Alexander's Print Advantage Building Expansion Will Also Create 40 to 50 New Jobs; Filling Openings Won't Be Easy

Company founder and president Jeff Alexander (far right) is joined by his two sons, Nick (far left) and Charlie, in the family business.

Alexander's Print Advantage was bursting at the seams, admits Jeff Alexander, founder and president of the Lindon, Utah-based printing company. In response, the $15 million in sales commercial printing business is investing in a new building expansion at its current production site. The addition will increase the existing 45,000-sq.-ft. facility by 23,000 sq. ft., for a total of 68,000 sq. ft. The expansion will provide extra warehouse capacity, more space for additional and existing equipment, and the hiring of 40 to 50 new employees.

The 40-year-old company, which started out as a copy center in 1979, has been in its current location since 1998. Construction is scheduled to take approximately eight months, with a January 2019 completion date. Alexander reveals that current plans are to move the existing warehouse, fulfillment, shipping and mailing operations into the new building, which will create more space for what's been an ever-expanding repertoire of product and service offerings within its existing plant.

“By leveraging new technology with our print services, we have experienced strong growth over the last few years. This new addition is the result of that growth and pursuing new market opportunities," Alexander says. "Our equipment is also too close together. It will give us the ability to spread out."

And Alexander's Print Advantage has quite a wide range of equipment under its roof. Last year, the 100-plus-employee, all-digital printing operation acquired an HP Indigo 12000 digital press to supplement its existing Indigo 12000 and Indigo 7900, as well as a MitaBook casing-in machine from Photobook Technology. They joined a long list of existing equipment, including Océ monochrome digital printers, a newer MGI JETvarnish 3D for creating dimensional varnish and metallic foils, a Duplo bookletmaker, and Standard Horizon perfect binders with PUR and EUR, among other machinery. Wide-format firepower includes four Epson solvent printers, HP 7000 and 7600s, two Agfa flatbeds, an M&R Diamond Back S screen printer and a Colex flatbed cutter.

Alexander's uses this gear to support a wide range of customers, many of whom fall under its four additional print brands: MyCanvas, Divvy, Tektured and About The Print. The MyCanvas brand provides photo books, calendars, posters, signage and wide-format output. DivveyOnline is Alexander's Web-to print and online storefront offering, providing customized marketing collateral and promotional products for about 40 multi-unit organizations and franchises. Tektured focuses on branded, customizable print products, such as custom notebooks and journals, folders, luggage tags, rulers, bookmarks and custom gift wrap. About The Print specializes in high-quality, on-demand printed products such as guest books, cards and envelopes, notebooks and planners, art prints and menus. According to Alexander, the business also provides a lot of book printing, training manuals, marketing materials and variable data appointment reminder cards for the dental industry.

"We have six programmers on staff," Alexander says. "Our growth has come from servicing people outside our local market."

Alexander's is also the only Utah-based print provider that is a member of the International Printers Network.

The 23,000-sq.-ft. addition will enable expansion, including the hiring of 40 to 50 workers in the next year.

In terms of the new hires, he adds that most openings will be for production workers, some front-end staffing, as well as additional programmers and developers. Alexander says the local job market is very tight, making it difficult to find people, so Alexander's Print Advantage has had to train most of its staff. He also anticipates the need to increase hours of operation from its current 12-hour, six-day shifts.