New owner expects to double staff at printing plant

The Wisconsin company that purchased Craftsman Press West at Stead plans to double employment at the plant.

The 170,000-square-foot Stead facility becomes the 10th printing plant nationwide for Quad/Graphics of Sussex, Wisc., and a company spokesman said the Reno plant helps open West Coast markets.

"Quad/Graphics now has a presence in every region of the country," said spokeswoman Claire Ho. "We can provide expedited distribution of product to major population centers throughout the West Coast."

The plant currently employs 55, and Quad/Graphics expects that number to grow to 110 within a year.

Company executives told the Nevada Commission on Economic Development that the new jobs will pay an average wage of $17.56 an hour.

Quad/Graphics also expects to invest more than $22 million in new equipment at the Stead facility. It will handle printing and distribution of magazines, catalogs and other commercial products.

Diane Hatch, who has been the principal executive of Craftsman Press West since the unexpected death of co-owner George Prue this year, will remain with the plant in a sales and marketing role.

Hatch and Prue brought Craftsman Press West to northern Nevada in 1997 after building the facility in Reno. The company founded in 1956 previously had been located at Seattle.

Both Quad/Graphics and Craftsman Press West are privately held, and terms of the acquisition weren't disclosed.

Quad/Graphics is the largest privately held printer of commercial products in the Western Hemisphere, and the third-largest printer publicly or privately held in the United States. (One of its biggest publicly held competitors, RR Donnelly & Sons, also operates a plant at Stead.)

The 35-year-old company has about 12,000 employees worldwide. Its sales total about $2 billion a year.

Quad/Graphics won approval from the state Economic Development Commission this month for tax incentives to encourage its acquisition of the northern Nevada company.