RIP, Denise Minot

Denise Minot, a Tampa, FL resident and native of the Washington, DC area, passed away on Monday, November 29th. Our condolences to her son Michael, to Michael’s wife and to Michael’s son (who is less than one year old) and to Denise’s ex-husband, Henry Minot. I had the pleasure of working with Denise at several different companies over a period of many years. Denise was the consummate professional, she had a superior work ethic, and everyone who worked with her valued her as a teammate and as a friend. I first met Denise when she was dating Henry Minot. This was back in the 1970’s. Henry, who graduated from Montgomery Blair High School (Silver Spring, MD), joined our company, and introduced me to Denise. I attended their wedding. Denise herself later joined the team at our company (Rowley-Scher Reprographics.) Years later, she joined the team at another company I worked for (Transcolor, Inc., a subsidiary of Alleco, Inc.) And, later on, after Denise relocated to Florida, she joined our team at NGI. Denise also worked at Montgomery Blair High School and at Winter Park Blue (which is now part of Thomas Printworks.) Denise, RIP.

ARC DOCUMENT SOLUTIONS; A QUICK LOOK AT THEN AND NOW

ARC; “THEN AND NOW” Copied fom the 10K filed 02/27/08 for the Period Ending 12/31/07: “We operate 307 reprographics service centers, including 298 service centers in 204 cities in 39 states throughout the United States and the District of Columbia, eight reprographics service centers in Canada, and one in Mexico City, Mexico. Our reprographics service centers are located in close proximity to the majority of our customers and offer pickup and delivery services within a 15 to 30 mile radius. These service centers are arranged in a hub and satellite structure and are digitally connected as a cohesive network, allowing us to provide our services both locally and nationally. We service approximately 140,000 active customers and employ approximately 5,164 people, including a sales and customer service staff of approximately 987 employees.” Copied from the 10K filed 02/24/21 for the Period Ending 12/31/20: “Offsite Services - We operate 148 offsite service centers in major metropolitan markets in the U.S. and internationally which provide local customers with high-volume, project-related printing, offer our MPS customers overflow capacity during peak workloads, and support our customers’ scanning needs in archiving and information management services. Our products and services are available from any of our 148 service centers around the world, and nearly all of our services can be made available in our customers’ offices. Our geographic presence is concentrated in the U.S., with additional service centers in Canada, China, India, and the United Kingdom. Our corporate headquarters are located in San Ramon, California. As of December 31, 2020, the Company employed approximately 1,750 employees.” QUICK SUMMARY: NUMBER OF SERVICE CENTERS OPERATED At 12/31/2007 - 307 At 12/31/2020 - 148 NUMBER OF EMPLOYEES At 12/31/2007 - 5,164 At 12/31/2020 - 1,750 NET SALES At 12/31/2007 - $688,354,000.00 At 12/31/2020 - $285,900,000.00

RIP Gary P Rowley

Gary Paul Rowley, former owner of Rowley-Scher Reprographics, Inc., passed away on November 17th, 2021. Gary was 87 years old. His wife, Marilyn, passed away in 2017. Sincere condolences to the Rowley family on Gary’s passing. Gary’s first reprographics company was Rowley’s Blueprint Service (RBS), which was located in Silver Hill, Md. RBS was established in 1959. After selling RBS, Gary worked in sales for Technifax Corp; Gary held that position for six years. Gary then started Expedite Blueprint Service (in downtown Washington, DC) as a division/subsidiary of Expedite Printing Service. After the terms of his business arrangement were not met by his partner in Expedite, Gary left and purchased The Sepia Shop, which was also located in downtown Washington, D.C. Gary immediately changed the name of The Sepia Shop to Rowley’s Blueprint Service. In 1979, Gary merged his company with Max Scher Blueprint (the latter company was owned by John Scher Zeller), and the name of the company was changed to Rowley-Scher Reprographics. While Gary was CEO of Rowley-Scher, the company completed other mergers and acquisitions, including Allied Reproduction Service, Heller Reproductions, and A&E Blueprinters. At the time Gary retired from Rowley-Scher (early 1984), Rowley-Scher, then operating multiple locations in the Greater Washington/Baltimore Common Market Area, was the largest reprographics enterprise in the Wash/Balt Common Market Area and one of the largest reprographics enterprises in the United States. Gary was very active in MiniMAX, an association of reprographers specializing in overlay “pin-graphics”. MiniMAX was founded by Jack Cushing of Cushing & Co. in Chicago. (Years later, MiniMAX was merged into ReproCAD to form ReproMAX; the latter is now known as RMAX Network.) Gary was friends with reprographers all across the United States. Gary was a guiding light to all who worked with him, and a genius when it came to Sales & Marketing and Market Strategy. Personal note: I had the pleasure of being one of Gary’s partners in Rowley-Scher. Our other partners were John Scher Zeller and Rich Heller. All of my partners had a major impact on my development, and I am truly blessed to have been associated with them. The last time I saw Gary was in 2013, when we got together for lunch in Bradenton, FL. Gary had a wonderful sense of humor; I remember him saying, with a twinkle in his eye, “I’d order a bowl of soup, but most of it would end up on the tablecloth; Parkinson’s Disease is not fun.”….. Joel Salus, Publisher of Reprographics 101. Photo of Gary P Rowley and John Scher Zeller; taken in 1979 at the time that Rowley's Bluepring and Max Scher Blueprint merged to form Rowley-scher Reprographics, Inc.

