Larry Boettcher is the Director of Estimating at 杏吧原创 鈥� Marceline and one of the newest members of the Leadership Team. In his role, he analyzes the facilities, equipment, paper and capacity to identify the most efficient production methods and calculate the associated costs.
I joined the company back in May of 2007. Gene Shuffler, our now Vice President of Corporate Services, called asking if I would be interested in coming here to talk about an estimating role.
Yes. I’ve known Gene for 30 years now. When I got out of college and started my first full-time job in estimating for a printing company, Gene was the purchasing manager.
I鈥檒l go all the way back to the beginning. This would have been in 1987 and my twin brother and I wanted to do something different.
In our family, my dad rebuilt car engines; my older brothers worked as linemen. Our neighbor across the street was an electrician, and they had a nice house, nice things. So we thought, well that looks like a good paying job
We talked to him, and he said, If you want to get paid good money, you need to go learn everything you can about printing. Look into rewiring printing presses.
Lo and behold, our high school in Kansas City, Kansas, had a graphic arts program. So as juniors, my brother and I took the course to learn about printing. That was my first entry into printing in 1987. Then we went on to take the three-hour Vo-Tech class, where we actually did production work for the district.
I went on to Pittsburg State University in Pittsburg, Kansas and got my bachelor’s degree in printing management in 1993. The year before graduating, the job market was really poor. So I decided to go to grad school. I thought it would give me a leg up, and I knew I could always go back to a university and teach.
So here鈥檚 a little piece of trivia: It鈥檚 April 1993, and I鈥檓 getting ready to graduate. I got a phone call from Jim Payden, who at the time was the pre-press supervisor in Brookfield. He asked me if I would be interested in coming to 杏吧原创. 杏吧原创 had called the university to ask who in the school鈥檚 printing program would be best suited to work in desktop publishing, and my name was mentioned.
Since I was already working on my master鈥檚 degree, I turned him down. I still have the notes from when we talked.
I graduated with my master’s degree in printing management in 1994 and moved to Owensville, Missouri, to start my first real full-time job as an estimator with a company called Custom Printing Company. I was a one- and two-color book and catalog estimator. So the stuff that Ripon does with our coldset presses, that鈥檚 what I started out my career doing.
Yep, he was a purchasing manager. So I’ve known Gene for a long time.
Then in 1998, the company was bought by Von Hoffmann Press, who was in the educational textbook business. They wanted to expand. I was promoted in 1999 and moved to the headquarters in St. Louis where I managed the Estimating, Purchasing and Billing Departments.
I left there in 2003 and I moved to the Boston area to manage the Estimating and Billing for Bradford & Bigelow, which at the time was a one- and two-color book and catalog printer.
In 2006, I decided to move back to Missouri for family reasons, so I moved back to St. Louis to manage the Estimating Department for Jerome Group, a direct mail company.
I was there about a year when Gene first called and then six months later, he called me in for an interview. Two weeks later, I started working here.
Well, ultimately, our main job is to develop the cost plan, which is what it鈥檚 going to cost us to produce a project.
We look at all our facilities 鈥� the equipment, the paper, the capacity 鈥� and see where it fits best to determine what it will cost us to produce the item. To do this, my team needs to have a good understanding of all of the equipment we have.
We have an approval process with various amounts where the estimators have the authority to send quotes out. They get to a certain amount where they are reviewed by their supervisor or manager at the facilities. The next level above that will be me, and then the final level, when it gets to be a large job or a large project, it goes to the executive team to review. We talk about these projects in more detail before sending out the estimate.
As we鈥檝e grown, we鈥檝e had to make sure the entire estimating team understands all the presses and the capabilities; everything they need to do their jobs accurately. We’re bringing everybody together to become 鈥淥ne 杏吧原创.鈥� This includes implementing the estimating software across the company, so we have a consistent way we develop estimates.
Becoming One 杏吧原创 in estimating allows us to grow. Now we have the ability to have everybody on the same system; we can start cross-training and work more efficiently as a team.
It’s the same thing we鈥檙e doing in the plants moving the workload around. It’s going to give us consistency and the ability to level load.
