Midlothian, TX. April 14, 2023 – (NYSE: EBF)  On April 12, 2023, a Nebraska jury rendered a unanimous verdict against Wright Printing Company, its owner, Mark Wright, and CEO Mardra Sikora for a total of $5 million in actual and punitive damages.  The lawsuit was filed by Crabar/GBF, Inc., a subsidiary of Ennis, Inc., which purchased Wright Printing Company’s Folder Express and Progress Publications folder businesses for $15 million in 2013.  As part of the 2013 purchase of the folder business, the Ennis subsidiary leased the manufacturing building from a separate company controlled by Mark Wright. 

As Ennis alleged in its lawsuit, less than two years after the purchase, Mark Wright informed Ennis on short notice that he was selling the building and would not allow Ennis to extend its lease.  Unable to find a suitable building in the Omaha area on such short notice, Ennis was forced to relocate the folder businesses to an Ennis-owned facility in Columbus, Kansas where it had to train a brand-new workforce. 

Contrary to what he told Ennis, Mark Wright did not sell the Omaha facility that Ennis had been forced to vacate.  Less than three months after Ennis vacated the facility, Mark Wright and his daughter, Mardra Sikora, used Wright Printing Company to launch a competing folder business in the Omaha facility and hired much of the former Folders Express and Progress Publications workforce that opted not to relocate to Kansas.  The folder businesses were named Pocket Folders Fast and Bandfolder Press.  Mardra Sikora had registered the Pocket Folders Fast domain name in August 2014, less than a year after Wright Printing Company sold the folder businesses to Ennis in September 2013.        

Documents received into evidence showed that Mark Wright and Mardra Sikora used Folder Express and Progress Publications customer lists to target top customers of those two business lines with invitations to purchase products that were duplicated from the Folder Express and Progress Publication product lines.  At trial, Mark Wright and Mardra Sikora initially denied using Ennis’ confidential customer lists to target its customers.  However, Mardra Sikora admitted on cross examination on the last day of trial that she and Mark had used lists of Ennis’ top customers to develop call and e-mail lists to solicit sales. 

Efforts to duplicate the Folder Express and Progress Publications product lines were assisted by the theft of detailed product specifications, manufacturing references and files, as well as folder templates.  Former Folders Express employee Alexandra Kohlhaas took an external hard drive when she left Folders Express to go back to work for Wright Printing Company and its startup folder businesses in 2016.  When Wright Printing Company’s prepress manager, Jamie Fredrickson, received a copy of a spreadsheet from Kohlhass containing the manufacturing specifications for every Folder Express and Progress Publications folder design, she forwarded it to Mark Wright and Mardra Sikora with her observation that the spreadsheet was “incredibly useful.”  At trial, Fredrickson attempted to claim that the stolen spreadsheet was not actually “incredibly useful” but that the information stolen by Kohlhass was only useful as a reference in developing a copycat product line. 

Ennis alleged in the litigation and at trial that defendants diverted millions of dollars in sales from Folder Express and Progress Publications to Pocket Folders Fast and Bandfolder Press by targeting Folder Express and Progress Publications customers with offers for copycat products at substantially discounted prices. 

After a two-week trial, the jury unanimously found in favor of the Ennis subsidiary on all counts as to all defendants.  In addition to awarding the Ennis subsidiary more than $3.75 million in actual damages, the jury assessed more than $1.25 million in punitive damages among Mark Wright, Mardra Sikora, Jamie Fredrickson and Alexandra Kohlhass for what the jury found to be clear and convincing evidence of willful and malicious misappropriation of trade secrets. 

Ennis, Inc. CEO, Keith Walters, provided the following comment on the jury’s verdict. 

Ennis is grateful for the jurors’ service and their careful attention to the evidence in the case filed by our subsidiary, Crabar/GBF, Inc.  The jury’s verdict that defendants willfully and maliciously misappropriated our trade secret information affirms the importance of Ennis’ property rights.  Having sold the Folder Express and Progress Publications businesses to Ennis for millions of dollars, Wright Printing Company and Mark Wright promised in their contract that they would never again use the confidential information for which Ennis paid them.  As determined by the jury, they broke that promise when they launched the competing Pocket Folders Fast and Bandfolder Press business using customer lists, customer sales data and product specifications sold to Ennis.  Ennis filed this lawsuit because it owes its shareholders a duty to protect their investment and to recapture the substantial losses caused by defendants’ misappropriation of confidential information to gain an unfair advantage in the market. 

The unanimous verdict against Wright Printing Company, its owner, Mark Wright, and its CEO Mardra Sikora is an important step in righting the wrongs committed by the defendants.  Ennis is also grateful that the jury held accountable Jamie Fredrickson and Alexandra Kohlhaas, the two individual employees who participated in the misappropriation of Ennis’ trade secrets for the benefit of their original and subsequent employer, Wright Printing Company.  As Ennis requested at trial, the jury assessed only limited damages against those two employees to impose accountability without imposing extreme hardship on employees whose wrongful acts were mostly for the benefit of Wright Printing Company and Mark Wright.  Ennis is satisfied that the jury’s verdict is a just outcome for it and its shareholders.    

About Ennis
Founded in 1909, the Company is one of the largest private-label printed business product suppliers in the United States.  Headquartered in Midlothian, Texas, Ennis has production and distribution facilities strategically located throughout the USA to serve the Company’s national network of distributors.  Ennis manufactures and sells business forms, other printed business products, printed and electronic media, integrated forms and labels, presentation products, flex-o-graphic printing, advertising specialties and Post-it® Notes, internal bank forms, plastic cards, secure and negotiable documents, specialty packaging, direct mail, envelopes, tags and labels and other custom products.  For more information, visit ennis.com.

For Further Information Contact:
Mr. Keith S. Walters, Chairman, Chief Executive Officer and President
Mr. Dan Gus, General Counsel and Secretary

Ennis, Inc.
2441 Presidential Parkway
Midlothian, Texas 76065
Phone: (972) 775-9801
Fax: (972) 775-9820
ennis.com