For GCIU members who chose a beautifully bound, hardcover coffee table book as a holiday gift, check to see if it was printed and bound at Inland Press/Inland Book in Menomonee Falls, Wis.

If it is an Inland book, it is quality produced by members of Milwaukee-Madison 577M. Working with state-of-the art digital presses and bindery equipment, Local 577M members also turn out softcover books and other products ranging from hotel directories to calendars.

James H. Lacy, Inland's president and chief operating officer, explains that his background in book manufacturing spurred him to carve out a market niche for his company with hard and soft cover books that are printed and bound with quick turnaround.

Inland was founded in 1946 as an in-house printing facility for the Falk Corp., a local industrial gear manufacturer. According to Inland's current president and owner, James H. Lacy, the Falk family saw an opportunity to provide not only printed products for the company but also commercial printing for other Milwaukee industries. The Falk family owned the company until the mid-1970s, Lacy said, and he bought it in 1994.

Lacy's background is in book manufacturing. He worked at Kingsport Press in Tennessee while in school. After school, he went into marketing and sales at Krueger's New Berlin, Wis., plant, which later became World Color and then Quebecor. So, he naturally saw the opportunity to carve out a book niche for Inland, he said.

"My thought for a long time was to do what we do here," Lacy said. "I thought that customers are not being served as individuals. Our delivery of the product is much faster, and we give a more personal touch to it," he said.

In Inland's bindery, above, Milwaukee-Madison 577M member Cindy Gruett works on a Kolbus perfect binder.

In the shipping department, husband-and-wife team Gail Novak and Tim Novak track orders. Gail said it is easy to both work and live together. "We get so engrossed in our work that we don't talk that much on the job," she said.

With some $20 million in sales, 110,000 square feet of space, and about 135 employees, privately held Inland has established a national customer base that ranges from major book publishers and hotel chains to the United Auto Workers, Lacy said. "There's a good future for the niche market we're in – high-end, multi-color book manufacturing," he said. "It's hard for that to be replaced by new technology. Is it changing? Yes, absolutely. There's an awful lot of consolidation in publishing. But there's definitely a future for companies like Inland."

Lacy said he's not worried about predictions that the Internet and other electronic technology will displace books. "The future of books is not threatened at all" by this technology, he said. "In fact, in some ways it is enhanced" as people use the Internet to order books, he said.

"We certainly are faced with international competition," Lacy said. "But that's one of the reasons we emphasize the time element. That's our edge. We can never compete with wages – we don't want to pay $2 a day as they do in China." Customers in the United States can't get their product in 15 days if it is produced in Asia, but they can from Inland, he noted. "We also benefit from trends that customers are buying lower quantities – it's another key marketing trend for us."

Local 577M Pres. Christopher Yatchak noted that Inland has expanded twice since 1994. "We just have to do that," Lacy said. "It's just the nature of the business."

Stripper Donna Roepke touches up and positions film for a book about Greek and Roman mythology. Roepke also makes proofs and plates using a Polychrome plate processor and a Cortron 4200 Auto Plate.

So is investment in new equipment, Lacy said. "The ones that don't – you know what happens to them. We've invested a tremendous amount in new equipment."

The most recent investments include a Heidelberg eight-color perfector press that takes up to 28 by 40-inch sheets and Kolbus "casing in process" book binding equipment that can turn out 40 books a minute. James E. Suttmiller of Inland noted that the company plans to purchase another eight-color press in the near future.

Suttmiller said the company works with the union and suppliers on training in such new technology as computer-to-plate and the new digital presses and bindery equipment. "We send people to suppliers' centers to learn the new equipment," he said. For example, the Heidelberg perfector required specialized training because it was one of the first in the nation.

Lacy said he depends on his employees' skills and experience for good business. "Employees are critical to customer satisfaction. We encourage customers to make contact with our employees. It's not 'we versus them,' it's 'us.' The more we can have their involvement, the better."

For example, Lacy said, he encourages customers to talk directly with the pressmen running their jobs. "Customers come back glowing about how much this helps them. You get them back with a press group that shows their skills and knowledge."

From left, Bob Klapczynski, bindery supervisor, Don Zimmerman, and Jeff Zeimet work on a digital, state-of-the-art Kolbus perfect binder.