Anthony Locicero, Associate Editor09.21.18
The history of award-winning Ripon Printers dates back to 1962 when the Lyke family purchased the Ripon Commonwealth Press, a newspaper that dates back to the Civil War.
Fifty-plus years ago, there were just 13 employees. But the company saw significant growth – the printing business was eventually spun off in 1986 – after the 1965 purchase of a modest web press.
During most of the recent era, publisher Tim Lyke has led the newspaper while his brother, Andy, served as president and CEO of the commercial printing enterprise, Ripon Printers, which is now one of North America’s largest printing and graphic services companies. This year, Andy decided to step aside and Julie Newhouse was named the new president of Ripon Printers. Andy continues with the company as chief financial officer.
Currently, Ripon Printers specializes in the production and distribution of catalogs, direct mail, publications and digital communications for marketers and publishers.
“Our company’s hallmarks are flexible scheduling, exceptional customer training programs and equipment diversity for handling a wide range of needs,” said Newhouse. “The result is a customer experience that is friendly, efficient and hassle-free.”
A majority of what Ripon prints is for the healthcare, automotive, education and travel industries – “but we are not limited to just these markets,” Newhouse noted.
“Over the years, we have established a good balance in the markets we serve, and we are always developing new capabilities that serve our existing clientele and expand our reach,” she continued. “Doing this keeps us busy and always trying new things.”
Ripon employs heatset and coldset web, sheetfed printing and digital/variable-data printing.
The company believes there are five tenets in which it separates itself from competitors.
“We combine vision with entrepreneurial, out-of-the-box thinking to better serve the emerging needs of our customers,” Newhouse said. “We strive to keep a step ahead of the market, anticipating what our customers will need to compete tomorrow as well as today.
“We build relationships through effective communications with our customers. Our communications embrace a wide range of channels including print, digital, and customer training opportunities to facilitate information exchange,” Newhouse continued.
“We embrace a customer-centric view. Our goal is to deliver product and service excellence through a ‘can do’ approach and a sense of urgency toward meeting our customers’ requirements,” she added. “We view our customers and business partners as peers working toward mutual goals in a constantly evolving marketplace.”
The company receives significant industry recognition. A perennial member of the Printing Impressions 400 ranking of North America’s largest printing companies, Ripon Printers (No. 111 in 2017) has also received numerous management and print quality awards, including multiple Best Workplace in the Americas Awards, NAPL Marketing Plus Awards, NAPL Management Plus Awards, Graphic Arts Excellence Awards, Premier Print Awards, and Gold Ink Awards.
Integrated Solutions
“We recognize customers achieve higher campaign performance from effectively integrating print and digital communications,” Newhouse said. “We offer print and digital products, services and tools that can be used in concert to reach shoppers at different touch points in the buying process and increase the chances of a sale.
“We are constantly expanding both the breadth and the depth of our integrated, multichannel products and services. In addition to print, these include digital storefronts, variable-data publishing, digital editions, augmented reality, personalized URLs (pURLs), email blasts and campaign analytics,” she added.
Flexible Scheduling
The ability to provide flexible scheduling is a benefit for customers.
“We understand that our customers are under constant pressure to respond quickly to their customers’ needs and to market events. Our goal is to find ways to accommodate schedule changes while also doing our very best to maintain in-mail dates,” the company president said. “We take extreme pride in maintaining schedule integrity while still remaining flexible.”
Customer Training
Customer training is also an advantage that Ripon Printers offers.
“We believe in providing customers with the information, skills and abilities to become more efficient in the production and deployment of print and digital communications. We invest in highly respected Customer Education Specialists and a wide range of training and education programs offered at no charge,” Newhouse noted. “Our philosophy is that enhancing customer knowledge ties directly to building trust in our company, our people, and our products and services.
“We offer an industry-leading Graphic Arts Connection program where print professionals learn together. This program consists of in-person user group presentations on topics such as the Adobe Creative Cloud to webinars that cover topics ranging from the effective use of personalization to catalog cover design,” Newhouse continued.
“We strive to be thought leaders. We publish a wide range of informational and educational materials including PressLines, ePressLines, tips books, technical sheets, case studies and white papers, in addition to sponsoring Multichannel Merchant’s ‘Catalog Outlook’ research for the past several years,” the company president said.
Equipment Diversity
“We provide catalog marketers with an incredible range of capabilities from a single facility. Few sources can match our full spectrum of printing and binding solutions, which enables customers to place more work at a single source and streamline their procurement and production processes,” Newhouse said.
“We don’t try to make customers fit into a limited range of print platforms. We offer a full complement of coldset and heatset web presses as well as sheetfed offset and digital equipment – all in a wide range of sizes and color configurations,” she explained.
“We extend our equipment diversity into the bindery. High capacity, specialized bindery equipment can expertly finish virtually any project. We offer both saddle stitching and perfect binding, accommodating spine widths from 1/8” to 3 1/8.” Our perfect binding capabilities include PUR gluing for extra durability and environmental responsibility. Folding, drilling, shrink-wrapping, polybagging and a variety of bindery specialties round out our capabilities,” Newhouse concluded.
Ripon said it values flexible formulations, flexible delivery options, on press performance, good pricing, a strong partnership, and the ability to calibrate to G7 from its ink supplier.
The company has received countless awards over the years – in multiple categories – including the 2018 Premier Print Awards and Graphic Excellence Awards.
