A Pre-eminent List

Print Solutions rankings continue to evolve

Each year, Print Solutions magazine presents a list of the largest manufacturers by sales volume serving the wholesale-distribution segment of the printing industry. The list continues to evolve as companies grow, merge or go out of business.
Once again, Ennis Inc. ranks No. 1 in the survey. The Midlothian, Texas-based company continued to expand its reach in 2006 through acquisitions. Block Graphics Inc., Portland, Ore., and National Business Forms, Greeneville, Tenn., joined Ennis’ family of subsidiaries, a group that includes Adams McClure, Admore, Alstyle Apparel, Calibrated Forms, Genforms, GFS, Northstar, Royal Business Forms, TBF/Avant-Garde and Witt Printing.

Survey Methodology
Information in the manufacturers’ rankings comes exclusively from the companies themselves. A survey form is sent to known contacts listed in our database. We follow up with reminders and solicitations to companies that haven’t responded by the deadline. This year, the deadline to return surveys was February 23, 2007.

Participants are asked to report their FY 2006 and FY 2005 sales figures. The difference between those numbers is used to calculate a company’s growth percentage. The fastest-growing companies are noted on page 29. The survey also asks for a company’s number of employees. The FY 2006 sales figure is divided by the number of employees to determine the highest sales per employee rankings (page 29).

Additionally, participants are requested to indicate sales figures for the following categories: commercial printing, cut sheets, labels and tags, paper-based products, and plastic products. These figures are used to rank the largest manufacturers by product subsets. When manufacturers decline to break down their sales figures by category, they are not included in the product sales lists.