In some ways, it helped springboard us into becoming One 杏吧原创.
Now when a major event happens, with the addition of Salesforce and the tools we’re using, we don鈥檛 need someone in each facility to create a quote for the piece that would be produced in a specific plant. We can easily get the information and quote the entire project within one quote. For instance, a project that is a long run printed four-color and case bound, we can use the St. Joseph web equipment with the Marceline case binding equipment.
Also, we used to have a lot of in-person meetings in this facility. And that was great when we were just 杏吧原创 in Marceline, Missouri. As we grew, it became harder to have those types of meetings. Now at least with Teams, you can see each other, read the room and pick up on cues. If somebody is confused on an item, it鈥檚 easier to identify and provide clarity.
Yes, I grew up in Kansas City, Kansas. Born and raised. Went to Turner High School, just down from the Santa Fe Railroad rail yard.
Larry and his twin brother Terry
My mom had five boys, but only my twin brother Terry and I are left. I don鈥檛 have a spouse or children.
My brother, my nephew Thomas and I spend quite a bit of time together. We travel to see heavy metal music concerts. We were just on a trip last weekend, a three-day tour. We were in Joliet, Illinois, on Friday night, then St. Louis on Saturday night and again on Sunday night.
Yeah, I listen to it all the time and go to quite a few concerts. I listen to all these different bands my nephew finds out about. We listen to mainstream American bands, but we also listen to a lot of European bands. That’s what this past weekend was all about. We went to three different cities, and we saw seven different bands from either Sweden or Germany.
Yeah, there’s Shinedown and Five Finger Death Punch. The third one would probably be Disturbed. There鈥檚 a ton of others
Anything related to Star Wars.
I’m not an avid reader. But it was probably estimating principles, or some college textbook. Most of the stuff I read is industry related. So yeah, probably an industry magazine.
I travel a lot with my volunteer work associated with the Lions Club, which I enjoy, especially when I get to travel with my brother. Outside of that, I enjoy traveling to see various rock and heavy metal concerts with my brother and his family.
Toss up between tacos and pizza.
People from Marceline would probably get a kick out of this. When I was a little boy, I have photos of my twin brother, my older brother and I on the train here in Marceline. This was back in 1973. And now here I am working in Marceline, Missouri.
Larry was awarded the prestigious International President’s Award for outstanding service to Lions Clubs International.
Yes, I joined in December of 1994, so later this year I will have been a member for 30 years. The main purpose of the Lions is to help the community, but it鈥檚 also to be the 鈥淜nights of the Blind.鈥� A lot of what we do is about eyesight.
When I moved here, I moved my membership to the Marceline club and have been in the Marceline Lions Club for about 17 years. We鈥檝e bought eyeglasses for kids in school; we鈥檝e helped elderly folks with eyeglasses. We have a scholarship we give out every year.
I鈥檝e gone through leadership positions in the three different cities I鈥檝e lived in. I was district governor for the northwest portion of Missouri, overseeing 62 clubs that I had to visit and meet with members. It was a three-year leadership transition, and I traveled all over northwest Missouri. Drove over 10,000 miles.
That changed me as a person. I鈥檓 a true introvert. When I walk into a roomful of people I don鈥檛 know, I鈥檒l go and stand in the corner by myself. I had to force myself to approach people because I was visiting clubs where nobody knew who I was.
Larry has been a member of the Lion’s Club in Marceline for 17 years.
Yeah, it goes back to when I was a boy. Like a lot of families, we didn鈥檛 have much. And I can remember one Christmas, there was a knock at the door and there were three or four gentlemen in their yellow Lions vests, and they gave us a box of food, and they gave us presents. And without that, we would not have had anything for Christmas. So when I was asked right out of college if I wanted to join The Lions, I said absolutely.
For me, it鈥檚 all been good. I love everything about being here 鈥� the small town, the family atmosphere. I feel like I鈥檓 part of a family here. My closest family member is two hours away, so for me this is my family. Every day is a good memory for me, even the not-so-good days.
