CHAMPAIGN – Scott Moore said he couldn't have imagined the situation two years ago: three established printing companies in Champaign-Urbana coming under common ownership.

But that circumstance came to pass this year, with Printec Press, Crouse Printing & Mailing and Custom Color Graphics uniting under the Premier Print Group name.

Together, the companies employ about 100 people and operate from three separate facilities in northwest Champaign.

The consolidation of the three companies has prompted Premier to increase marketing efforts throughout central Illinois, with new representatives working the Springfield, Peoria and Kankakee areas, said Moore, Premier's vice president.

"Any one of the three (companies) on their own couldn't offer the capacity or capability that we can offer to our clients," he said.

Premier prints a variety of products for clients, including annual reports, promotional materials and direct-mail pieces. By year's end, it's expected to have annual revenues of more than $12 million, according to Dan Paulson, the company's president.

That will likely be enough to place it among the 400 largest printing firms in the United States, Moore said.

The move toward consolidation began with the Jan. 1, 2007, sale of Printec Press to Moore and Paulson. Printec previously had been owned by Moore's father, Randy Moore, and uncle, Bill Williams.

Later, David and Shirley Crouse of Crouse Printing expressed interest in selling their firm, and Moore and Paulson acquired it on Jan. 1, 2008. On April 1 of this year, Custom Color Graphics became the latest company to enter the Premier fold.

"We've got 100 team members with us now," Paulson said. "We were fortunate enough to keep everybody, and we just added two more the last couple weeks."

"We don't want to jinx anything, but we're working six days a week right now," he added.

Scott Moore, 40, has worked at Printec since January 1993, primarily in outside sales. A graduate of Mahomet-Seymour High School, he received an associate degree from Parkland College and a bachelor's degree in economics from the University of Illinois in 1990.

Paulson, 27, previously had his own screen printing and embroidery business, Wave Graphics in Mattoon. Randy Moore, 61, said he spent about a year talking with Paulson about the possibility of buying Printec.

"Dan always wanted to grow up and have his own printing business. He sort of impressed me," Randy Moore said. "Dan was the same age I was when I went into the printing business."

Paulson said he was strongly influenced by Tom Epperson, his graphic arts teacher at Mattoon High School. As a junior, Paulson took part in the high school's nationally recognized graphic arts program and was eventually brought on as a partner in Epperson's business, Wave Graphics.

In 2003, Paulson bought out his partners at Wave Graphics. Epperson retired from teaching but became manager of one of Wave Graphics' facilities. Later, Paulson's father and brother bought part of the business.

Scott Moore said Premier's main niche is printing marketing and promotional brochures, catalogs, annual reports, postcards and direct-mail pieces.

Each of the constituent divisions has its own strengths: Crouse, in design, mailing and distribution; Custom, in producing publications with "saddle stitching" (staples) and "perfect binding" (glued spines); and Printec, in customized pieces, including brochures.

Paulson said Premier recently added a new six-color press. Altogether, the company has eight offset presses and three digital presses of various sizes.

Altogether, Premier has about 60,000 square feet of space: 25,000 at the Printec facility (Premier Central); 20,000 at Custom (Premier South) and 15,000 at Crouse (Premier North). Although the company continues to operate all three facilities, that may not always be the case, Paulson said.

"At some point, we'd like to be under one roof, but that would take a lot of planning," he said.

Larry Baker, the former owner of Custom Color Graphics, is Premier's chief operating officer and plant manager of the Premier South plant. Randy Moore and David Crouse have taken on largely consulting roles, and Shirley Crouse is working on a part-time schedule.

Baker said he and his wife, Carolyn, bought Custom Color Graphics from Flying Color Graphics in 1999. In the succeeding nine years, sales tripled, he said. Its products included catalogs, magazines, soft-cover books, newsletters, posters and fliers.

Scott Moore said he didn't foresee the extent of Premier's growth even as recently as last June.

"A year ago, we wanted to double in five to seven years," he said. But now that the company has grown so rapidly, it's hired a representative for Springfield, another for Peoria and a third for Kankakee, Danville and western Indiana.