R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co.

• Author: Nelson, Eric
• Position: Profile of world's largest commercial printer - Printing & Graphics

What do the World Book Encyclopedia, the latest upgrade from Microsoft, National Equirer and the Land's End fall catalog all have in common? They were formatted, printed and distributed from sites in Indiana.

The state's largest commercial printer, Chicago-based R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., is also the world's largest, With more than 32,000 employees at some 140 locations and production facilities worldwide, the Fortune 500 company has been a leader in print and information services since its founding in 1864.

Donnelley's Indiana operations, which include two plants each in both Warsaw and Crawfordsville, employ more than 5,000 Hoosier workers to produce, a full spectrum of publishing products.

The printer's first Indiana site, which opened in Crawfordsville in 1921, is the oldest of six facilities in Donnelley's Book Group, producing hard-cover and soft-bound books and electronic information-management services for trade, reference, religious, education, professional, book club/mail order and children's book publishers.

"We print millions of Bibles for hundreds of customers, and almost every student in the United States is using a textbook printed by Donnelley," comments Jim Gineris, process manager at the Crawfordsville division.

Employing some 2,600 in more than two million square feet of manufacturing space, the Crawfordsville plant represents the old guard of Donnelley's publishing business, including prepress work, printing and binding. But it's also one of the company's most modern and versatile facilities, Gineris adds.

The Crawfordsville operation and Donnelley's other Book Division facilities offer a variety of high-tech services. They can accommodate such diverse jobs as custom publishing for audience-specific versioned books and supplements, and technical consultation on desktop publishing system conversions. The division also does database consultation and implementation to help customers capture marketing data and to provide fulfillment services for remailing and returned-book inventory.

Donnelley's technological advancements in its Book Division are a response to market conditions demanding shorter publishing cycles and tightened distribution schedules, Gineris explains.

Similar innovations are slated for Donnelley's Warsaw operations, says Gary Nesemier, vice president and division director for the two northern Indiana manufacturing sites, which were built in 1959 and 1965.

Part of the catalog division in Donnelley's...