Dave Wandling

After 34 years of dedicated service, Dave Wandling is retiring from St. Louis-based The Flesh Company, effective Dec. 31. Wandling joined the sales department of the company in October 1975 and is finishing his career as vice president of customer relations.

Distributors can increase sales of printed products by mixing business with pleasure. Regardless of the economy, the weather or world affairs, people love to be entertained. From sporting events to music and theater, there would be no audience without printed products. Distributors who aren't pursuing this often-overlooked niche are doing themselves a disfavor, say manufacturers. In addition to big-name national events, there are literally hundreds of entertainment-related activities happening in every community. Some are annual events, such as arts festivals, county fairs, 10K runs, or home and garden shows. Others may be one-shot events to celebrate a town or company anniversary or team championship.

For applications involving remote data collection or multi-copy documents in the field, nothing beats a unit set. Technology tends to hog the spotlight these days, particularly when efficient workflow solutions with respect to data collection are at issue. However, Richard Miller, sales manager for Calibrated Forms, Columbus, Kan., pointed out that there is one good old-fashioned business form that has yet to be effectively replaced. "Unit sets prevail in any remote data recording situation where there is no other efficient means for accumulating and duplicating information," Miller said. For example, route drivers and technicians in the field use unit sets for documenting information