Citing the economy and industry challenges, the president of Paramount Miller Graphics Inc. said the company is closing its Jacksonville printing plant.
Company President Jon Cummins has been with the 100-year-old company for 26 years.
“My focus is to close the plant as orderly as possible and do the best job I can helping our customers and employees transition,” said Cummins, the company’s managing partner.
The company has 24 employees, he said.
“The economy has been very challenging,” he said.
Cummins said the industry has been moving into other directions, such as digital printing, Web platforms on the Internet and overseas, for example.
“It’s gotten very diluted in a lot of different ways,” he said.
Paramount Miller Graphics is based at 5299 St. Augustine Road and changed its name and focus about five years ago to Paramount Performance Marketing, he said.
“We made the switch to being a marketing services provider rather than just a printer,” Cummins said.
Cummins said the number of ways for customers to share their messages had changed, referring to “cross media” as opposed to one channel, such as printing.
The Web, text messages and social media all are parts of marketing now.
“All of those things need to tie together for a strategy. That is what we were providing,” he said.
That part of the business will be picked up by Paramount senior account representative Jennifer Anderson, who is starting a business called Paramount Solutions, he said. She has been with the company for eight years.
“She is leveraging the name and continuing the legacy,” Cummins said.
“She will be the services provider and represent some of the same people and operations, just not manufacturing,” he said.
Cummins said Anderson was forming the business plan. He will not be an owner in the business but will help customers transition.
Cummins said the commercial printing side of the business has closed and that other parts of the business will be moving to other plants with which Paramount has a strategic alliance.
He said the company is seeking buyers for its high-speed variable data business. “We have people interested,” he said.
The equipment is specialized to allow targeted printing. “Every piece can be completely different,” Cummins said.
Cummins said the decision was made a week before the end of 2011 to close the commercial printing business. The plant has been completing its orders.
He said the options for the company are to sell the business as a package deal or in parts.
Cummins said he is undecided about his next professional move. “I have some ideas and I have the rare chance in my life to do whatever I decide,” he said. He turned 50 in November.
Cummins said he was a minority shareholder with less than 10 percent of the business.
State corporate records for 2011 show that Cummins is president and list the directors as Frederick Walther, chairman; Michael Walther, vice president; John Walther, vice president; George Robbins and Robert Stein.
Duval County property records show that the plant was built in 1958.
Research shows that the company was formed through a merger of Miller Press, which was founded in 1912 Downtown, and Paramount, founded in St. Augustine as Record Press. Paramount moved to Jacksonville in the 1960s, when it changed its name. The companies merged about 1989.
According to the IBISWorld Printing market research report in December, competition is high in the industry. “And the market is narrowing as digital technology and e-commerce become more prevalent,” it said.
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