Pressing Matters: MWM Dexter Inc.

President: Chris Dale

Founded: 1922

Address: 107 Washington Ave., Aurora, MO 65605

Phone: (417) 887-6299

Fax: (417) 841-1040

Web site: www.mwmdexter.com

E-mail: mcole@mwmdexter.com

Services/Products: full-color offset, sheet-fed printing, full pre-press capabilities, complete finishing capabilities including saddle stitching, perfect binding and calendar tinning

2006 Revenues: $17 million

Employees: 120

Aurora-based MWM Dexter traces its roots back to 1922, when its predecessor, Midwest Map Co. was founded. Map production ceased in the 1950s, and Midwest became MWM Color Press. In the 1980s, the company bought Pearl River, N.Y.-based Dexter Press, and the name changed again to MWM Dexter.

Dexter Press is credited within the printing industry with producing the first natural color postcard, but Sales Manager Melissa Cole, who joined MWM Dexter in 1997, has watched new technology bring big changes with it.

“Technology has really evolved over that time,” says Cole, who still searches for early Dexter postcards at estate auctions. “Since I began, we’ve gone direct-to-plate.”

The direct-to-plate process and technology in general are continually evolving, which Cole says has improved quality for MWM Dexter.

Customer relationships also have evolved – particularly, Cole says, as the industry has gotten more competitive.

“We really are much more relationship-oriented now than we were 10 years ago,” Cole says. “We really are interested in learning a lot about our clients’ individual businesses and how we fit into helping them build their businesses.”

MWM Dexter also has had to become more technologically savvy in light of the fact that more materials now travel electronically to the production facility.

“We have to be able to help clients understand the kind of files to create and why they work or don’t work,” Cole says.

Customers come first

The focus on relationships is clear for Teters Floral Products, a Bolivar-based importer of artificial floral and home décor products. Teters Marketing Manager Scott Frerichs says the two companies have more that a seller-client arrangement.

“One thing I really value is our relationship with them,” Frerichs says. “That’s a real relationship where we are working together. I’m not considered a customer and (them) a provider. We are in this together.”

Cole says the company works very hard not to sell just on price in the saturated printing marketplace.

“We try to offer other value-added services to clients … solutions to inventory issues (and) things like that,” Cole says.

For Frerichs, value-added payoff comes in the form of mailing services.

“It is kind of a turnkey-type project,” Frerichs says. “They will do the design, printing and the mailing of the entire project.”

Frerichs also values the expertise from MWM Dexter, and specifically mentions Kelly Blankenship, mailing service manager.

“(She) has done wonders for us over the years,” he says, noting that he relies on MWM Dexter’s knowledge of postage rates and advice on the size and weight of cards and mailers.

He also cites MWM Dexter with helping him control costs in other ways.

“We do catalogs, and one of the challenges to me (is) budget constraints,” Frerichs says. “We have been able to reduce cost and turnaround time as a result of using different types of paper or going to a different weight stock.”

New technology

MWM Dexter runs several printers, including a pair of large six-color Mitsubishi models and a smaller, four-color press and other equipment, including a $500,000 perfect binder.

The company made $1 million in improvements in 2004 and will soon take delivery on a new Mitsubishi 40-inch press.

Cole expects those improvements to reduce make-ready time, cut costs and improve quality.

Cutting costs are important, but in recent years, most costs have come in shipping and paper.

“In both getting materials here and shipping the product back, we’ve seen that,” Cole says. “The fuel surcharges have been on the incline as of late.

“We do our best to negotiate the best shipping costs for our client,” she added. “We are always negotiating with carriers. As we have seen the price of transportation increase, we have also seen the price of paper increase. We’ve seen two really significant increases over the last year. Any time your materials increase that is always a challenge.”

Those price increases are not surprising.

According to the American Paper Institute and the Office of Scientific and Technical Information, the paper industry is the fifth-largest consumer of energy in the United States and the largest consumer of fuel oil.

Cost increases for materials are felt more significantly in larger printed products, such as catalogs, than in smaller products, such as direct-mail cards, as most of the cost for smaller items is tied to labor and pre-press activity, but Cole likes to see a mix of clients.

“We really tend to be diversified in our client base,” Cole says. “We have a really good mix of those long-term clients that we grow with. As they evolve, we produce bigger and better things with them. We (also have) small businesses who need a postcard once a year, but it is the biggest thing they do.”[[In-content Ad]]