Print business affected by winery consolidation, new label trends

HEALDSBURG ? Commercial printer Mariner Graphics, which specializes in wine labels and related sales materials, merged with ChromaGraphics in Santa Rosa.

With the merger, CEO Andrew Gehres is moving Mariner's winery customers from 185 Grant Ave. in Healdsburg to ChromaGraphics' facility at 440 Tesconi Circle in Santa Rosa.

The shift of many North Coast wineries to sticker-type labels, commonly called pressure-sensitive labels, along with winery consolidation made the already highly competitive printing business too much for 45-year-old Mariner to continue alone, according to Mr. Gehres.

"Roll labels affected us greatly, and we lost a lot of label jobs," he said. "We've been trying to re-establish ourselves since Sept. 11, but the wine market has been difficult."

The shift to pressure-sensitive labels took major customers as did consolidation, for example Barefoot Cellars maker Grape Links, which was acquired by E&J Gallo.

Such changes have also caused other North Bay commercial print shops focusing on the wine business to close recently. Metro Label Group, which operates Metropolitan Label in Napa, acquired Gordon Graphics in Novato.

However, for every operation that folds, there is a Ben Franklin Press, Colotype Label or Cameo Sonoma that will come in to scoop up press equipment and technicians.

Another loss of business came when a major customer shifted the majority of its distribution of point-of-sale materials to Adobe Acrobat Portable Document Format ? or PDF ? files posted on the winery Web site. Salespeople, brokers and distributors can download the files and print them on demand in their offices.

Wineries and companies in many industries have shifted their press kits as well as sales and trade materials to shorter runs and downloadable formats to more cost-effectively provide the most up-to-date information.

In addition to allowing more color materials to be published electronically than via a commercial printer, the Internet has provided label designers a conduit for print purchasing at prices that can be far less than local printers.

Mr. Gehres' father, Tom, started Mariner in 1962. The printer had $2 million in gross revenue and 18 employees as recently as 2004, but the loss of work trimmed revenue last year to $1.2 million and the work force to about 10.

Walt and Donna Janssen along with Don and Sandra Herrman started ChromaGraphics in 1975 and is currently managed by Eric Janssen.

For more information, call 707-528-2644 or visit www.chromaprint.com.