American Press rolls along

By Hannah Wever
Review Staff Writer
Published: October 23, 2008

Gordonsville’s American Press has big plans for the future, despite a global economic situation that has put the squeeze on many businesses.
The production facility prints and distributes a wide-ranging list of magazines, catalogs and specialty publications. 
Eddie Owens, vice president of manufacturing at American Press in Gordonsville said production is up, and new machinery and technology is helping the company meet ever-growing demand.
“Six years ago, we pulled out and retired a couple of aged presses, and installed some that were state-of-the-art, and then we put in another one two years ago,“ Owens explained.
The new, ultra-modern press has the capability to keep up with current demand, and the potential to do even more.
“In a 24-hour period, it goes through 50 miles of paper,“ Owens said. “If we ran that press every day for a year, we’d be at about 5,000 miles of paper and five billion pages of printed product annually.“
But all that printed product has to be finished. And at American Press, there are new machines to handle all the slick pages of a women’s wear catalog or varicolored vistas of a travel tract.
“The equipment in the finishing area was aging so we made investments in that area,“ Owens said.
Charles Pettygrove, president of American Press said it just made good sense to update multiple aspects of the business.
“It was really a continuation of the new high-speed press that would enhance and advance the binding capacity,“ he said. “The machine we took out probably had a third of the capacity this machine has.“
The new machine is called a saddle stitcher; it binds the booklets and catalogs once they come off the printing presses. On a Goldberg-esque series of belts and blowers, grippers and grabbers, lightning-fast machinery maneuvers printed pages from point A to point B, grouping them, sorting them, placing front and back covers and finally suturing the publication together.
“It’s the fastest saddle stitcher in the marketplace today,“ Owens explained.
And as impressive as that mercury-quick, high-capacity apparatus is, Owens said, it has little value without capable people to operate it.
“You’ve got to put the right people on a piece of equipment like this,“ Owens said. “You’ve got to be able to understand electronics, and have good mechanical and electrical ability.“
Pettygrove said American Press first took the new saddle stitcher for a spin in September, and it’s been running like a top since then. But the efficiency and high output offered by the machine won’t show up in the balance sheet for another month or so.
“We haven’t felt the impact yet. We fully anticipate the machine will be in full production by December of this year,“ Pettygrove said.
Pettygrove’s optimism and confidence in the company is based on what he’s seen in the books. In fact, just in the last few months, the company has signed contracts to produce 150 million pieces. And Owens shares the same rosy outlook on American Press’ future.
“It’s been a trying time for most industries, but we are continuing to invest in capital, and continuing to invest in people,“ Owens said. “We believe we’ll continue to weather the rocky times. We believe we’ll come out strong.“