Contrary Moves

REVIEW SUMMARY
Business. Trinity Graphics USA, Manatee County
Industry. Printing, manufacturing
Key. Company recently bought new equipment and plans to hire several employees in its effort to combat the recession.

Robert Smithson is a rare kind of entrepreneur, even though he suffers from the most common affliction among Gulf Coast small business owners — decreased revenues.

Smithson's unusual medicine is to expand, buy expensive equipment and hire new people for his Manatee County-based graphic design and printing firm that specializes in labels, signs, tags and tickets. Over the last 10 months, for instance, Smithson, CEO of Trinity Graphics USA, has spent at least $1.6 million to buy and install three high-end printing and cutting machines.

It's a significant financial commitment for a 19-employee company with roughly $2.5 million in revenues last year, more than 30% off its boom time peak. And yet the British-born Smithson says he'd invest millions more if he could find more lenders and banks to take a risk on him and his company.

“It's not just opportunity,” Smithson says he's going after. “It's profitable opportunity.”

The new purchases include two Vutek Superwide digital inkjet printers, which cost $650,000 apiece and can cut on materials as wide as 10 feet and as thick as two inches. The machines, manufactured by EFI, a Silicon Valley firm, are so rare and expensive that only about eight are in operation nationwide. “I don't think there are any Florida,” Smithson says.

Smithson ordered his first Vutek Superwide machine in October. The second one is to be delivered later this summer.

Moreover, Smithson had to retrofit two rooms in Trinity's facility to make room for the machines, which are the size of an oversized ping-pong table and are controlled by lasers. That project cost more than $100,000.

Then, after those purchases, Smithson invested another $175,000 in a digital die cutting machine that can cut 32 inches of material a second. These machines are somewhat unique,” says Smithson. “The ideas we can do with them are limitless.”

That ranges from printing large real estate billboards to labeling kitchen cabinets — virtually any conceivable flat object, Smithson says. The machines will also allow the firm to do its current jobs faster and better.

Plus, a return on the investment has already trickled in.

For starters, several Sarasota-Bradenton firms have heard about Trinity's new machines and have called Smithson about work. He's also heard from a national convenience store chain that seeks a company to print thousands of new signs for a rebranding project.

Another company, Sarasota-based drinkware manufacturer Tervis Tumbler, wants to increase its workload with Trinity, from putting graphic inserts on 5,000 cups a day to 8,000 cups a day.

Smithson plans to expand his production line to 24 hours a day for five days a week to meet the increased demand for Tervis. He also hopes to have a 24/7 operation within the next few months. He recently hired a few employees and hopes to hire a few more in the next few weeks.

Smithson declines to disclose specific annual revenues for the firm, what was once the American subsidiary of a now-shuttered company his father co-founded in England in 1967. Overall, however, Smithson projects sales will rise at least 25% over the next 12 months.

'Classic entrepreneur'

Trinity's wave of opportunity stems from a decision Smithson made last summer, when the company struggled to find new business in its niche: Flexographic printing, a process that uses letterpress systems to print on a variety of substances, from metal to plastic to paper.

A portion of Trinity's flexographic customers had cut back on orders and were going in-house with the work or finding less expensive vendors. For example, through 2007 Trinity printed the labels on Colgate toothpaste boxes, a job worth $750,000 a year. Trinity earned the work as a third-party vendor through a relationship Smithson held with a printing company in North Carolina.

But Colgate-Palmolive rebid the contract and chose a Canadian firm that was able to do the work cheaper. That was one of a few contracts Trinity lost over the last two years.

“The flexographic plate-making part of the business was declining,” says Smithson. “We had to look at other areas where we could use our talents.”

Smithson's first step was with the new equipment purchases. But he recently made other bold decisions, including a 6,500-square-foot expansion of Trinity's 25,000-square-foot office and production facility near the Sarasota-Bradenton International Airport.

The spend-to-grow philosophy Smithson has taken on doesn't surprise Larry Venable, who has known the entrepreneur since 2003, when he joined Venable's Sarasota-based CEO peer group.

“Rob is a classic entrepreneur who is not afraid to take risks,” says Venable, head of the Sarasota branch of the Vistage Group, a statewide organization for executives. “But he's not a by-the-book guy. He doesn't read the MBA manuals.”

Still, the combination of industry buzz and legitimate returns on the equipment purchases, even in the short-term, has Smithson looking pretty prophetic. And he thinks he could do even more if he had more access to financing. He currently has a line of credit with Wells Fargo, but he hasn't been able to secure loans from several local community banks.

“If I could borrow more money,” says Smithson, “I would buy four more of these [Vutek] machines today.”

While it's not a loan, the company is primed to receive some financial motivation from Manatee County over the next five years: County commissioners recently approved $23,000 in incentives for the company if it hires 23 people over the next five years.

Deadliest catch

Smithson's gambles are similarly precarious to what he did in 1987. That's when a 27-year-old Smithson decided to move to the United States to open a branch of British-based Trinity Graphics, a company founded by his father and business partner.

Back then the firm had a large label-printing client in Clearwater who grew tired of a transatlantic relationship. The client told the Smithsons if they opened an office in Florida he would bring them his business, plus help recruit other customers.

The younger Smithson paid cash for the equipment he needed to open the new office — both British and American banks turned down his loan requests. He opened an office and small facility in Sarasota.

The risk, however, quickly soured. The Clearwater company reneged on its promises and decided to buy its own printing and graphics company, so that business evaporated. Smithson's second biggest client filed for bankruptcy a few weeks later.

“I had lost my two biggest accounts,” says Smithson. “At that point I had to pound the pavement and go find business.”

Smithson did just that and by the mid 1990s he had a small, but loyal list of clients. In 1995 Smithson bought out his father's side of Trinity and became sole owner of the company, which now only has an American presence.

The next 15 years were marked by periods of growth marred by several downturns. In addition to Trinity, however, Smithson is involved in several other business and community-oriented ventures he uses to promote the company's brand, products and services.

One project is supporting the Sarasota Film Festival, through sponsorships and sitting on the festival's board. Another project is supporting Andy and Johnathan Hillstrand, stars of the Deadliest Catch TV show on the Discovery Channel.

Smithson met Johnathan Hillstrand a few years ago in Sarasota and the two have since become friends. Smithson now runs the business development side of www.timebandit.tv, a Web site set up to sell show-related souvenirs. Trinity Graphics also designs and prints labels for Captain John's Bloody Mary Mix, a product derived from the show.