The Post-Crescent from Appleton, Wisconsin • 77

YOUR CONTACT Arlen Boardman, business editor 920-993-1000, ext 293 e-mail: aboardmansmgpo.gannett.com SUNDAY, MAY 6, 2001 1-1 www.postcrescent.com Wisconsin's Best Newspaper ARLEN BOARDMAN Post-Crescent business editor Power of PMMOHON 4imprint wants to place it in the palm of your hands Straying i a Web site, partners bolster sales gains from the norm built success Outlook report sign of the times Outlook Group Corp. lost more than $600,000 in its December-February quarter, and consequently suffered a 20-plus percent drop in its stock price, but it's not a reflection on how the company has been run. This time the bad financial report is more a sign of the times, the slowing economy, and not an indication of the basic structural problems that plagued the printingpackaging company in the mid-1990s. This time Outlook is merely going through what a lot of healthy companies are going through serious earnings problems generated by a serious slowdown in the U.S. economy.

The story about Outlook Group in 2001 is one of sold divisions, merged operations, and rebuilt its core competency. Outlook's restructuring was an effort to create a company that performs only in its area of greatest expertise. The company has been on a mission since the mid-1990s when Chairman Richard Fischer became chief executive officer and Joseph Baksha became president and chief operating officer. And then in 1998, Outlook selected Paul Drewek as chief financial officer after a couple of misfires. Since the mid-1990s, it has sold Barrier Films, closed its Outlook Packaging Wichita plant, sold Outlook Foods, and merged its Outlook Label Systems operations into its Neenah plant by closing its Troy, Ohio, plant.

In late April, the company announced plans to close its Outlook Packaging Oak Creek plant and merge it into its Outlook Label plant in Neenah. It also has made some small but key acquisitions which enhanced its core competency. Nothing, though, is more important than Outlook's reduction of long-term debt. It had a debt of about $30 million a few years ago, a large load for a company its size and mostly the result of acquisitions. Big debt means many of the dollars it earned went to interest payments, i.e., money not available for expansions or dividends.

Today the long-term debt is about $2.8 million. And by the end of calendar 2001, that debt is expected to be wiped out. I V- 9 c'0 Post-Crescent photos by Sharon Cekada 4IMPRINT EMPLOYEE Alice Schettl packs boxes of catalogs and fliers to be shipped to customers across the nation at the company's Oshkosh facility. The company distributes a wide variety of products, including the cow squeeze toys (foreground), imprinted with other companies' logos. By Stefanie Scott Post-Crescent staff writer OSHKOSH In two years, 4imprint has leveraged technology and built relationships with corporations like School Specialty of the Fox Cities and Land's End of Dodgeville to successfully build its market share.

4imprint's customer list reads like a Who's Who of the world's large and high-profile corporations. "We have in our customer base every one of the Fortune 100 companies," said Dick Nelson, president and chief executive officer of Oshkosh-based 4imprint. The company's ability to meld traditional catalogs sales and marketing with Internet and other methods has bolstered recent sales. JuneBox.com, a wholly owned subsidiary of Grand Chute school supplies wholesaler "We have School Specialty, more and 4imprint people "c3; wanting to SIS Partner promotion- with US al products via the thanwe Internet. schools choose to districts partner have the txnfVi option of Wllh- ordering DICK NELSON, more than 4imprint president school sup- ani CEO plies on the JuneBox.com site.

They can place orders for T-shirts, mugs, keychains and other items which can be printed with their school logo. The order for promotional products is sent to 4imprint for packaging and shipping. "We've made a dent in the education market through our traditional direct marketing venues, but this arrangement will help us increase our presence in the arena," said Patrick Hartel, marketing manager for 4imprint. "We hope to use (JuneBox.com's) expertise to get a stronger foothold within schools." JuneBox, launched in March 2000, sells educational supplies to more than 3,000 customers on the Web. The company's shared backgrounds in direct marketing and the geographic area made the deal "a natural fit," Hartel said.

4imprint has the option to "pick and choose partners," Nelson said. "We have more people wanting to partner with us than Please see SALES, 1-6 By Stefanie Scott Post-Crescent staff writer OSHKOSH In 25 years, Dick Nelson has transformed a small promotional products start-up business to the centerpiece of a multinational corporation. Nelson is president and chief executive officer of Oshkosh-based 4imprint, a direct seller of promotional products, which posted sales of $115 million last year. "Dick's a textbook entrepreneur," said Greg Iott, vice president of business development for 4imprint. "He had a vision and was able to translate it into a very successful company." The company, which now employs about 225 in Oshkosh, started as Nelson Marketing, a father-son endeavor in Logansport, Ind.

