Worzalla ranked among largest employee-owned book printer in North America
By Patrick Lynn
Stevens Point-based Worzalla has been named the fifth-largest North American book printer in Printing Impressions’ latest industry rankings titled “2021 Printing Impressions 300.”
Worzalla was also ranked the 63rd largest printer by annual sales on the general list that includes all printing companies in North America.
It’s the second consecutive year Worzalla has been ranked as a Top 5 Market Segment Leader in the book printing category. Worzalla also held its ranking as 63rd largest printer from last year.
“Our consistent growth and ranking in Printing Impressions’ annual report is a reflection of Worzalla’s ability to support its customers as book sales continue to increase across America,” said Jim Fetherston, Worzalla’s president and CEO. “Much of our success is due to our dedicated associates, who do so much to deliver quality products for our customers despite the challenges our industry has faced over the last few years.”
In 2021, Worzalla launched phase three of its modernization plan adding needed printing capacity to its facilities in Stevens Point, Wisconsin. The expansion included the addition of a new case maker and press. The company continued to grow its workforce for the day-to-day operations of creating the millions of books ordered by Worzalla’s customers each year.
Worzalla was able to maintain its Printing Impressions ranking and report positive sales growth over the past year despite the business uncertainties and challenges due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. In this year’s report, Printing Impressions says that many printing companies experienced “double-digit annual revenue drops” and that “many CEOs of commercial printing companies were not racing to report their annual sales numbers.”
This year’s rankings included 300 commercial printers, compared to last year’s list of 350.
“But, just as every cloud has a silver lining, there are signs of optimism, and some businesses on the list have actually flourished during these uncertain times,” said Mark Michaelson, Printing Impressions Editor-in-Chief, when announcing this year’s rankings.
Worzalla currently prints titles from some of the country’s largest book publishers, including Disney Books, Abrams, Simon and Schuster, Hachette, Penguin Random House, HarperCollins, and others. Worzalla is best known for being the domestic manufacturer of the popular Diary of a Wimpy Kid series.
“Book sales are up overall and we’re seeing the most growth in Young Adult and Juvenile Fiction,” Fetherston said. “The mere fact that young people are buying physical books is a very good sign for Worzalla and the industry. A young person who buys a book will one day grow up to be an adult that buys books.”
More information is available at Worzalla.com.
