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There are some major changes to QP's Top 100 list this year, primarily in the form of major players dropping out of the list. So let's get this out of the way up front: With total 2007 sales of $648,214,526, the list total fell by 1.02%. That decrease was caused almost entirely by the elimination of seven top companies whose combined sales pulled $87.22 million out of the bottom line.

The silver lining to the cloud is that when we compare 2007 sales posted by the members of this year's list against their own 2006 performance, sales grew by 7.74%. More on that later.

Of the seven companies that dropped out, only three were pulled for failing to report. They are last year's #10 Pel Hughes Printing ($13.14 million), #13 Print Time ($11.59 million), and #28 PDQ Printing ($6.49 million). Morris Friedman of Superior Glacier (#3, $25 million) asked to be removed because his company's legal document work has evolved almost entirely into digital asset management. The firm now does very little printing. ZipMail Marketing (#11, $12.5 million) has moved more into the commercial mailing arena. It still has a printing division, but could not break those sales out separately. A similar situation led to the removal of Indexx (#18, $9.5 million). Its parent company runs a commercial printing firm and Indexx's quick printing sales could not be broken out from the total. The final departure is Triangle (#19, $9 million), which also left QP's Annual Franchise Review after its acquisition by New York-based National Reprographics, Inc.

We could be in for another correction, as Wall Street calls such things, if the five companies that are estimated for the second time this year have to be eliminated in next year's list. The $74.04 million represented by Vision Integrated Graphics Group, Copy Craft Printers, LAZERQUICK, Marange Printing, and Minuteman Press Naperville would certainly put a dent in the total. However, such eventualities are to be expected as the larger companies move farther away from the true quick/small commercial printing business model. Also estimated in this list are Ginny's Printing, House of Printing, Trukmann's Reprographics, and Professional Duplicating.

On a brighter note, this year's top debut company is Chuck Stempler's AlphaGraphics, which checks in at #13 with sales of $10,671,000.

A Perfect 10?

The Top 10 has experienced its biggest shake up in recent memory. The quick printing division of Balmar holds on to the top spot with $27.4 million. Coakley Tech moves from #6 to #2, bumping Vision Integrated Graphics Group into the #3 spot that was vacated by Superior Glacier. Copy Craft Printers and Ginny's Printing hold steady at #4 and #5, respectively. At #6, ColorNet/Rockville Printing & Graphics makes a giant leap into the Top 10 after last year's #16 and #36 companies merged. EconoPrint (Madison) and Copy Central (Fairbanks Ent.) swapped places to emerge as #7 and #8, respectively. Direct Connect Solutions pole vaulted from #27 to #9, knocking LAZERQUICK into the #10 position.

The Top 10 companies accounted for $198,941,319 in sales, which comprises 30.69% of total sales. They operate 58 locations; 28.4% of the total. And they employ 31.7% of the Top 100 workforce, with 1,479.5 employees. Their average sales per shop (SPS) is $3,430,023, and average sales per employee (SPE) is $134,465. The SPE is considerably healthier than it generally is for these top echelon performers. The figure is boosted considerably by the fact that the top SPE performer in the entire list is now a member of the Top 10. That achievement was earned by Ann Mitchell's Nashville-based Direct Connect Solutions.