Coming Back from The Abyss: The ABG Print Story

Imagine purchasing a successful printing company with a profitable and predictable revenue stream only to lose 95 percent of your sales nine months later.?

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There probably aren’t enough adjectives to describe such a situation; but calamitous, catastrophic, crazy, and potentially career-ending certainly come to mind.?

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This is a story of grit, determination, fortitude, creativity, teamwork, and even a little gambling thrown in for good measure.? While it may sound like a sequel to John Steinbeck’s classic novel The Grapes of Wrath, this is the story of ABG Print in Manhattan, New York, and its charismatic and persevering Owner Jesse Safir.

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Growing up in an affluent neighborhood in Washington, DC, Safir had no idea what he wanted to be when he grew up, but the farthest thing on his radar was to become a printer.? His father is an attorney, and his mother is a successful investment professional who, after hitting the glass ceiling as a female, opened her own successful fixed income money management firm.

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Safir was a confident and smart student just like his two older brothers, with grades that could get him into virtually any college.? Ultimately, he chose the Alma Mater of his father, Princeton, graduating in 2006 with a degree in Ecology and Evolutionary Biology, with a minor in environmental studies.? Little did he realize that one day he would trade preserving coral reefs for replacing toner in a printing machine.

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Safir followed up Princeton by enrolling in an intensive 10-week business program at Tuck, Dartmouth College’s Business School, which he jokingly refers to as a “business bootcamp for science geeks.”

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As a junior at Princeton, he interned with Goldman Sachs and had every intention of joining the financial juggernaut upon graduation. ?Much to his parents’ chagrin, however, he didn’t see a fit with the division that had hired him, and he ultimately decided to take a year off to “do something meaningful.”

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Fluent in Spanish after having studied the language in high school and college and having traveled throughout South America and Spain, he joined WorldTeach in Ecuador to teach adult professionals English as a second language. The organization was founded by a group of Harvard graduates determined to advance education in places lacking teachers and educational resources.? Safir fashions it as a “cross between the Peace Corps and Teach for America.”

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The job required him to work only four hours a day (7-9 and 6-8) but conversely paid only $375 a month.? After his $175 room and board costs were removed, “that didn’t leave much,” he smiles.

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Ever industrious, he did translation work for the World Bank and even became a professional poker player in Ecuador, capitalizing on his skills to read people.? “Risk taking is part of my nature,” he shares.? “My grandparents on both sides had businesses that went bankrupt and had to rebuild.”? He would come perilously close to the same fate years later, learning just what it takes to come back from the abyss.? But we digress.

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While Safir had a cushy World Bank job lined up back in DC, he once again had a conflict of conscience.? “No one took the time to even read the reports that I translated.? It was a complete waste of resources.? I needed to do something more meaningful.”

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While in Ecuador he began to trade stocks, initially to bolster his personal poker winnings.? But he had a knack for identifying companies that could succeed, picking the right markets and taking advantage of his connections in the poker world, who came from all circles of Ecuadorian life, including Chinese investors in the country who profited from its oil production.

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Safir parlayed this experience to become an Investment Analyst at a small hedge fund when he returned to the United States. Once again, however, what looked good on paper wasn’t what he ultimately wanted to do in life.? “It was stressful work, and I wasn’t good enough.? I remember puking one night after I lost $1 million for our clients,” he says.

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After two years at the fund, Safir began a seven-year stint with a leading residential mortgage company, ultimately becoming the youngest VP, and overseeing a large staff.

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It was grueling work, particularly during the aftermath of housing bubble and ensuing financial crisis.? Safir survived five CEO changes during his tenure.? The last terminated him without notice “to bring in his own team.”?

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The timing couldn’t be worse for the now married 32-year-old Safir, who along with his wife Alex had just welcomed the birth of their daughter Harper.? The two had met through Jdate, a popular online Jewish dating service.

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Fortunately, Safir received a severance package which afforded his family the time to evaluate their options, which included finding Alex landing a position as a technology consultant, after having just earned her MBA.

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From their comfortable home in Philadelphia, Safir founded Orianna Capital, an LLC search entity named for a street in his neighborhood. ?It would focus on working with business brokers to identify potential companies to purchase. He also established Orianna Holdings, a private investment C-Corp which ultimately would be the vehicle he would use to purchase ABG Print. But let’s not get ahead of ourselves.

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Let’s get back to Safir who was at a professional pivot point in his life. He had made the decision that the traditional cut-throat corporate world was not for him.? He wanted to be a hands-on business owner, an entrepreneur like his mother.? But what business to buy?

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Like most aspiring “searchers” he turned to the printing industry – not as an instinctive purchase play but out of necessity to have a flyer produced and initiate a direct mail campaign to business brokers who put buyers and sellers of companies together.

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It was just ironic that the best fit presented to him by one of these brokers was a printing company to purchase – ABG Print, a financial printer in the heart of Manhattan that had been in operation since 1992. The company successfully serviced major financial institutions and had survived both 9/11 and the Great Recession, the worst financial meltdown since the Great Depression in the United States. The profitable company had a book of business of $3.6 million and an impressive EBITDA of $1.3 million.? It was a “steady Eddie cash flow machine,” says Safir.

