Executive Q&A: Graphic Arts Alliance’s Wendy Romig

Wendy Romig: Yes, absolutely. So, Graphic Arts Alliance has been around for about 23 years now. A group of 16 members along with my father, John Braceland—I am second-generation—founded Graphic Arts Alliance. The group came together because they were looking to try and get more buying power together with the vendors. Graphic Arts Alliance serves as a purchasing co-op. We really work to try and bring the vendors and the members together to help benefit them in their long-term purchasing. The members own Graphic Arts Alliance, so it is cooperative in the truest sense. The member-owned component is important because we have full transparency within the group. Meaning that our members have access to all their own purchasing volume, to their own rebate information and the vendor contracts.

WTT: Graphic Arts Alliance is a member-owned and controlled organization—how exactly does that work? Is there a board of directors?

WR: Yes, we call them a board of managers. The managers are a team of seven members that I work very closely with; five of them are elected and two of them are non-elected. The five elected managers serve for three-year terms, and the two non-elected managers are from companies that have had the highest volume of sales going through the Graphic Arts Alliance member-vendor partnerships. We meet quarterly at minimum, and they help run the organization with things such as determining the vendors that we bring into the group. They function as a great sounding board for me as well, since, while I’ve been on the print buying and co-op side for a long time, I have not worked on the production side.

WTT: Are there limits on the type or size of companies that can join Graphic Arts Alliance? Are there differences in membership levels for companies of different sizes?

WR: There are. We actually recently launched a new membership level, but our original membership level is for companies between $3 million and roughly $150 million in revenue. We invite companies that are in the commercial print space, packaging, wide format, and flexo, covering the full spectrum of print. The level that we just launched is called the Digital Advantage Membership level and it’s for digital-only companies over a million dollars in annual revenue.

We felt as an organization, that having this additional tier of membership gives digital companies the opportunity to join even though they may not be using most of conventional offset consumables contracts. But they can still participate in the webinars and the events, and they get the weekly newsletter that we send out with industry updates. Plus, our programs with digital equipment providers, shipping vendors, promo products, other manufacturing services, and paper are of value to them. Smaller digital printers are the ones that I think can really benefit from the offerings of Graphic Arts Alliance.

WTT: Especially newer companies, they may not have any idea of the sort of buying power that you can get in a group like this.

WR: Yes. They are like, “OK, I need to get a new digital press.” And they are out there negotiating as a one- or two-million-dollar company, but through Graphic Arts Alliance, they can negotiate as if they were a $50 million or $100 million company for these presses. That is significant for them.

WTT: Can you tell us what the membership fees are for organizations that may want to join Graphic Arts Alliance?

WR: Our membership rate for the digital advantage level is $250 per year and the membership fee for the members at large, the regular members, is $500 per year. And that membership fee covers all locations.

WTT: Why would a company not want to become a member? Do you get asked if there’s a catch?

WR: There is no catch. I know. I did sales for years before coming into the managing director role. I have dealt with that objection a thousand times over. There is no catch really. It is just an opportunity for us to put the vendors in front of printers that want to increase their volume and increase their business. The “catch” is that the vendors are looking to expand their market share and Graphic Arts Alliance serves as an opportunity to get in front of more of our members. But I wouldn’t even call that a catch. That is a benefit.

WTT: How does a printing company take advantage of the cash rebate programs through GAA?

WR: First they’d have to become a member and once they join Graphic Arts Alliance, there’s usually a small waiting period because companies can’t participate mid-quarter with the rebates. Once they are eligible for that first quarter, we do an orientation call with them to capture all of their usage and educate them on the programs. Most of the time, the vendors provide all the reporting directly to us and we do all the calculations on our side. At the end of the quarter members can view all of their rebates and how they were calculated for the quarter in their online member portal.

WTT: Free money!

WR: Free money. And that’s it. Every quarter, it’s the same. We try to meet with our members individually at minimum once a year just so that we can capture any changes in their vendors.

WTT: Let’s move on to a bigger picture topic. It’s been an interesting year, and everybody’s been talking about tariffs. Considering buying and selling graphic production products is key to your business, how much have US tariff policies impacted your business and that of your partners and members?

WR: The tariff situation this year has created a lot of confusion, especially earlier in the year. Commercial printers experienced that firsthand because they weren’t sure how to quote jobs initially. Things settled down though in the late spring, early summer, where everyone seemed to accept living in this slight uncertainty. They adjusted to giving a 15-day quote instead of a 30-day quote. And so that’s really what our members were dealing with then. For the earlier part of the year, it seemed that vendors were trying to absorb as much of the tariff as they could.

But, eventually, many of them had to pass that tariff onto the customer, which is the printer, and then the printer has had to pass that price increase onto their customer. So, there has been a lot of moving ground under everyone’s feet. First half numbers were definitely down in the industry, but second half is looking a bit stronger. Are they going to completely rebound back to where they were? The industry experts are saying maybe not so much. However, at least there’s going to be some stability.