Reprographers are highly encouraged to participate in the APDSP Financial Benchmarking Survey!!!!

Hi Joel - How are you? You've probably read about the APDSP Financial Benchmarking Survey we're undertaking. I have high hopes for it, but its success is entirely dependent on getting enough participation from reprographics shop owners. With that in mind, will you tell Repro 101 readers about it? You can read details about it and get a link to survey here: https://www.apdsp.org/apdsp-financial-benchmarking-survey-distributed/ Thank you! Ed Avis Managing Director Association of Printing and Digital Solutions Professionals

Stock and Roll - Storage system for storing wide-format roll stock

Stock & Roll arrives to the US with the ambition to win the American market thanks to its innovative products and with the objective to show all the advantages of its different and innovative supports. https://www.printingnews.com/wide-format-signage/press-release/21152652/stock-and-roll-the-innovation-that-is-shaking-up-large-format-printers

ARC Document Solutions - Q1 2021 Sales were off about the same as Q4 2020 Sales were off

	SALES
						2020 to 2019	2020 to 2019	Q1 2021 to Q1 2020	Q1 2021 to Q1 2020
	Period	2018	2019	2020	2021	$ change	% change	$ change	% change
	Q1	$      97.71	$     97.10	$   88.40	$   61.70	$   (8.70)	-8.96%	$ (26.70)	-30.20%
	Q2	$   104.19	$     98.90	$   64.30		$(34.60)	-34.98%
	1st H	$   201.90	$  196.00	$ 152.70		$(43.30)	-22.09%
	Q3	$   100.47	$     94.10	$   72.40		$(21.70)	-23.06%
	9 Mo	$   302.37	$  290.10	$ 225.10		$(65.00)	-28.88%
	Q4	$      98.40	$     92.30	$   64.30		$(28.00)	-30.34%
	Year	$   400.77	$  382.40	$ 289.40		$(93.00)	-24.32%

Krispy Kreme will give you a free doughnut every day this year — if you've been vaccinated

BY SOPHIE LEWIS

MARCH 22, 2021 / 9:56 AM / CBS NEWS

In case you needed another reason to get your COVID-19 vaccination, Krispy Kreme is sweetening the deal — it's giving free doughnuts to anyone with proof of vaccination, all year long. 

Starting Monday, any customer with a valid COVID-19 vaccination card will receive a free Original Glazed doughnut at participating locations nationwide. The iconic doughnut shop specifies that any guests who have received at least one of the two shots of the Moderna or Pfizer vaccine, or one shot of the Johnson & Johnson vaccine qualify for the promotion. 

All you need to show is your vaccination card to redeem your doughnut — a vaccine sticker is not valid. 

Canon U.S.A. Offers High-Quality Speed and Performance Inkjet Printing with the Launch of the imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 Series

New expanded line of large format printers include imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 Series and the next generation of imagePROGRAF TX printers

Further showcasing its commitment to innovation and pushing the boundaries of print, Canon U.S.A., Inc., a leader in digital imaging solutions, is excited to announce the latest additions to its imagePROGRAF line of large format printers with new hybrid solutions, the imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 and imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 multifunction printer (MFP) Z36. Offering high-speed printing, security features and advanced media handling, these new solutions are designed to benefit a variety of Production CAD markets including architecture, engineering, government, manufacturing – just to name a few – at a low acquisition cost. In addition to the new imagePROGRAF TZ Series, the company is also announcing the upgraded line of imagePROGRAF TX Series printers.

Built with productivity in mind, the imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 series delivers high-speed printing, as seen through its ability to produce a D-sized print in as fast as 14 seconds, and up to 236 D-sized prints per hour.1 The integrated Top Output Stacker can stack up to 100 A0-size sheets face-down, providing an added measure of confidentiality. The product’s advanced air flow system can also help reduce paper jams while keeping prints neatly in place, and its integrated, compact design can help save office space, allowing printed materials to be easily retrieved from the front of the printer.

As seen through Canon’s innovative intelligent media handling in its dual roll paper system, this product is designed with productivity and usability in mind. After the user loads the paper, the advanced sensor technology can detect the width, length and media type while also feeding the media, allowing the user to also perform other necessary tasks while the printer completes the feeding process. The product’s Roll Paper Indicator displays four different media levels with LED lights to notify users if paper is running low. As an added convenience, users can load a second roll while the first roll is still printing through its Hot Swap feature – a Canon first. The imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 is also available as a powerful Scan-to-Copy/File system that allows the user to scan and print at the same time. Providing further efficiency and productivity, the imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 MFP version also includes the new Z36 scanner, developed by Global Scanning for Canon, as well as an updated system controller with a new intuitive interface.

