The recent announcement by RR Donnelley that they would be shutting down their Jefferson City plant caught the attention of other companies in the printing and packaging industries.
Recruiters and personnel officials from across the country have made inquires to the Jefferson City Area Chamber of Commerce and Jefferson City media on ways to let the 475 workers who will soon be out of a job when Donnelley closes know that other opportunities are available.
"It's a bad situation, but we would love to help people if we can," said Michelle Stremmel, spokesman for Gateway Packaging which has operations in Granite City, Ill., and Kansas City, employing nearly 300 people.
Stremmel said this may involve a move for people, but they really need people with high skill sets.
"I'd said we are looking for five or ten full-time employees now, but our business is growing rapidly so we see a greater need in the near future," she said.
Stremmel said for now they primarily looking at people for work in their Granite City facility, but opportunities in both places should be coming in the very near future.
"Our entire manufacturing and production line is packaging for primarily pet and people food such as bags and specially developed field containers that you buy your food in at grocery stores," she said. "Every single packaging project that we have involves printing and even though we're not talking about books and catalogs there is still plenty of opportunities and jobs for people with the right skills"
Stremmel said there used to be many printing houses in St. Louis, but those have gone away and many of those who worked at those businesses also moved away.
"We now have a shortage of these workers compared to what we had 20 years ago," she said. "In the past we had numerous candidates because we posted jobs and the resumes would come flooding in. That's not the case these days. Once we heard RR was going out we wanted to reach out because the individuals that work there are very much valued."
Stremmel said the future is exciting for their company and they have helped in other similar situations like what happened at Donnelley.
"Quite frankly we don't have the time to just hire new people and train them," she said. "We need experienced people now and we won't hire at bottom dollar. We will pay for the experience."
For Brent Hanson, a recruiter for Midstate, Inc., Print and Media Solutions, which has operations in South Dakota and Nebraska, their company is smaller than Donnelley, but they don't see a downside in the printing industry.
"We were confused as to why they shut down, when it seemed their shop was seeing increases in sales production," he said. "Our sales are growing steadily and with that growth we are needing new employees."
Midstate is a Web based printer that does direct mail items like catalogs and magazines and currently has 320 employees.
Hanson said they are adding equipment and sometimes finding experienced individuals to run them, say with 15 years or more, is hard to find.
"We always hire people to start and grow with our company, but we also need talented, experienced people that can help with training," he said. "I think we are very comparative for our industry in what we can pay.
"From part-time on up we are currently looking to fill around 20-22 positions. Press operators and bindery operators are the ones we are really looking for.
"It's always a sad deal when any manufacturing company shuts down because it hurts economy," Hanson added. "However, those people affected need a place to go to and we would love to introduce them to a new opportunity."