Looking Good on More Than Paper

Great American companies are under stress and cutting dividends. General Motors is openly discussing bankruptcy. Another General, this one Electric, slashed its dividend. Venerable Goldman Sachs has morphed into a commercial bank and took government bailout money. Remember the legendary Lehman Brothers? Bear Stearns? Wachovia? They were once so reliable, their stocks were the investment choice of widows and orphans.

More of the names I grew up with might not survive the year. It's stunning. But this column is about one successful reinvention.

Global Printing, tucked in a quiet corner of Alexandria, was facing the abyss seven years ago when the millions of catalogues and manuals it prints began migrating to the Web.

Historically, printing was a safe, local business that made a good living for its owner. Printing companies tend to be local because paper is relatively costly to distribute. Presses, too, are expensive, so would-be competitors are usually few. The key is to run the presses nonstop.

Global's owner Jonathan Budington sums it up this way: "We're like an airline in that we own huge fixed assets. Planes and printers both sell time on their machines."

"A lot of guys got rich on printing back in the early '90s," Budington said.

With big clients like MCI, Booz Allen and the American Red Cross, Global was profitable but didn't grow. Founded in 1978, Global reliably made about 15 percent profit before tax.

When the Internet disrupted the traditional business model, Budington transformed Global from an old-line manufacturer into a state-of-the-art consulting service. Instead of just printing, Global helps clients assemble data, target customers and deliver it to them efficiently. It still makes money the old-fashioned way, by running its presses around the clock. But the company has a new life in consulting.

Global is worth around $5 million, and Budington owns all of it except for the factory. And he is in the process of buying that from the former owner.

Budington showed initiative from the get-go. He started in customer service at Global Printing in 1991. Back then, the business brought in about $3 million in revenue. After three months on the job, he asked founder Jerry Dreo if he could run the satellite office in Tysons Corner, where Budington had heard through the company grapevine that a longtime manager was leaving. (I cannot imagine walking into the executive editor's office after three months at The Washington Post and asking for a transfer to, gee, how about London?)

"I told him I would really like a shot at that. I was relentless," Budington said.

Budington knew that his contract was filled with incentives based on growth and profit. Global's Tysons office had been billing its clients $15,000 a month. Budington grew the business to $100,000 a month within two years.