Capitalizing on the breadth of its product offering, Canon has also made available a wide variety of workflow and creative software programs. Designed for high-volume uses, users can take advantage of the compatibility of the imagePROGRAF TZ and imagePROGRAF TX printers with Canon’s Production Printing (CPP) Driver Select and CPP Publisher Select software, a desktop job submission software solution that boosts workflow and productivity to help users manage and submit complex sets of documents, to one or two printers at a time. Additionally, Canon introduces Direct Print Plus (DPP) job submission software which, through a combination of DPP’s processing speeds, as well as an updated user interface layout and settings menu, can help improve the rendering process for users.

“Our extensive market research pointed to an increasing demand for high speed, yet versatile, large format printers for users who are looking to expand business opportunities within the low-end LED / high end inkjet market, and the Canon imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 Series has been created specifically to meet that industry need,” said Shinichi Yoshida, executive vice president and general manager, Canon U.S.A., Inc. “As an industry-leading innovator, Canon is dedicated to pushing the boundaries of print by developing new cutting-edge solutions designed to help our customers stay productive and efficient.”

The next generation of imagePROGRAF TX Series2 devices incorporates many of the advanced technology created for the imagePROGRAF TZ Series, including increased print speeds, intelligent media handling and enhanced security features. The MFP models are also equipped with the newly developed Z36 scanner, which is designed to help save space and reduce weight while delivering advanced image quality at fast speeds. The imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 MFP Z36 also has a more integrated feel and an improved All-in-One (AIO) computer.

Availability:

Delivering on its commitment to productivity, the imagePROGRAF TZ-30000 and TZ-30000 MFP Z36 ship standard as a two roll system. Orders can be processed through Canon’s authorized dealers starting on Thursday April 15, 2021. Products are expected to be available for shipment in mid-May 2021.

The TX Series of large format printers will be available to order in April, shipping information will be announced shortly. The TX Series can be ordered with either a stacking basket or regular catch basket.

For more information, please visit www.usa.canon.com. 

Forecasting construction activity in 2021 is going to be challenging

 

Engineering News Record

November 18, 2020

“2021 Construction Forecast: A Slow Road to Recovery

As the country continues to deal with the economic and health crises caused by the COVID-19 pandemic, forecasters are cautiously optimistic for the future but warn that meaningful growth is still several months away.”

https://www.enr.com/articles/50766-construction-forecast-a-slow-road-to-recovery

 

 

Associated General Contractors

 

November 15, 2020

U.S. Construction Starts to Increase 4 Percent in 2021, Dodge Data & Analytics Predicts

“Total U.S. construction starts will increase 4 percent in 2021, following an estimated 14 percent decrease in 2020, Dodge Data & Analytics predicted in its 2021 construction outlook, released last week.”

https://www.rermag.com/news-analysis/contractor-news/article/21147829/us-construction-starts-to-increase-4-percent-in-2021-dodge-data-analytics-predicts

 

 

Construction Dive

 

Jan. 4, 2021

 

2021 outlook: 6 trends that will influence construction this year

“Several factors – some positive, some less so – are poised to shape the industry this year.”

https://www.constructiondive.com/news/2021-outlook-6-trends-that-will-influence-construction-this-year/592684/

 

 

forconstructionpros.com

January 26, 2021

 

2021 State of Construction Industry: A Forecast for Uncertain Times

“2021 will be an unpredictable year for the construction industry with some segments outperforming others.”

https://www.forconstructionpros.com/latest-news/article/21220814/2021-state-of-construction-industry-a-forecast-for-uncertain-times

The AIA ABI INDEX for January 2021 was 44.9

“While some projects have been delayed due to the pandemic, few have been cancelled outright”

“After experiencing more disappointing business conditions in December, fewer architecture firms reported declining firm billings in January. Despite an ABI score of 44.9, indicating that the majority of firms reported a decline in billings for the eleventh consecutive month,there are increasing signs of optimism. Inquiries into new work at firms reached its highest level since the pandemic began, while the value of new design contracts also approached growth once again, following two months of weaker conditions. With vaccinations picking up speed, and plans for additional relief measures making their way through Congress, there may be more reasons for hope ahead.

However, business conditions remain largely soft at firms throughout the country. Firms located in the South are closest to returning to billings growth, while firms located in the Midwest and West have seen conditions weaken further every month for the last several months. Business conditions have also noticeably softened at firms with a multifamily residential specialization recently, which were the first to return to growth in late last summer. Billings at firms with a residential specialization have now declined for three consecutive months as demand for multifamily housing has waned, even as demand for single-family residential, not measured by the ABI, has strengthened. Meanwhile, business conditions have remained at an essentially steady pace of decline at firms with commercial/industrial and institutional specializations for the last several months.”

TO READ THE COMPLETE REPORT, USE THIS LINK:

https://www.aia.org/pages/6376290-abi-january-2021-architecture-firms-report