The Company is a direct mail and business forms printer with five plants located across the United States. The Company provides sophisticated direct mail and business forms printing and letter shop services. Two of their operations were incurring losses and increasing the working capital utilization of the Company.

The Company has been successful throughout the industry’s growth phase but encountered difficult challenges as their industry matured, with pricing pressures and declining operating margins.

The Company had invested heavily in plant equipment and was generating inadequate returns on the capital invested.

The Company had incurred operating losses for two years and had violated its loan covenants.

Working with management, Fort Dearborn developed a business plan to reduce operating expenses, including reductions in force and insurance expenses.

Based on FDP’s customer profitability analyses, management implemented targeted price increases on selected customers and services.

Management decided to sell certain equipment and applied return on investment analyses on future capital expenditures.

Based on the combined efforts of FDP and management, the Company returned to profitability.

Fort Dearborn Partners improved the Company’s profitability by $3.7 million by reducing expenses, implementing reductions in force and increasing pricing for select customers.

The Company was able to continue its existing banking relationship with its current lender and, ultimately, eliminated the owner’s personal guaranty.