The Sheridan Group, Inc.

Wholly Owned Subsidiary of TSG Holdings Corporation
Incorporated: 1915 as Everybody’s Poultry Magazine Publishing Company
Employees: 2,085
Sales: $347.96 million (2005)
NAIC: 323110 Commercial Lithographic Printing; 323117 Books Printing

The Sheridan Group, Inc., is a holding company that owns six specialized printing firms around the United States. Its subsidiaries include The Sheridan Press of Hanover, Pennsylvania, which prints scholarly, medical, and technical journals; Sheridan Books, Inc., of Ann Arbor and Chelsea, Michigan, which prints books for small publishers; United Litho, Inc., of Ashburn, Virginia, which prints special-interest magazines; The Dingley Press, a printer of catalogs based in Lisbon, Maine; and the Dartmouth Printing Company and sister unit Dartmouth Journal Services of Hanover, New Hampshire, which print magazines and journals. Together, Sheridan companies produce more than 110 catalogs, 380 magazines, 2,200 journals, and 10,000 book titles per year. The firm’s customers include scholarly publishers, mail-order firms, professional associations, university presses, and other small publishers around the United States.

BEGINNINGS

The Sheridan Group’s roots date to 1915, when C. N. Myers founded a magazine about show chickens called Everybody’s Poultry. The new firm initially shared space with a small newspaper in Hanover, Pennsylvania, where a single letterpress was used to print the magazine. Everybody’s Poultry quickly found an audience in the United States and abroad, and grew steadily over the next several decades.

By 1946, with circulation topping 140,000, the company began taking printing jobs from outside customers. As this business grew, the operation became known as Everybody’s Press. Over the years the firm acquired a variety of equipment that included eight letterpresses, a Linotype machine, and a binder, to which in 1960 was added offset printing capabilities.

In 1961 Everybody’s Press hired R. Champlin “Champ” Sheridan to serve as production manager. Sheridan had graduated from Johns Hopkins University in 1952 with an engineering degree, before service in the Korean War. After returning to his hometown of Baltimore, Maryland, he took a position with Schneidereith and Sons, a printing firm co-owned and run by his father. Wanting to forge his own path in the business, he began working for Everybody’s Press.

Sheridan was subsequently promoted to the position of general manager, and in 1967 he put up his personal savings of $1,000 and borrowed additional funds to buy Everybody’s Press from its retiring owners. In 1973 the growing firm broke ground on a new, larger plant in Hanover. It had 58 employees.

In 1980 the company began to target the “shortrun” journal market, specifically seeking work printing scientific, technical, medical, and scholarly titles that were produced in relatively small quantities. In 1982 the firm’s name was changed to Sheridan Press, and two years later a division called Sheridan Reprints was founded to republish journal articles.

THE SHERIDAN GROUP FORMED IN 1988

In 1988 the firm purchased a book manufacturer called Braun-Brumfield, Inc., of Ann Arbor, Michigan, which printed small runs of special-interest titles for a variety of publishers. A new management structure was created at this time, with a parent company called The Sheridan Group formed to manage the two businesses. Champ Sheridan was named CEO of the larger unit, which would be based in Hunt City, Maryland, near Baltimore.

In 1994 The Sheridan Group bought United Litho, Inc., of Virginia, a printing company specializing in magazines with midsize print runs of 10,000 to 100,000 copies. Founded in 1970, United Litho had annual sales of $16.8 million. Ken Garner would remain the firm’s president and its 140 employees would boost The Sheridan Group’s total staff to nearly 1,000.

In 1994, Champ Sheridan and his wife Debbie donated $20 million to double the Johns Hopkins library’s endowment and help pay for needed renovations. The couple had three years earlier funded the library director’s position, and the school would later rename its libraries in their honor.

In 1995 John A. Saxton, a former vice-president of Procter & Gamble, was named president and CEO of The Sheridan Group. He had been a member of the firm’s board of directors since 1991. Champ Sheridan would continue to serve as board chairman.

In 1997 United Litho moved into a new manufacturing facility, and in early 1998 The Sheridan Group bought two New England printing companies, using funds from a recent recapitalization. Ninety-year-old Montpelier, Vermont-based Capital City Press focused on scholarly journals, while Dartmouth Printing Company of Hanover, New Hampshire, specialized in magazines and journals. The latter was founded in 1791 at Dartmouth College and became an independent firm in 1843.

SHERIDAN BOOKS FORMED IN 1999

In 1999 the company acquired BookCrafters USA, Inc., from American Business Products. BookCrafters, with operations in Chelsea, Michigan, and Fredericksburg, Virginia, was merged into Braun-Brumfield to create a new division called Sheridan Books, Inc.

In 2003 a newly formed company called TSG Holdings Corporation bought The Sheridan Group for $79.9 million plus assumption of debt, in a deal worth $186.6 million. TSG was controlled by investment firms Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Company LLC and Jefferies Capital Partners, with smaller stakes held by executives of The Sheridan Group. The acquisition was funded by the sale of $105 million in Senior Secured Notes.

In 2003 the Sheridan Press created a digital publishing unit to offer cost-effective printing of very small quantities of journals, article reprints, and books. Customers submitted digital files for printing on a toner-based Heidelberg Digimaster 9110 press, with perfect-bound or saddle-stitched binding available. At this time short-run journal printing accounted for approximately 40 percent of the firm’s income, and books 60 percent.

In March 2004 The Sheridan Group bought The Dingley Press of Lisbon, Maine, for $95.4 million. With roots dating to the 1850s, Dingley had annual revenues of close to $90 million and 480 employees. It specialized in printing catalogs in runs of 300,000 to 10 million, and also offered distribution services. Dingley owner/president Christopher Pierce would continue to run the operation and receive an ownership stake in The Sheridan Group. Funding for the acquisition was partly derived from the issuance of $60 million in notes.