“We take that responsibility seriously and continually invest in the people, technologies and systems required to print at the highest level,” Newhouse said. “The many awards we’ve won together are a testament to the wonderfully collaborative relationships we enjoy.”
Fifty-plus years ago, there were just 13 employees. But the company saw significant growth – the printing business was eventually spun off in 1986 – after the 1965 purchase of a modest web press.
During most of the recent era, publisher Tim Lyke has led the newspaper while his brother, Andy, served as president and CEO of the commercial printing enterprise, Ripon Printers, which is now one of North America’s largest printing and graphic services companies. This year, Andy decided to step aside and Julie Newhouse was named the new president of Ripon Printers. Andy continues with the company as chief financial officer.
Currently, Ripon Printers specializes in the production and distribution of catalogs, direct mail, publications and digital communications for marketers and publishers.
“Our company’s hallmarks are flexible scheduling, exceptional customer training programs and equipment diversity for handling a wide range of needs,” said Newhouse. “The result is a customer experience that is friendly, efficient and hassle-free.”
A majority of what Ripon prints is for the healthcare, automotive, education and travel industries – “but we are not limited to just these markets,” Newhouse noted.
“Over the years, we have established a good balance in the markets we serve, and we are always developing new capabilities that serve our existing clientele and expand our reach,” she continued. “Doing this keeps us busy and always trying new things.”
Ripon employs heatset and coldset web, sheetfed printing and digital/variable-data printing.
The company believes there are five tenets in which it separates itself from competitors.
“We combine vision with entrepreneurial, out-of-the-box thinking to better serve the emerging needs of our customers,” Newhouse said. “We strive to keep a step ahead of the market, anticipating what our customers will need to compete tomorrow as well as today.
“We build relationships through effective communications with our customers. Our communications embrace a wide range of channels including print, digital, and customer training opportunities to facilitate information exchange,” Newhouse continued.
“We embrace a customer-centric view. Our goal is to deliver product and service excellence through a ‘can do’ approach and a sense of urgency toward meeting our customers’ requirements,” she added. “We view our customers and business partners as peers working toward mutual goals in a constantly evolving marketplace.”
The company receives significant industry recognition. A perennial member of the Printing Impressions 400 ranking of North America’s largest printing companies, Ripon Printers (No. 111 in 2017) has also received numerous management and print quality awards, including multiple Best Workplace in the Americas Awards, NAPL Marketing Plus Awards, NAPL Management Plus Awards, Graphic Arts Excellence Awards, Premier Print Awards, and Gold Ink Awards.
Integrated Solutions
“We recognize customers achieve higher campaign performance from effectively integrating print and digital communications,” Newhouse said. “We offer print and digital products, services and tools that can be used in concert to reach shoppers at different touch points in the buying process and increase the chances of a sale.
“We are constantly expanding both the breadth and the depth of our integrated, multichannel products and services. In addition to print, these include digital storefronts, variable-data publishing, digital editions, augmented reality, personalized URLs (pURLs), email blasts and campaign analytics,” she added.
Flexible Scheduling
The ability to provide flexible scheduling is a benefit for customers.
“We understand that our customers are under constant pressure to respond quickly to their customers’ needs and to market events. Our goal is to find ways to accommodate schedule changes while also doing our very best to maintain in-mail dates,” the company president said. “We take extreme pride in maintaining schedule integrity while still remaining flexible.”
Customer Training
Customer training is also an advantage that Ripon Printers offers.
“We believe in providing customers with the information, skills and abilities to become more efficient in the production and deployment of print and digital communications. We invest in highly respected Customer Education Specialists and a wide range of training and education programs offered at no charge,” Newhouse noted. “Our philosophy is that enhancing customer knowledge ties directly to building trust in our company, our people, and our products and services.
“We offer an industry-leading Graphic Arts Connection program where print professionals learn together. This program consists of in-person user group presentations on topics such as the Adobe Creative Cloud to webinars that cover topics ranging from the effective use of personalization to catalog cover design,” Newhouse continued.
“We strive to be thought leaders. We publish a wide range of informational and educational materials including PressLines, ePressLines, tips books, technical sheets, case studies and white papers, in addition to sponsoring Multichannel Merchant’s ‘Catalog Outlook’ research for the past several years,” the company president said.
Equipment Diversity
“We provide catalog marketers with an incredible range of capabilities from a single facility. Few sources can match our full spectrum of printing and binding solutions, which enables customers to place more work at a single source and streamline their procurement and production processes,” Newhouse said.
“We don’t try to make customers fit into a limited range of print platforms. We offer a full complement of coldset and heatset web presses as well as sheetfed offset and digital equipment – all in a wide range of sizes and color configurations,” she explained.
“We extend our equipment diversity into the bindery. High capacity, specialized bindery equipment can expertly finish virtually any project. We offer both saddle stitching and perfect binding, accommodating spine widths from 1/8” to 3 1/8.” Our perfect binding capabilities include PUR gluing for extra durability and environmental responsibility. Folding, drilling, shrink-wrapping, polybagging and a variety of bindery specialties round out our capabilities,” Newhouse concluded.
Ripon said it values flexible formulations, flexible delivery options, on press performance, good pricing, a strong partnership, and the ability to calibrate to G7 from its ink supplier.
The company has received countless awards over the years – in multiple categories – including the 2018 Premier Print Awards and Graphic Excellence Awards.
“We take that responsibility seriously and continually invest in the people, technologies and systems required to print at the highest level,” Newhouse said. “The many awards we’ve won together are a testament to the wonderfully collaborative relationships we enjoy.”