Employee engagement is a challenge that cuts across industries, particularly as technology can limit interpersonal interactions and keep eyes glued to screens. Friesens Corporation, founded in 1907, has an employee-ownership model that Ryan Hildebrand, the company’s senior VP of books, says gives every employee an ownership mindset—and thus a customer mindset.
“Our founder coined a phrase that we still talk about to this day: ‘We will be successful if our customers are successful,’” Hildebrand says. “Those words are as relevant today as they were over 100 years ago.”
The Canada-based book manufacturer handles paperbacks and hardcovers, including one-color trade books, premier color books—art, museum, photography markets—and short-run books using digital printing equipment. The company has the capacity to handle all aspects of the book life cycle and orders of all sizes— from hundreds of books to hundreds of thousands of books—and offers a full range of binding styles.
In the past five years, Friesens has spent more than $50 million to automate, increase capacity, shorten turnaround times, and add digital equipment. The company has also invested in online tools to help customers manage their projects, and it’s leveraging artificial intelligence to analyze data and streamline production processes.
These investments are part of Friesens’ strategy to ensure that customers can respond to the demand to get books to market quickly and cost-effectively. “Publishers want to reduce inventories and shorten lead times so that they can minimize costs and returns while delivering quickly to the end consumers,” Hildebrand says. “We live in an instant world, so responding quickly is important.”
The employee-owners of Friesens take pride in handling complex projects for premier color books, which require expert attention to detail and an understanding of color and finishing of the books. Print methods such as LED printing allow the company to print on unique papers and deliver premium-quality results. The company also has the capability to produce specialty book boxes and slipcases for book projects.
The employee-ownership model, says Hildebrand, gives Friesens a significantly different orientation from most of its competitors. “We invest in our people and make decisions that are counter to many private and public companies,” he says. “While they focus on the bottom line, we focus on our customers’ and employees’ needs. We make long-term decisions for the greater good of our customers and our people.”
The ownership concept extends to the wider community—in the company’s hometown of Altona, Manitoba, and throughout the literary world. Friesens sponsors local sports teams and child literacy programs and invests time and energy in organizations that support the arts, storytelling, and information sharing.
That civic-minded spirit includes the company’s environmental efforts, which began in the 1970s. Friesens was the first printer to produce the Harry Potter books on 100% post-consumer-waste paper and the first printer in Canada to receive Forest Stewardship Council certification.
“We’re located in a small community, so we have always understood the impact we have on our community and the need to recycle, reduce waste, and find sustainable production methods so as not to negatively impact our employees and residents,” Hildebrand says. “We have carried that forward and made it part of our company DNA.”
