Donnelley May Close Waterloo Office

By Judy Newman, The Wisconsin State Journal

Jan. 30–Waterloo operations of the former Perry Judd’s — once a thriving printing company with more than 600 employees — may be shuttered within two months.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago, completed the $176 million purchase of the Wisconsin printing company last week and notified the state that up to 89 people at what had been Perry Judd’s headquarters offices may be out of a job by March 26.

It’s not a surprise that Donnelley is looking to reduce the number of duplicate positions, said Beth Skalitzky, Perry Judd’s corporate benefits manager. “When a company acquires another company, there are always those kinds of options they need to look at,” she said.

Doug Fitzgerald, Donnelley’s senior vice president for marketing and communications in Downers Grove, Ill., said it’s premature to say if all 89 workers will lose their jobs. He said employees will be notified first, individually, over the next few weeks.

Asked if some may be moved to other Perry Judd’s or Donnelley locations, Fitzgerald said, “That’s possible; we’re still making those decisions.”

Already, the Perry Judd’s name — whose Wisconsin roots date back to 1931 — has been eliminated there. The business is now called “the R.R. Donnelley office in Waterloo, Wisconsin,” according to the recorded telephone answering message.

Waterloo Mayor Edward Klug said he has mixed feelings about the pending closure of the company’s headquarters. Klug was a Perry Judd’s employee for 20 years, unloading paper and bringing it to the presses. He said he was one of the last to lose a job when printing operations ended and 550 positions in the plant were eliminated in early 2004, leaving only the administrative employees.

“I liked working there, but to me, they gave the bonuses to everybody up above but employees had to take pay cuts . . . to keep the plant open,” Klug said.

Skalitzky said Perry Judd’s has 625 employees at its Baraboo printing plant and 35 at a prepress plant in Madison. It also has printing plants in Iowa and Virginia.

Klug said he’d like to see Perry Judd’s’ 300,000 square feet of space turned into either a business incubator or a retail and residential development. He said he’s asked U.S. Rep. Tammy Baldwin, D-Madison, about the possibility of obtaining federal funds to help the city buy the properties and demolish them, replacing the factory with a senior center, youth center, shops and apartments.

As for Perry Judd’s locations in Baraboo and Madison, Donnelley’s Fitzgerald gave no hint about their prospects for staying open. “There’s nothing about which we’re ready to comment,” he said.

Donnelley, the world’s largest printer, also bought another Wisconsin printing company, Banta Corp. of Menasha, this month and said it would close headquarters there, affecting 85 employees.

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Copyright (c) 2007, The Wisconsin State Journal

Distributed by McClatchy-Tribune Business News.

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