Despite long-repeated predictions that credit and debit cards and forms of electronic banking will make paper checks obsolete, a major check printer is boosting employment at its plant in a southwestern suburb.
John H. Harland Co., the nation’s second-biggest check printer, opened the plant in Bolingbrook last spring to replace a smaller facility in Burr Ridge.
The Atlanta-based firm now employs about 175 people in the new plant, more than double the 75 workers at the previous location. Spokesman John Pensec says it currently has 34 openings for data-entry workers, press operators and other skilled jobs.
The company began a program in April 1996 to consolidate its 40 plants into nine over two years to increase efficiency and cut costs, he says. Employment at Bolingbrook is expected to reach 350 when the program is completed, he says, including some who will relocate from other facilities.
The new plant now handles about 9,400 orders a day from thousands of banks. Pensec says the plant’s output is projected to hit 37,500 a day under the program.
Harland produces blank checks at several other facilities around the country. The checks are then sent to other plants, including Bolingbrook, where the names and other information regarding checking-account holders are imprinted on the check face.
“We now fill 55 million orders in a year’s time companywide,” Pensec said. “That’s increasing despite the greater use of electronic payment systems. We estimate that check usage will increase 1 to 2 percent every year through early in the next century.”
Gamesmanship: Probably only Chicago Blackhawks owner Bill Wirtz would compare owning a bank to a professional hockey team.
Wirtz and his family are investors in the stocks of “14 to 20” small to medium-size banks across the country. They include the First National Bank of South Miami in Florida, Firstar Corp. in Milwaukee and First Security Trust & Savings Bank in west suburban Elmwood Park.
“When I look at combinations like the $19 billion merger of NationsBank and Barnett in Florida, it’s easy to feel very intimidated,” he said last week in a speech to the Association for Corporate Growth, a group of merger-and-acquisition specialists.
“But we’ve created niches for ourselves and, like the Blackhawks, I think we can compete against the bigger teams,” added Wirtz, president of Wirtz Corp., whose other core businesses include real estate and wholesale wine and beer distribution.
But for small banks to survive, Wirtz said, they will have to engage in joint ventures with other businesses, including insurance companies, securities dealers and travel agencies.
After his talk, Wirtz declined to say if he wants to buy more banks. He also denied speculation that Firstar, where he is a director and the largest stockholder, is seeking a merger partner.
Broker expands: Michael Stoken, who opened First Albany Corp.’s first full-service brokerage office west of Buffalo in Chicago during May, is already planning an expansion.
“We have 7,000 square feet and will exercise an option for another 7,000,” said Stoken, senior VP and resident manager of the office in Citicorp Northwestern Atrium Center. He hired two brokers last week, bringing his force to 13, and will add two more in the next few weeks.
Before he joined First Albany, Stoken was a senior VP and portfolio manager at Oppenheimer & Co. Earlier in his career he worked for Rodman & Renshaw Inc. and Bear, Stearns & Co.
Stoken and two other former Oppenheimer brokers, Eric Kuby and Peter Gottlieb, opened the office with a full book of clients.
Bank notes: Customers of Success National Bank and community residents will have an opportunity to buy stock in the bank’s parent firm, Success Bancshares Inc., when it goes public, probably this week. The Lincolnshire-based holding company plans to offer 1.2 million shares at $12.50 each in an initial public sale. Everen Securities Inc. is the underwriter.
