Direct's printer, went unanswered at press
time.
APG was counting on results from the September mailing to help it identify
profitable lists. The company tested 30 lists with the first fall mailing,
the catalog's national launch after a test last year. "We wanted to
incorporate the response data from the first mailing into our third
mailing, slated for November," Fitzgerald says. "We were forced to guess at
the 10 most responsive lists and realized afterward that we missed
identifying four out of 10 because of the delay."
An isolated incident?
Other catalogers and industry observers, all of whom requested anonymity,
say that in late summer and early fall, printers World Color, Quebecor, and
Quad/Graphics suffered delays of up to two weeks on bindery lines. Several
calls to each of these printers were not returned by press time, however.
Printers R.R. Donnelley and Banta report no delays on bindery lines.
Observers blame the delays primarily on higher holiday circulation and
increased use of ink-jetting and versioning, both of which require more
bindery "pockets," in which page signatures are held before being collated.
The more pockets, the more time is needed on the bindery line.
For example, Quill, the Lincolnshire, IL-based office supplies catalog, at
the last minute decided to add ink-jetted messages to its catalogs in early
September-nearly a year after it had booked its bindery time. At the same
time, favorable response to an earlier prospecting book prompted Quill to
increase its fourth-quarter circulation 40%. "The economy is good, paper
pricing is depressed, catalogers are increasing circulation after booking
bindery time, and printers were caught off guard," says Vern Bush, Quill's
print services manager.
As for APG-Direct, its printer was able to bind and mail its second and
third fall/holiday catalog drops on time. But Fitzgerald says he learned a
lesson in the process. "Every cataloger should ask what contingency plans
its printer has in place, not just with printing but also with bindery. Ask
questions such as can it move a job from one plant to another in a given
amount of time. I've also become rabid about deadlines and dates, and I
insist on printer confirmations."