I’ve been keeping a close pulse on the tariff situation, and no one knows exactly how things are going to land. But I think, whatever happens, the printing industry is very resilient. The ones that are going to succeed are the ones that are very nimble and have a good plan A, B, C, and D in place and they’re willing to pivot quickly. I see some of our members do that quite well. We have some all-star members in our group that are amazing. And I watch in awe at how they can pivot a $40 million manufacturing facility in different ways to deal with the climate that we’re in.

WTT: Are you seeking more domestic partnerships as a result of tariffs?

WR: Yes, it’s happening. Definitely on the consumable side. I think on the paper side, a lot of printers are still sourcing abroad trying to see if they can get better deals there despite the tariffs. They’re looking to see where they can offset some of the costs from other places that they know are non-negotiable. For example, they may have to stick with their ink provider despite the tariffs, so they look to reduce costs somewhere else to make up for it.

WTT: What have you found to be the largest challenges your members have been facing and how have they changed over the past five years?

WR: I’ve been hearing a lot about staffing. There’s an aging out that’s happening in the industry and not many younger people are coming in. Now, interestingly, at a conference I recently attended, one attendee challenged that assumption. They claimed that by pairing a young operator with an experienced operator and cross training them on both older and newer presses, you can get younger talent to run either press. They said it’s more about culture. But that’s the exception, I hear more that younger operators coming in want to work mostly on the digital, higher tech equipment. So that’s one of the challenges.

I think the other challenge so many companies, in all industries, are facing is how to negotiate the rapid rise of AI and its impact on their businesses. it is getting built into some of their software. They are trying to figure out how to utilize AI for the benefit of their business. So, bringing in new technology and staying on top of it all is also another challenge that we’re seeing facing the printers.

And then the biggest, I think, the one that never goes away, is the age-old challenge of just making sure that they have enough in their sales funnel and that they are keeping their profits up. These are the constant challenges in manufacturing that everyone faces and has faced for decades.

WTT: It seems like there have been press releases announcing new GAA partners every few months. Are you actively growing your partner base? 

WR: I took over as managing director in January of 2022 when the entire world had gotten shaken up. In response, I have been on a mission to aggressively add new partners over the last several years. One of the reasons is because Graphic Arts Alliance was traditionally commercial and we are expanding deeper into packaging, wide format and flexo label. And with those changes, we are bringing in new members and new vendor partnerships.

It was an exciting time for me to come on board and just really sit back and say, “Okay, where can we go from here?” Bringing on a promo products partner was great for us this year. We also brought on some additional paperboard partners and an excellent shipping provider. We have had some great vendor partners join our portfolio that are incredibly enthusiastic about the industry and ready to help our members grow.

WTT: I’ve seen a leadership training program advertised recently hosted by GAA. Are you investing in your membership’s businesses beyond the buying programs?

WR: Education has been a huge component of GAA. I love bringing education to the world and to the printing industry. So we have really grown our webinar offerings, averaging one educational webinar a month led by our vendor partners. 

We also had a fantastic in-person panel discussion with Chris Santomassimo, Mike Philie, and Joe Truncale in October ahead of the PRINTING United Expo in Orlando. The executive attendees then broke into small groups and discussed their pain points, challenges and risk assessments, and shared growth opportunities. My goal is to have at least one round table/panel discussion type of conference per  year.

WTT: You are also supporting the future, with a scholarship endowment with the Print and Graphics Scholarship Foundation (PGSF). Can you tell us a little bit about that?

WR: We’ve had this scholarship fund since 2018 and any of our members, their employees, or family members of their employees can participate if they are pursuing education in the print and graphics industry. It’s something we’re proud to offer our members.

WTT: Looking forward, do you see any critical trends you think the industry should be aware of?

WR: We are still seeing the  shrinking of the commercial print side of the industry. This has been a long-term trend. Everyone knows it’s happening and companies that want to be around in 10, 20, 30 years on the commercial side know there has to be a kind of reckoning. Commercial offset printing is not going away, but it is changing, and there are other opportunities that printers need to consider.

The offset commercial print market share is going to continue to erode. So, bringing in other technologies, and skilled staff, skilled operators in different areas of print, I think is going to be critical. The other thing that I think is important is that even though a company may bring in new technology, they need to educate their entire team, including the sales team. I have observed companies expanding capabilities through equipment acquisition but haven’t figured out how to fully monetize their investment, which is risky. 

From where I am sitting, the future looks very bright for printing. There is so much ahead of us technologically speaking and also a lot of change, which means opportunities. I think it is important to see where the trends are going and be forward thinking in one’s business strategy to look objectively at thecurrent business strategy to ask those hard questions. Are we having to work harder to grow the business or to keep that same level of revenue because of changes in the industry? Is our market share shrinking? Leaders can’t be afraid to look critically at their finances and their strategic plan to stay ahead of the game. 

WTT: How about the future of GAA and your members? How do you see the future of this organization looking down the road?

WR: I really am excited for Graphic Arts Alliance and its growth as we’re getting into new sectors and exploring various print technologies like wide format and flexo. I see the future of GAA as a big umbrella that houses all that is print. Our vision for GAA is that we are not just transactional but are an alliance where printers can collaborate with a group of peers that is forward thinking and looking to be the top of the industry.