A new take on printing
Don Kallil is an entrepreneur at heart. In his former life, Kallil was a stockbroker for Merrill Lynch in Chicago. As of today, he has had his hand in many different entrepreneurial pots for almost 25 years.
He’s president of five local companies, including Design Design, MaryAnne’s Chocolates, Cool Cups and Stuff, M. Middleton (an invitations company) and Verdant Graphics. Verdant Graphics is a Grand Rapids-based, full-service printing company with a focus on environmentally friendly products and processes. Since it began in 2010, Verdant Graphics has grown to about 11 employees.
Between all their companies, they were doing a significant amount of printing. “We wanted to have control over the method and turnaround time as well as finishing,” says Kallil. “We decided to take what we were outsourcing to different printers and start a company. We wanted to improve modern technology in the printing process and do it as environmentally friendly as possible.”
Kallil and company figured out the printing biz from square one. They got their hands dirty, hired some experienced people, attended trade shows and experimented. “Sure, there were growing pains with figuring out how to be a printer,” says Kallil. “We are now long past the learning curve. Those challenges in the beginning helped us become better printers. We’re really happy with the quality we’re able to turn out now.”
The printed page is not dead
Let’s be honest. In the digital age, when people are tossing out their printers, using QR codes to board airplanes and giving Kindle ebooks as Christmas presents, does it really make sense to start a printing company?
According to Kallil, it depends on the scale.
In printing, clients often waste money on printed jobs, printing a large quantity, and then not needing all the extra materials. “People would rather not spend the money up front, because things change so quickly, and the economy is tight,” says Kallil. “People want the flexibility to print their brochure and then change it. In this economy, things are changing so rapidly.”
When businesses are pinching pennies and cutting corners, there’s no reason to be paying for extra storage space. “We want to run our print jobs more often and not house excess inventory. Before, we might have printed two years worth of greeting cards, but now we print six months or a year’s worth. With the economy, people just aren’t buying as much inventory. “
Printing green
So what are the green options for a printer? Verdant Graphics uses soy-based inks, recycles all their extra paper, plastics and cardboard, and often prints on recycled paper that has post-consumer waste. They don't do anything with plastics and they use digital offset printers that reduce toxic chemicals.
Their process is so clean, they’re able to keep their printers right in their offices in their company headquarters at 19 LaGrave. “If our printers use chemicals, they use very few. We can clean our printing plates with lasers,” says Kallil.
As a company, Kallil says Verdant tries to go as clean as they can. “Plus," he adds, "we believe that even though something is recycled, it doesn’t have to look drab. It can be colorful and look great.”
Capabilities
Many printers have had a rough time lately. “We spent 1.3 million dollars on equipment, and people were wondering what we were doing getting into the printing industry," Kallil remembers. "It was kind of an anomaly to start one now, but we plan to grow the company significantly over the next five years with our focus on sustainability, flexibility, and quality. Because of our experience with the greeting card industry, we have a pretty good idea [of how] to get products to be consumer appealing. Plus, we have the resource of a full art department at Design Design, so we can capitalize on that -- we offer not only great printing, but great design as well.”
Verdant Graphics has a traditional printing presses and a direct imaging press, which uses water-based ink. It doesn't use metal plates. They also have a digital, high-end direct imaging press. They do their own die-cutting, print finishing, print stamping, foil stamping and finishes in house, as opposed to sending it out. The good news: cost savings and faster turnaround time. “We’ve been able to experiment and find new methods that we wouldn’t have been to do if we had to use an outside source,” says Kallil.
Their biggest sheet is 14x20, so their focus is more small-scale printing. “All of our equipment is brand new, so we were able to buy equipment that meets the demand on current printing -- shorter, smaller print runs,” says Kallil. “It’s so high-tech, we can do it more efficiently… We love the quality of the product, and control over what we’re producing.”
Looking Ahead
Verdant Graphics clients started out as the other companies in Kalill’s group, but they will soon be expanding their services to the Grand Rapids community.
“We’ve got a lot done, but we’ve got a lot more to do,” says Kallil. “There’s a lot happening in the marketplace and the opportunities are everywhere.”
Nicole Corley is a Grand Rapids-based writer who spent four years as a Copywriter at local advertising firm Grey Matter Group and is now pursuing her MFA at Savannah College of Art and Design. She also covers music for On the Town.
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