AUGUSTA — When the hammering stops at 15 Darin Drive, a new noise will replace it.
As part of its third expansion since 2007, J.S. McCarthy Printers is expecting to install machinery that will make sheets of paper from giant paper rolls, making the process more efficient for the Augusta-based commercial printer.
“Currently, we buy sheets from suppliers,” Rick Tardiff, company president and chief executive officer, said Tuesday. “We’re going to bring that in-house for efficiency and saving money.”
As it stands, a paper producer like Sappi North America would send rolls of its paper from Hinckley down to a facility in Allentown, Pennsylvania, to be cut into sheets so it could be sold and delivered to commercial printers, Tardiff said.
“Now we’ll be able to control that in-house,” he said.
This is the company’s third expansion in just under a decade. All the projects are aimed at preserving the business.
“We’re growing in an industry that’s compressing,” Tardiff said, “so we’re going into a different piece of the business.”
The company sought a zone change in March from Augusta city officials for its expansion, which adds 14,400 square feet on to its existing building, and struck a tax increment financing deal in April. Under the deal, the city and the company would each receive about $306,000.
“What it allows us to do is have more capital to invest in equipment and hiring. Basically, we’re in a very capital intensive business,” Tardiff said. “Any time we can get assistance through the city or the state, we take advantage of it.”
Generally speaking, TIFs allow company revenue to be shielded from valuation by the city or the state, preserves what Augusta receives from the state and doesn’t increase what it owes to county government.
The company’s major jobs are printing for colleges and universities and the greeting card industry and folding cartons or packaging for a range of products including packaged food.
“We also do digital mailing and distribution out of this facility,” Tardiff said.
The company is listed as No. 135 in the top 400 printers in the country and has annual sales of $36.5 million.
J.S. McCarthy was founded in Augusta in 1947. Tardiff bought the company in 2000 and in the last decade has invested about $20 million in new equipment, software and training for its employees. It has grown by acquiring printing companies both in Maine and in New England and keeping the sales and customer service staff in those locations.
“We bring all of the production back to Augusta because we have a very efficient operation here and we’re able to produce work at a lower cost,” he said.
Seventy percent of the company’s business comes from out of state.
“Any time we see investments in a company that increases the dollars coming into the local economy, that’s a win for the entire region, ” Kennebec Valley Chamber of Commerce President and CEO Ross Cunningham said. “Those dollars stay here and get spent in the local economy.”
Cunningham said this move benefits the state economy in another way — J.S. McCarthy can source its paper from local mills.
“One of the challenges we face through the region is companies finding other locations that are more affordable to do business in,” he said. “They have proved they have commitment and faith in the region. It’s a corporation that believes in the Kennebec Valley and wants to continue to do business here.”
Jessica Lowell — 621-5632
Twitter: @JLowellKJ
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