Employees are seen entering Offset Paperback Manufacturers, Inc. on Memorial Highway in Dallas Township in this file photo. Just days before the holidays, Offset informed its employees on Tuesday that the facility will close its doors next year due to a ‘rapid decline’ in print book sales.
Times Leader file photo
DALLAS TWP. — Just days before Christmas, Offset Paperback Manufacturers informed its employees on Tuesday that the facility will close its doors next year due to a “rapid decline” in print book sales.
According to a letter signed by Chief Executive Officer Christof Ludwig and Chief Operating Officer Jorge Velasco, the facility will begin ramping down operations as soon as February and will cease operations by the end of May.
The closure was prompted by an ongoing decline in market volume for Mass Market and Digest books, specifically in the past six years, a decline they say is expected to continue in the coming years.
According to the company’s letter, the Dallas plant has continued to deliver ongoing and accelerating negative results in operating profitability since 2020.
In 2017, both facilities produced approximately 149 million mass market units, which is 56% more than the 65 million units that were projected to be produced in 2023, only decreasing further to less than 53 million in 2024.
Digest books have also seen a decline from 25 million units in 2017 to an estimated production of approximately 13 million books in 2023 (down 48%) and less than 12 million projected in 2024.
The downward trend makes it impossible to operate both plants for mass marketing manufacturing, the company letter states.
Following the closure of the facility, operations will be relocated to a plant owned by its parent company in Martinsburg, West Virginia, which offers a “much more modern pressroom” and the capability to produce softcover trade books — which Offset cannot.
The company also noted that the Martinsburg plant’s proximity to the main production hub in Berryville, Virigina — which will offer savings on freight — made it clear that the operations must be consolidated there.
“We are fully aware that this is not good news and we understand and share your disappointment. Although this is sad news, we wanted to inform you as soon as possible, in the transparent way we have communicated to you in the past three years,” Ludwig and Velasco wrote in the company’s letter to employees.
