Printer: Vertical integration to provide path for growth

The Allegra Print & Imaging franchise in Reno battling a 20 percent decline in revenues this year is casting a wider net to catch more fish.

JC Weir, owner and president of the Reno company, says the firm has begun to offer development of marketing communications services, expanding on its traditional role as a producer of printed and mailed materials.

"This just compliments what we have been doing in commercial printing," says Weir. "We do mail, we do printing and marketing programs for people, but now we are looking at going to small- and medium-sized businesses and creating marketing plans for them."

Weir says Allegra's target niche is cash-strapped businesses that want to develop marketing strategies without paying high agency costs.

"The resources are there; it is a matter of defining where the customers are, what their objectives are, and trying to come up with a campaign that will achieve that," Weir says.

Allegra is looking to hire an additional salesperson in the next few weeks. The company employs 12, down several positions since the start of the year.

"As a small business owner, as hard as it is, you have to make the employees match the work," Weir says.

Allegra also seeks to increase revenue through Web-based ordering. After a client places an order for a product such as business cards, Allegra's graphics department will build a digital template of the business card. If the client needs additional business cards for new hires, they simply log onto Allegra's Web site, fill in certain fields, and their order is processed from their desktop. Protocols are in place to prevent unwanted or erroneous changes.

"It works well for the customers and for us because it simplifies the process," Weir says. "They get an online look at what they are ordering."

The online process eliminates the need for proofing because customers can view their card exactly how it will appear from their computer screens. And it also speeds up time of delivery.

In addition to downsizing its staff, Allegra sought to control costs during the downturn by renegotiating deals with its vendors. Weir says paper companies have been able to offer better deals because their business also is down.

Allegra Print and Imaging opened in 1,700 square feet in Reno in 1988 as American Speedy Printing before the Michigan-based parent company was rebranded Allegra Print and Imaging in the late 1990s.

Today the shop occupies 9,250 square feet at 5301 Longley Lane. Its largest accounts include several casinos, Eugene Burger Property Management, a large insurance firm and several local manufacturers, as well as private-practice doctors and dentists.

"It is a pretty broad base. There is not a whole lot we can't do, so we aren't limited in who we can do business with," Weir says.

Weir earned a degree in mining engineering from Penn State University and also earned a business degree from Carnegie Mellon University in Pittsburgh. He decided to start his own business after the coal industry contracted in the 1980s.

A day spent in Bay Area traffic, he says, helped him choose Reno over the Golden State.