Its business was in bank premium promotional products, a market that dried up in the late 1970s when banking deregulation legislation changed the way bankers marketed. With deregulation, bankers weren't restricted to giving customers just promotional products to attract their business. Adjusting to market changes, Nelson didn't miss a step and he put together his first catalog. It was a crucial move that would take his company to the world before the end of the century. Nelson said his first catalog wasn't much.

"More like a brochure," Nelson said. "No order form, no 800 number. It was pretty crude." But it got the company name into the marketplace and showed that his business dared to stray from the industry norm. Within the $15 billion promotional products industry, more than 90 percent of the players work through traditional sales people meeting face-to-face with end-user buyers. Taking a unique approach, 4imprint's predecessor used catalogs, and later the Internet, to do the sales legwork.

"We make it as easy as possible for the customer to order," Iott said. Today 4imprint employs 70 full-time customer service representatives to handle phone orders and inquiries, and also offers 24-hour access via the Web. However, launching a direct-selling business takes a lot of money to print catalogs and foot other startup costs, Nelson said. Acquiring new customers costs quite a bit, Nelson said. "It takes three to five years to break even; that's when we start getting more orders from repeat customers than new business." He invested "everything I had" in the company and looked for outside investors as well.

When the Miles Kimball Co. of Oshkosh purchased a majority share of the company in 1988, Nelson decided to move its headquarters to northeastern Wisconsin, and did in 1989. Nelson's father, Ken, retired from the business and stayed in Indiana. Nelson describes the company's wares as "anything a company can put a logo on." A supplier network provides more than 400,000 different products as diverse as ballpoint pens, beach balls to Zl 1976 4imprint was founded as Nelson Marketing in Logansport, by Ken Nelson and his son, Dick. 1987 Nelson Marketing mailed first catalog.

1988 Majority interest was sold to Miles Kimball Co. of Oshkosh, with Dick Nelson holding the remaining inters est. 1989 Nelson Marketing headquarters moved to Oshkosh. 1996 Nelson Marketing sold to Bemrose, a United Kingdom-based company. 1999 Nelson Marketing launched the catalog industry's first fully enabled e-commerce Web site, called 4imprint.com.

2000 Nelson Marketing changed its name to 4imprint. Dick Nelson was appointed chief executive of Bemrose and its global corporate name was changed to 4imprint. 2001 4imprint purchased Boston-based Adventures in Advertising Franchise Inc. i obody knows where the 4IMPRINT'S list of corporate clients has earned it top rankings in the industry. ed Kingdom-based Bemrose a publicly traded company.

This marked the beginning of serious global growth by Nelson Marketing. Bemrose owned a handful of companies and operated offices in the United Kingdom, Germany, France and Hong Kong. With the acquisition of Nelson Marketing, it began to change its focus. It sold its printing operations four in the United States and one in the United Frisbees and fortune cookies. 4imprint employees work with clients to create a design and determine which products will be used and for what purpose.

"We're really a service business," Nelson said. "We have no inventory or machines here, just people." When Nelson arrived in OshkoSh, Nelson Marketing had six employees and sales of $1 million. Sales grew to $22 million by 1996, making it attractive for acquisition. That year, Nelson sold the Oshkosh promotional products provider to Unit stock price will go, but when the economy improves and the debt disappears, Outlook should be in calmer waters. Outlook's leaders haven't discarded the possibility of selling the company because it's too small as a solitary competitor.

That had been the goal, but a couple of deals fell through along the way. Now its leaders are entertaining the idea of going private, instead. A privately owned company, versus one with publicly traded stock, has fewer financial obligations and more freedom to make strategic moves. The trade-off is having less capital available. The owners of Outlook stock, which may be some of you reading this, had hoped under the FischerBaksha management team the stock price would rise to $7 or $8 per share, giving shareholders a nice return.

However, the highest the stock went since the two took over was about $6.50 last year, and now it's down $2 from there. If selling or going private is still the plan, Outlook will need to tend to business and hope the U.S. economy improves. Arlen Boardman joined The P-C In 1967 and became business editor in 1982. You can e-mail him at aboardmansmgpo.

gannett.com or call him at 920-993-1000, ext. 293. Please see HEIGHTS, 1-6 labor theworker paperreport 1 i mm TomWiltzius Changing face of employment means quick changes by adult workers. Health care Fox CitiesGreen Bay Area Labor Management Council takes Issue with the rising cost of prescription drugs. Page 3 Thomas Schmidt Paper industry weathering economic downturn, building better future.

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