At 78, Bob Kipper was ready for the golf course and ski slopes versus working ten hours a day selling and marketing printed folding cartons. He was ready to sell his business, Chicago Packaging Company (“CPC”), but there was a problem: Bob’s much younger partner, Joel Reinglass, wanted to work 15 more years.

Chicago Packaging is a full-service manufacturer of printed folding boxes and mailers, producing an extensive assortment of products from packaging for food service and electronic media to protective mailing cartons. Built on a foundation of quality craftsmanship and absolute on-time delivery, Chicago Packaging has distinguished itself as the industry standard by which others are measured.

Gaslight Equity Group recognized an opportunity to work with a great founder who had built and was running a good, solid business, but who wanted to retire and needed help to scale Chicago Packaging’s operations. Gaslight uncovered that the chipboard folding company, which operates in the highly competitive Chicago market, had survived the over-capacity issues plaguing the industry. Many of Chicago Packaging’s competitors had to close over the past few years because they could not scale their businesses or afford new technology in the pre-press departments or the newer printing presses that were required in order to meet industry demand. Chicago Packaging had a great deal of collective industry wisdom and was a craftsman of its trade.

Joel Reinglass continued as head of production and operations. Under Gaslight’s direction the existing management team began to transfer its members’ knowledge into more automated processes to help improve the bottom line. With Gaslight’s financial resources, and on our advice, Chicago Packaging installed Computer to Plate Pre-press Operations, a new telephone system, and a new MRP system to manage the business from estimates through production and inventory control.

A Vice President of Sales and Marketing was hired along with four additional sales people. Increased marketing efforts included a direct mail campaign, the creation of a new web site, and purchased name recognition on multiple search engines.

Gaslight’s first full year of ownership yielded double-digit improvement in sales and earnings over the previous high for the company.

F.C.L. Graphics, Inc.

Thirty years ago, Frank Calabrese started purchasing printing equipment. He went from a print broker to a successful printing provider. He named his company, F.C.L. Graphics, Inc. after his three sons – Frank, Carmen and Lewis. In 2004, however, Mr. Calabrese turned 76 and realized he did not have a succession plan.

F.C.L. Graphics, Inc., a commercial printer based in the Chicago suburb of Harwood Heights, Illinois, is one of the nation’s largest direct marketing printers, producing such items as direct mailings, brochures, annual reports, posters, catalogs, sell sheets, newspaper inserts and labels. The company employs state of the art technology and the latest equipment to offer both web and sheet-fed printing services. Gaslight saw an opportunity to take F.C.L. Graphics into the next generation of commercial printing, built on the principles on which the company was founded and thrived: quality, integrity and the rigorous pursuit of perfection.

Gaslight helped form a succession plan that named Ken Menconi, the Vice President of Sales and a 28-year F.C.L. veteran, as President within two months of Calabrese’s retirement. The F.C.L. Graphics sales team has grown from 13 to 20 sales people in the last 15 months.

In June 2005, FCL purchased a combination folder for its full web press, which will make the company more competitive in producing 16, 32 and 64 page brochures. The first six months of sales with the combination folder has exceeded everyone’s wildest expectations.

Gaslight is investing in people and equipment, with expectations to double F.C.L. over the next five years.

The Graphics Group

In August of 2005, Bill Stout, owner of The Graphics Group, was faced with a dilemma. Bill and his team of six sales people had outgrown his 20,000 square foot sheet fed printing plant in Bensenville, Illinois. They also had customers requesting longer run web printing work. Bill either had to invest in expensive equipment or merge with a company that already provided those services. That is where the Gaslight Equity Group got involved. By merging The Graphics Group with F.C.L. Graphics, Inc., purchased by the Gaslight Equity Group in August 2004, Bill Stout saved $6 to $10 million in capital investments and F.C.L. was able to use some of their excess capacity. Another example of a win-win situation.

Arrow Material Handling Corporation

Arrow Material Handling Corporation has been in the forklift parts business in Kansas City for over 32 years. The owner wanted to retire and the existing bank wanted to get out of the deal, and was not going to give Ross Gault, who had been doing a great job of running Arrow since early 2004, the capital he knew Arrow needed to grow.

What should they do? Sell to Gaslight Equity Group and bring in new financing, energy and enthusiasm. Gaslight purchased the assets of Arrow at the end of May 2005 and immediately put in capital to buy additional forks and to build five welding stations. The June sales were the highest in the company’s history only to be exceeded by August sales. Within seven months of new ownership, sales are forecasted to be up over 40%.