NEWS ANCHOR

46
INCONVERSATION
By Victoria Gaitskell
Since 1992, when his father first
brought him into the family
stationery business, Warren
Werbitt, founder and team leader of
Pazazz Printing in Montreal, has been
pursuing his own vision with a passion.
“I told my father, ‘Okay, but I want to
sell, because I’m not interested in getting
dirty.’ Soon after, I got my first order for
$2,700, and I said, ‘This is for me. This is
so easy.’ Of course, it was six months
before I got another order, but I had
made a commitment.”
Werbitt’s second turning point came
when he attended Drupa, alone, at age
25. “It changed my life. There was over 2
millon square feet of equipment, noise
and vibrations. I was getting chills.
“When I got home I called my father
and the accountant to a meeting and
said, ‘Okay, we’re buying a five-colour.’
They both said it wasn’t happening. So I
told the accountant, ‘You’re fired for
telling me ‘no’ without a reason.’ Then I
told my father, ‘I’m a world traveller now.
I can’t stay with letterhead.’ So we got the
five-colour and never looked back.”
The purchase of Trendmore Printing
in 2000 was a great learning experience,
says Werbitt, and since then he gradually
assumed control of the company.
The present equipment list includes
an eight-up Fuji CtP system, a 6-colour
40-inch with coater and a 5-colour
28-inch, both Mitsubishi presses, a twocolour
28-inch Komori, a Ryobi, a
Heidelberg platen as well as two flexo
presses plus bindery and finishing.
The company caters to ad agencies
and pharmaceutical clients—but Werbitt
PASSION
+ PEOPLE
PAZAZZ
contends their true specialty is service,
and credits his staff of around 40 for
attaining $8.5 million in sales last year.
“It’s only in the last two years that my
team has really come together,” he says.
“It took me a while to find them. Once I
did, I sat all the people in charge of
production down and asked them to
revamp our systems. I bought lunch but
Warren Werbitt, progressive president
of Pazazz Printing in Montreal.
did not sit in. You have to believe in
people and let them know you believe in
them. They created the new systems by
themselves, and they’ve taken ownership
and responsibility for what they created.
Now we have awesome scheduling,
production, shipping and client care.”
To steer his company’s course,
Werbitt also relies on networking with
other owners. A few times a year he
attends peer-group events hosted by the
U.S.-based National Association for
Printing Leadership.
“Printers in Canada need to get over
the fear of the competitor. Because of
fear we’ve engaged each other in price
wars and turned printing into a
commodity. But in reality, printing is
service-based. We dispense professional
advice like lawyers and accountants, yet
no one wants to give us $300 an hour.
“Here’s what I mean: we recently
quoted $20,000 on a job for an existing
client, the client said ‘Your competitor
just quoted us $16,000, so we have to
give the business to him.’
“I replied, ‘Go ahead, it doesn’t make
sense for me to price the job lower.’
“So they retrieved their files, but once
the other printer had reviewed them, he
requested another $3,500 for the job.
The client pressured the other printer
into honouring his original price, but
they still incurred so many problems
that they wanted to come back to us.
“But I replied, ‘We had already
proven ourselves to you, and we quoted
the job right in the first place, but you
dropped us. And then when the other
printer realized his mistake, you forced
him to do the job at a loss. My concern is
that you’re going to screw us next. So I’m
afraid we can’t work with you any more.’
“I was blown away. Nobody has values
any more. When a guy falls down, you
should help him up, not walk over him.”
At age 39, Werbitt is working to raise
the ethical bar. “People think a printer is
nothing, but printers sell themselves
short. We need to make a stand together,
to publicize our pride, our integrity,
who we are and what we stand for.”
Clearly, Werbitt is the first in line to
follow his own advice. CP
Victoria Gaitskell’s regular InConversation
column searches for unique stories to tell.
To nominate a person or company, contact
Victoria at victoria.gaitskell@sympatico.ca
www.canadianprinter.com APRIL/MAY, 2006