Published March 2004

Everett printers part of ‘small team around town’

By Kimberly Hilden
SCBJ Assistant Editor

For Jerry Wynne, operating a print shop in Everett is akin to being part of “a small team around town” — a team of colleagues and competitors working together to get their respective jobs done.

For instance, the longtime owner of Alexander Printing Co. Inc. uses his digital platesetter for his own jobs — which range from office stationery and brochures to posters and fliers — but he also sells plates to other print shops lacking that technology in-house.

Like Patrick’s Printing, an Everett-based wholesale print shop.

“I get those plates from Alexander’s, and that way I don’t have to spend money on the machine. Other companies I use for outputting negatives, too,” said Rich LeMieux, co-owner of Patrick’s, which specializes in small-format printing using sheet-fed printers.

“As the market changes, everybody finds their niche, stuff they specialize in that other shops won’t, and you find it easier to outsource,” he said, noting that the practice is more cost-effective for customers as it keeps the printer’s overhead down.

“You couldn’t possibly have all the equipment,” added Janice Henning, owner of Puget Press Multiple Inc., an Everett-based printer of business forms. “It would be very expensive to have all the equipment for everything.”

At Puget Press Multiple, therefore, the focus is on printing register tape for its side business, Register Tape Advertising Inc., and business forms for other print shops, Henning said.

“We’re the hidden manufacturer behind the forms,” she said, noting that the company works cooperatively with other print shops to sell its forms, which include laser-cut sheets and single- and multi-part continuous forms and snapouts.

“We work with other printers in town, around the Northwest, Alaska and Hawaii, because we can print things that they can’t print,” Henning said.

Alexander Printing, just a few blocks down the road from Puget Press Multiple, is part of that network, Wynne said, noting that such collaboration is just part of doing business. “It’s pretty much always how we have operated.”

“With Patrick’s Printing, we do some printing for them, and they do some printing for us. With Puget Press, we act as a broker for their forms,” he said.

“The competition is there by all means,” LeMieux added of the local print industry, but “we all live together” within the community, too.

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