Reprographics Firm Leaving

American Reprographics Co. will be closing its Glendale corporate finance headquarters and will fold it into its Walnut Creek, Calif., main corporate headquarters, company officials said. The consolidation should occur by the end of the year, said David Stickney, American Reprographic’s vice president of corporate communications. The Glendale-based facility, which relocated from Pasadena to Glendale in the fall of 2000, employs 18 people. It is not the only office facing consolidation within the global company that employs 3,200 people full time. According to Stickney, this particular move is expected to benefit the company because the American Reprographic teams will be able to work more closely together. “This has been something that we have been looking forward to for quite some time,” said Stickney. “We have offices all over the U.S. and Canada and international areas. The further we spread, the more important it is that our core team be more together.” A printing company that caters to architects, engineers, contractors, design professionals, and document managers, American Reprographics has faced some challenges due to the downturn of the construction markets. For the fiscal year 2010, the company reported a net loss of $27.5 million on revenues of $441.6 million. For the same period in 2009, the company had a net loss of $14.8 million on revenues of $501.5 million. More than 75 percent of the company’s net sales come from printing for the architectural, engineering and construction industries and approximately 70 percent of its total revenue stems from nonresidential construction. Stickney said that although the volume of work has decreased, American Reprographics still remains at the top of its game. “Our revenue in terms of volume of work has gone down very much just like suppliers for other related companies, but our company is extraordinarily healthy and continues to outperform in the area.” The City of Glendale’s Economic Development Manager Ken Hitts said it is never good to see a business leave, but with the present economy, some companies are facing challenges. “You always hate to see a closure, hate to lose the jobs,” said Hitts. “But there’s not a lot that anyone can do about that.” However, Hitts added that the City of Glendale still keeps building relationships with businesses and making it a top priority. “There are companies still being impacted as a direct result of economic circumstances,” he continued. “But we try and reach out and meet with companies. We want companies to thrive and grow. We do our best to keep companies healthy.” Mather leaving In addition to the consolidation, American Reprographics Chief Financial Officer Jonathan Mather will opt out of the Northern California relocation and retire in order to remain close to his home in Southern California. As part of Mather’s transfer from NETGEAR to American Reprographics in 2006, one of his stipulations was that his office would remain in Southern California. However, Mather will stay on board until his replacement has been named, and according to Stickney, that replacement most likely will come from outside of the company. Stickney added that some of the staff will be relocating and “we are looking forward to making that work as best as we can” and for the ones who have elected to stay behind, the company is in full support of their decisions. Mather, who Stickney notes has been very helpful throughout the situation, is the only top executive who has decided not to relocate. Centralization “The larger the company becomes, the more decentralized operations are and the more important it has become to pull the offices together,” continued Stickney. “Jon agrees wholeheartedly. He has been a great help.” With the restructuring, American Reprographics Vice President and Corporate Controller Jorge Avalos was recently appointed chief accounting officer – a positive and apparently unsurprising move for the company. “We are very, very happy to do this with Jorge,” said Stickney. “He is a phenomenal contribution to our success, and we are just really happy to see that his contribution has paid off.” Despite current management shake-ups and branch consolidations, Stickney said that the company’s goal is to keep moving forward. “We are going to capitalize on everything we’ve done, tighten up the company and make it run more efficiently.” Managed by its two founders S. “Mohan” Chandramohan and current Chairman, President and CEO K. “Suri” Suriyakumar, American Reprographics began in 1988 as Ford Graphics. With hundreds of locations throughout North America and locations in Europe and Asia, the company is the largest reprographics company in the world.