Financial boost to help Millennium Press succeed

Date: 3/15/2011

March 16, 2011

By Debbie Gardner

Assistant Editor

AGAWAM — A longtime local employer got a much-needed financial boost last week, thanks to some high-level intervention and a federally-backed loan program.

On March 8, Congressman Richard Neal visited Millennium Press, located at 570 Silver St., to deliver the good news that his office, working with Massachusetts District Office of the U.S. Small Business Administration (SBA), had secured a $1.9 million loan for the family-owned business, which produces high-quality four-color printing products for a variety of large and small businesses in the Pioneer Valley.

The loan is being administered locally through New Alliance Bank.

"This is a really good news story that, at my request and working with the SBA, has guaranteed the maintenance of 14 jobs [and] that there will continue to be a business at this site," Neal said.

A fixture in the local printing industry since 1996, Millennium Press underwent a major expansion at its current location in 2007, including the purchase of the country's first fully-computer-controlled-and-adjusted four-color Heidelberg Presses. These high-speed presses can produce 1,800 sheets of a printing job per hour.

"When you have a long-time employer with up-to-the-minute technology, you try to help them," Neal continued.

Robert Nelson, district director for the Massachusetts office of SBA, said the loan to Millennium was a good example of how the SBA works with banks on the local level to keep small businesses alive.

"The bulk [of this loan] is for refinancing debt, though some is for working capital," Nelson said, adding that an examination of a business's debt portfolio, as was done at Millennium, is something his office encourages banks to do.

"This is a perfect example of how the SBA can work with a bank to help a business restructure debt," he added.

According to Nelson, the SBA is approving approximately 25 requests for small business loans of all types per week in Western Massachusetts, something he sees as a "good trend."

"We have 14 employees and most have been with us since day one," Jim Sullivan, president of Millennium Press, said. "Basically we're using the money to pay off a lot of notes we have and get our monthly expenses down to a more reasonable level."

Sullivan said the company has invested in a lot of high-speed printing technology, such as the Heidelberg Press, over the years, and "wants to continue to invest and keep these jobs."

His goal going forward is to "increase sales, as everything turns around, and add jobs."

Gary Besser, SBA compliance officer at New Alliance Bank, said the loan was a culmination of many months of work.

"This is . an effort that started last summer to restructure the obligations for the customer to what they could comfortably pay and stay in business," Besser said. "In this instance, the SBA had to approve [the loan] directly because it was a refinance loan."

Besser added that restructuring this debt to a low-interest, 20-year loan to help sustain Millennium Press is "what the SBA does best."