COMPANY PERSPECTIVES

The Sheridan Group companies have over 425 combined years of experience in printing journals, magazines, catalogs, and books. Printing is our core competency, and customers rely on us for a full range of supporting services.

In July 2004 Sheridan Books announced plans to close its Fredericksburg, Virginia, plant and move operations to Chelsea, Michigan. The latter facility would be expanded by 60,000 square feet and absorb customer service and warehouse activities from nearby Ann Arbor, where a separate manufacturing unit was not affected. In 2004 the company also received its fifth “Best of the Best” award in the Best Workplace in America program of trade association Printing Industries of America.

EXPANSION CONTINUES IN 2005

In 2005 The Sheridan Group performed a multimillion dollar facility expansion, boosting Dartmouth Printing’s plant by 25,000 square feet and doubling the size of the Sheridan Press in Hanover to 100,000 square feet. The latter unit also supplemented a recently acquired six-color printing press with a new eight-color press, its first.

For fiscal 2005 total sales of The Sheridan Group approached $348 million, with net income just under $1.2 million. Short-run journals and catalogs each accounted for close to 30 percent of sales, with other publications (books, medium-run magazines and journals) comprising about 40 percent. The company printed some 2,200 journal titles that ranged from weeklies to annuals in quantities of 50 to 5,000 copies, the average being 2,300. In the field of specialty magazines, United Litho printed more than 380 titles in runs of up to 100,000 copies, averaging 22,000, on schedules ranging from weekly to annually. The Dingley Press printed over 110 different catalogs in quantities of 300,000 to 10 million, with multiple versions of each printed during the year, and Sheridan Books produced 10,500 titles in runs of between 100 and 5,000 copies, with the average 2,000. Half had softbound covers, and half were hardbound. Much of The Sheridan Group’s business came from repeat customers, and it also maintained a staff of sales and marketing representatives who sought new work via trade shows and industry association conferences.

In early 2006 the company closed the Capital City Press in Vermont and moved most of its operations to the Sheridan Press in Hanover, Pennsylvania. The consolidation was motivated by the fact that the two companies served the same market, shared some customers, and utilized a joint sales force. The Hanover facility’s staff was increased from 450 to 500 employees, while about 45 of Capital City Press’s 200 Vermont workers were offered jobs at Dartmouth Journal Services, which would absorb some of its remaining functions.

In 2006 Sheridan Books signed the Treatise on Recycled Paper Use, an industry initiative that set a goal of using 30 percent recycled paper by 2011. It also encouraged the use of alternative paper fibers and other conservation measures. While many publishing companies had signed the document, it was supported by only a handful of printers.

From its humble origins as a poultry magazine publisher nearly a century earlier, The Sheridan Group, Inc., had grown into a large specialty printer with facilities in a half-dozen states. Its subsidiary companies printed magazines, journals, catalogs, and books for a wide range of clients, expanding even as the digital age was bringing change to the industry.

Frank Uhle

PRINCIPAL SUBSIDIARIES

The Sheridan Press, Inc.; Sheridan Books, Inc.; The Dingley Press, Inc.; United Litho, Inc.; Dartmouth Printing Co.; Dartmouth Journal Services, Inc.; The Sheridan Group Holding Company.

PRINCIPAL COMPETITORS

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company; Quebecor World, Inc.; Cenveo, Inc.; Courier Corporation; Quad/ Graphics, Inc.; Arandell Corporation; Brown Printing Company; Edwards Brothers, Inc.

KEY DATES

1915:

C. N. Myers founds Everybody’s Poultry Magazine in Hanover, Pennsylvania.

1946:

Company begins printing for outside clients.

1967:

R. Champlin Sheridan buys Everybody’s Press.

1973:

A larger plant in Hanover is constructed.

1982:

Company’s name is changed to The Sheridan Press.

1988:

Braun-Brumfield, Inc., is acquired and The Sheridan Group is created.

1994:

United Litho, Inc., is purchased.

1998:

Capital City Press and Dartmouth Printing Company are acquired.

1999:

Braun-Brumfield and BookCrafters, Inc., merge to form Sheridan Books.

2003:

TSG Holdings buys control of the firm; a digital publishing unit is formed.

2004:

Catalog printer The Dingley Press is purchased.

2006:

Capital City Press is closed and operations shift to other units.

FURTHER READING

“Acquisition to Add the Dingley Press to Printing Group,” Portland Press Herald, March 13, 2004.

Cleaveland, Carrie, “The Best & Brightest,” American Printer, September 1, 2006.

——, “They Came, They Managed, They Conquered,” American Printer, August 1, 2005, p. 60.

Deahl, Rachel, “What the Green Press Is Pushing,” Publishers Weekly, July 24, 2006, p. 5.

Hoffman, Bryce G., “Sheridan to Sell Scio Service Center,” Ann Arbor News, October 12, 2004.

Libowitz, Steve, “Sheridans Honored for Commitment to Library,” Gazette (The Newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University), February 9, 1998.

O’Shea, Dennis, “Sheridans Enjoy Sharing Success,” Gazette (The Newspaper of The Johns Hopkins University), October 3, 1994.

Riell, Howard, “Pennsylvania Printer Profits with Publications,” Printing News, June 27, 2005, p. 1.

“The Sheridan Group to Acquire The Dingley Press,” New England Printer & Publisher, April 2004.

“Sheridan’s Founder Plans Donation to Johns Hopkins,” Wall Street Journal, September 30, 1994, p. A7D.

“Vermont’s Capital City Press Closes,” Print on Demand.com: The Digital Printers Resource, March 13, 2006.