A-Plus Printing & Graphic Center printed and distributed full-color memorial and prayer cards in memory of the victims of the Feb. 14, 2018 mass shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, FL.
Thomas Horne calls a print job his company executed this past Valentine’s Day “the hardest day for me as a printer.”
It wasn’t the technical aspect of the job that challenged the employees of A-Plus Printing & Graphic Center, located in Plantation, Fla. It was the emotional aspect. On that day, 17 students and teachers from Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Fla., were killed in a mass shooting.
Upon hearing the news, Horne waited to hear from his two brothers, both of whom are police officers and are among the first responders. “The rule in our family is to text everyone and let them know that they’re safe,” Horne says of major local crime events.
(From left) Pressman Manny Ruiz and Thomas Horne stand with the memorial and prayer cards.
Assured of his brothers’ safety, Horne’s next action was to memorialize the deceased through a quick-turnaround print job of memorial and prayer cards for each student and staff member who perished.
“I’ve been through losses in my family and know how hard it is. This was a terrible tragedy,” notes Horne, whose father was also a law enforcement officer.
Within a day of the shooting, A-Plus Printing & Graphic Center employees came in at 6 a.m. to work on the job, spending hours trying to source the best photos and information about each of the deceased individuals in an effort led by Horne, business partner Rick Erens, and a company graphic designer.
The employees ran the full-color, 12-pt. memorial and prayer cards with UV lamination on the shop’s KBA sheetfed offset presses. After the project was completed, Horne and Sergeant Ana Murillo from the Broward County Sheriff’s Office traveled to the doorsteps of each of the impacted families to deliver the cards for their use.
The company also printed up an additional 5,000 cards for the city of Parkland to distribute throughout the local community. There were some inherent challenges. Horne was operating on scant information and had to reprint some of the cards to correct some religious information. Horne says the day of the mass school shooting was his hardest day because of seeing the reactions of his staff.
“We’re a large family business and never had to do a print job for so many people that had passed,” points out Horne, adding that everyone who touched the job – staff members like the graphic designer and the printing press and cutter operators – found it to be a gut-wrenching experience.
Horne’s advice to other printing operations that might find themselves in a similar position is for management to “be strong for your employees” at a time like that. “Employees are like family members,” he adds. “This becomes a team effort. That’s how we got these cards printed, boxed and delivered.”
Ultimately, the company’s work and efforts garnered accolades.
“I got a lot of phone calls from the families thanking me and our team members,” notes Horne, saying that it was “pretty awesome” to see the positive responses of various family members who he was able to greet at their doorsteps as he offered them the cards and his condolences.
Horne didn’t take a dime for the work.
“It was the right thing to do,” he stresses. “We were happy that we could help out.”
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Supremex Inc. a leading North American manufacturer and marketer of envelopes and a growing provider of paper-based packaging solutions, announced its results for the third quarter ended September 30, 2021. Third Quarter Financial Highlights and Recent Events * Total revenue increased by 9.9% to $54.8 million, from $49.9 million in the third quarter of 2020. * Envelope segment revenue was up 8.5% to $37.0 million, from $34.1 million in the third quarter of 2020. Packaging and specialty products segment revenue increased by 12.8% to $17.8 million, from $15.8 million in the third quarter of 2020. * Net Earnings at $3.4 million (or $0.12 per share), up from $2.7 million (or $0.10 per share) in the third quarter of 2020. * Purchased 292,400 shares for total consideration of $0.7 million as part of the Company’s NCIB program.
Change continues to rock the book manufacturing business. Contracts for book printing and bindery services have declined as publishers pull back on new orders and work off the excess inventory that built up in response to demand during the Covid years. Print-on-demand book technologies are placing further downward pressure on traditional book manufacturing. Although there is widespread confidence that the printed book will survive the digital onslaught better than many other forms of print, there are shifts and cracks in the book printing world. Consolidators are buying companies with long histories and respected pedigrees that have served and continue to sell to the trade and educational publishers. At the same time, others are closing down huge manufacturing facilities as overall volumes decline in certain segments. On-demand digital ordering, prepress, and printing technologies, driven primarily by the plethora of installed highly productive continuous form inkjet printing devices, has reduced the need for publishers to order long runs and keep large inventories.