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Literally and figuratively capitalizing on his financial acumen, Safir financed the purchase through an SBA loan, seller debt and outside investors.? His personal stake was less than five percent – a Herculean achievement.? But he similarly bore the weight of the world on his shoulders, as Owner and President.

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The young entrepreneur dove headfirst into his new industry, retaining all the staff of his newly acquired company and learning as much as he could about the business.? He changed the marketing focus away from simply Manhattan centric companies to anyone who would do business in the Big Apple and enhanced ABG’s “findability” through search engine optimization strategies.

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By the first quarter of 2020, Safir was riding a positive wave, exceeding all expectations with year over year growth of 30 percent. But things escalated negatively quickly.? Early signs of overseas orders being canceled raised an eyebrow, but the world came to a standstill in March 2020 when the global pandemic was proclaimed.

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At the epicenter of world commerce “New York was hit first and hit hard,” opines Safir.? Within days the city had literally shut down and all financial services went remote rendering print redundant.? “It’s like someone had turned off the switch.”

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Safir had two choices.? Walk away from his relatively small investment and declare personal bankruptcy or dig in and fight, just as his grandparents had done generations before.?

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He chose to fight, erring on the side of the adage, “when the going gets tough, the tough get going,” hastening to point out that he could only do so with the support of his wife, who had a successful career, health care for the family through her job, and family assets legally protected in her name.? “This allowed me to swing from the fences,” asserts Safir.

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But the task ahead was daunting, tantamount to rolling a boulder uphill.

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By March 15th Safir jettisoned his staff from 22 to just four employees. “I saw the tidal wave coming and wanted my team to get first dibs on unemployment benefits before the inevitable chaos ensued.” The dark days that followed required unrelenting creativity, fortitude, and grit.?

Safir had to plead his case to government and private lenders, the seller of his business, outside investors and his landlord in a union building in the heart of New York seeking leveraged deferrals or forgiveness wherever possible. It was like living with a real-life Jenga puzzle where any one piece could topple the whole enterprise.

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He raised $1.5 million in grants, benefits, and deferrals, capitalizing on two rounds of PPP funding, and credits the Main Street Lending Program with injecting life-saving capital into his business.

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ABG’s plight was exacerbated by supply chain shortages, particularly paper, which most NPSOA members can relate to.? It also suffered loss of institutional knowledge, and the stark reality that the once cash cow of the business, financial behemoths like Credit Suisse and other investment banks would never return, at least not at theretofore levels.

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The numbers spoke for themselves.? Whereas in 2019 the firm had a profit of $1.2 million on sales of 3.5 million, in 2020 it had a loss of $1 million on sales of $800,000 – 60 percent of which occurred before the pandemic.

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Undeterred, Safir and his team did all they could to drum up business.? “Going from $3.5 million to $800,000 while challenging was not insurmountable,” he asserts.? “It required hustle, hard work and elbow grease.”

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Whereas other printers changed working hours, ABG doubled down operating 24/6.? “When you work at 3:00 p.m. you are a commodity,” opines Safir.? “When you work at 3:00 a.m. you are closer to a monopoly.”

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The company’s name and good reputation paid dividends and it certainly helped that everyone was in the same boat.? “The community of printers was amazing,” says Safir.? “Everyone had everyone’s back and helped out.”

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Even when funds were limited ABG continued to invest in SEO moving into different sectors such as Fortune 500 Companies located in the city, marketing agencies, non-profits, and corporate planning businesses.? Its niche moved into pitch decks, road show communication pieces and other projects that drive a company’s revenue.? “We understood young buyers and asked for referrals,” says Safir noting that “people want to root for the underdog.”

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While in 2021, the company still lost $500,000 it grew sales to $1.3 million.? Thanks to brokered work sales grew to $2.2 million in 2022 and appreciated 30 percent in 2023 (not including the previous year’s brokered jobs) to $2.4 million.

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Safir hopes to hit the $3 million mark this year with 12-13 employees, noting that all former employees were offered their positions back in the company.? Obviously, many sought opportunities elsewhere, where every industry is hiring.

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It is an amazing story of survival, but Safir is the first to concede he is “not out of the woods yet.”? But the company is utilizing every modern tool possible to succeed, from outsourcing marketing and IT to employing the latest in AI technology.? “We have the skills, processes and people to make it happen,” boasts Safir, noting that the company had 360 new customers last year.?

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“While super high margin print jobs have gone the way of the Dodo bird, we are using data to attract new profitable customers, running skinny and tough.” The latest segments include fashion, luxury brands, pharma, private equity management companies, and yes, even private investment firms once again.

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Safir has not ruled out acquiring other companies in the future. But he understands lending parameters have shifted significantly since 2019.? “Now it’s all about the structure of a deal where creative funding will continue to play a role going forward.”

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The great Dale Carnegie postulated that “Most of the important things in the world have been accomplished by people who have kept on trying when there seemed to be no hope at all.”

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Jesse Safir assuredly falls into this category of leaders, rallying against seemingly insurmountable odds to build a company that adapts to change while delivering results to those who entrust it.? His grandparents would be proud.