Former Webcrafters plant closing on Madison’s East Side

Sheridan Wisconsin, the East Side printing plant formerly known as Webcrafters, is closing its doors after more than 150 years, eliminating more than 100 jobs.

The closure “has been prompted by the company’s significant downturn in business at the Madison location,” parent company CJK Group said in a letter dated Monday to the state Department of Workforce Development and Mayor Satya Rhodes-Conway’s office.

A spokesperson for Sheridan Wisconsin, which manufactures books used in education and to be sold in bookstores, said orders have declined as schools and universities “shift to digital” and retail book publishers outsource their business overseas.

The closing of the plant, at 2211 Fordem Ave., is expected to result in the elimination of 116 jobs — 12 salary and 104 hourly positions — the company said, adding that it expects to eliminate positions in phases beginning April 13 and continuing through June 28. Affected jobs, according to the Department of Workforce Development, include customer service staff, various machine operating positions, human resources roles, shipping and receiving roles, truck drivers, information technology workers and some senior positions. 

The Sheridan Wisconsin spokesperson, who declined to give her name, said the company will be helping interested employees apply for positions at other Sheridan locations. The company has two other locations in Wisconsin, three in Michigan, and one each in Kentucky, Minnesota, New Hampshire, Ohio and Pennsylvania.

The Madison plant is a nonunion facility and there are no bumping rights for more senior-level employees to move into jobs at other plants, the letter said.

Launched as the Democrat Printing Co. in 1868, the company was eventually bought by Walter Frautschi in 1924. 

“If you go back to the late 1880s, Madison was at this point of inflection,” Greater Madison Chamber President Zach Brandon said. “We wanted to double the size of the community. The business community started to lean in (on that mission). Democrat Printing Co. was part of that early involvement.”

Brandon called Democrat Printing Co. “a founder of the modern Chamber.”

Frautschi’s sons, John and Jerry, would eventually join the business, which was renamed Webcrafters in 1959. The business’ success would lead the family to a lifetime of philanthropic and civic involvement in the Madison area.

In 2006, Jerry Frautschi shocked the arts community by offering to donate $50 million toward a performing arts complex Downtown. What followed was the construction of the Overture Center. Costs mounted, and Frautschi added another $50 million to his donation.

By the time the center opened, Frautschi had handed over a total of $205 million, one of the largest-ever donations to the arts in the world at the time. Frautschi had been inspired by his father, who helped create the Madison Civic Center, the city’s home for arts and entertainment from 1980 to 2003 Downtown. 

More recently, Jerry Frautschi donated $14.3 million to help build a visitor and education center at the Lakeshore Nature Preserve, and pledged $10 million to the Wisconsin Veterans Museum in Downtown.

In 2012, Webcrafters reduced its payroll, then numbering about 540 employees, by 25 percent, or 133 jobs. In May 2015, another staffing cut of at least 20 percent was announced after a reported drop in business from a major customer, for a loss of at least another 80 jobs.

Company officials said at the time that changes in technology, with more online content and electronic publishing of books, coupled with lower funding for printed educational materials by state and local governments, had been driving the business losses.

The company was bought by CJK Group, of Brainerd, Minnesota in 2017. Terms were not disclosed. By that point, the company had about 270 employees. The company was renamed Sheridan Wisconsin in 2021.

The closure means Madison is losing one of its last legacy companies.

“We saw this with the closure of Oscar Mayer” in 2015, he said. “You never want to be in that position.”

But Brandon said “the optimistic side is that Madison is robust and thriving. I can say with confidence that Madison’s economy can absorb a closure of Sheridan.”

“It’s always unfortunate to see a longstanding, well-respected business closing in our community particularly when it affects so many jobs,” Madison Mayor Rhodes-Conway said in an email statement. “I am hopeful that given the strong local economy, and low unemployment rate, the workforce will be able to find employment and the Northside will attract new business opportunities.”