The past several months have been quite volatile for the catalog marketplace. Double Digit Postal Increases combined with 20-25% Paper Increases in the latter half of 2007 have impacted catalogers budgets for 2008 and beyond. Mergers among some of the largest publicly held printers have shut down most excess capacity and eliminated thousands of jobs in the industry. The credit crunch has led to bankruptcy proceedings for one of the largest printers in the industry.

At privately held Catalogs America we have been able to continue towards our quest to be the best (no, not the largest) provider in the marketplace for a niche of business to business and consumer catalogers. If you mail between 500,000 and 30 million catalogs per year on gloss coated or supercalendered papers we are likely a great fit for your work as well.

May 29, 2008
Paper Suppliers throughout the industry raise prices another $3.00 per cwt., for the fifth quarter in a row, an increase of roughly 35% over the past 15 months. This article from Catalog Success, though published in early '08, provides good a backdrop for what we are seeing today.

March 4, 2008
We add a 3rd high-speed demographic saddle binder to further enhance our in line co mailing capabilities. Off line co mailing continues to be run through weekly 2.6 million run pools and our partnership with ALG Logistics in Bolingbrook, IL. In September of this year we will complete the installation of a new Goss 2200 High Speed Demographic Saddle Stitcher. At speeds of 22,000 copies per hour we will be the second installation in the United States for this state of the art bindery technology.

February 21, 2008
The EPA's top list of top 100 polluters is released for the Printing Industry for calendar year 2006. View the list at www.epa.gov. Once again, we have not made the list as we have invested heavily in catalytic converters and afterburners for our press equipment and facilities. Over the past few years we have reduced our Volatile Organic Compound Emissions by more than 90% to 2,700 lbs. per year. Other environmental investments include conversion to synthetic solvents instead of volatile alcohol based allowing for proper wetting without pollution. All paper waste both from the press and bindery (and corporate offices) are recycled. For all processes possible, we use clean burning natural gas instead of fossil fuels. In 1988 we became one of the first web printers in the United States to print with soy based inks, and continue today by using soy when possible and recycling all other process and special color inks.

August 21st 2007
We add more wafer-sealing equipment to our mailroom to meet the growing market demand for tabbed catalogs that can mail at the letter rate. Since May of 2007 our letter rate mail volume has increased by twenty-fold.