"Our last upper management here did a great job of running the business from a local level, but one thing we’re looking to do is utilize our network a lot more than we have in the past," Nawfel explained to PrintWeek.

"Maximum Graphics in one of five CGX digital supercenters that are in place around the country and Maximum Graphics serves the upper Midwest. We handle a lot of our sister companies' work and a lot of data driven work comes out of this facility."

Nawfel previously served as president of Phoenix, AZ-based Ironwood Lithographers, another CGX company, where he helped push into digital work. "When I first arrived we didn’t have a digital printer at all and within a three-year period we had grown the business and brought in digital technology and expertise to back it and we now have three NexPress 3600s in Ironwood," he said.

Maximum Graphics currently has four HP Indigo 7000 full-color variable data presses, four Kodak NexPress 3600 full-color variable data presses and four Heidelberg Digimaster 9110 laser printers along with offset equipment from Manroland, Heidelberg and Komori.

Nawfel would not comment on whether additional press equipment will be brought into Maximum Graphics going forward, but said: "We’ve actually invested about $3m dollars in this facility in the last six months for one of our high-profile customers and we will continue to invest in new technology as well as in people. With the opportunities in the Minneapolis area there’s no reason why Maximum Graphics can't be a $60m to $70m annual company."

Minneapolis is home to numerous Fortune 100 and Fortune 500 companies, including United Healthcare, the electronics retailer Best Buy, Wells Fargo and General Mills. Because of that, Nawfel said: "There is a lot of competition here and in the Midwest in general. The thing that differentiates us is that a lot of the competitors here are privately-owned individual shops and being able to utilize and sell into a CGX network creates a lot more opportunities for us."

Maximum Graphics has three divisions: packaging, commercial print and digital and Nawfel noted that he’s seeing signs that the overall commercial printing market may be stabilizing after several years of declines.

"Especially in this market, you’re seeing a lot of major corporations starting to loosen their pocketbooks, whereas before many were unsure where the economy was heading," he said. "Now they have a better feeling and realize they have to do something to promote their business and keep up with their competition so we’re seeing more higher end pieces."