Local Printer Making Big Investment in Hometown Business

[Anonymous]

Local Printer Making Big Investment in Hometown Business
By Jessica Holdman

United Printing will celebrate 50 years in business with a new facility in south Bismarck.

“So we’re celebrating 50 years, but it’s almost like we’re starting over in a lot of ways,” said president Ken Bischof.

The company is investing $5 million to construct a new, 33,000-square-foot “campus” at 200 S. First St. The facility will open with a new automated press and other machinery next year.

“We will probably have the best production equipment in the state of North Dakota,” said Joe Hauer, who founded the business. “That’s the direction this company is going.”

Not only will the new facility house the press, it will be home to seven service divisions within the company, including vehicle wraps, mail service, creative writing, photography and City Magazine.

“We want the customers here to have a full-service campus,” Hauer said. “Because we are a small city, we have to be almost everything for everyone.”

Bischof and Hauer said because of the Internet, United Printing is able to have a bigger footprint than just Bismarck-Mandan. While North Dakota makes up most of the company’s customer base, with the press of a button, employees can print things for companies in Las Vegas or Los Angeles just as easily as it can for a company down the street.

“We hope this allows us to expand our reach,” Bischof said. “We will now have as good as what’s out there.”

Hauer said at the company’s Arizona office, the biggest customer is headquartered in New Jersey. The second biggest is in Seattle and another big one is in San Diego.

“It doesn’t matter anymore where you are,” he said. “It matters what you can do. Now we are on par with the big cities.”

Bischof said they’re also confident the updates will give them a competitive edge, allowing them to print faster and better quality.

“If we don’t, will we survive?” he asked. “We’re making the investment so we will be around the next 50 years.”

The company will be able to get customers the finished product in one-fifth of the time. Something that takes 40 minutes to print will only take 10 minutes with the new press.

“North Dakota is a great place right now because it is growing but there are a lot of opportunities outside the area,” Bischof said.

Bischof said walls will go up on the new facility in the next two to three weeks and they hope to be moved into the new location by the end of the year. A public open house and tours is scheduled for next July.

The main building will be 18,000 square feet and house 95 percent of the company’s more than 30 employees. Bischof said the size of the whole campus will be comparable to the company’s existing buildings, but it will all be on the same block. With the new equipment, he said they may increase the staff to 40 employees.

Odney will move into the current building. Hauer said that will allow the two companies to work together and United Printing will be able to provide better support services to the marketing firm.

The business has come a long way from the three-man print shop Hauer started. It gives more people the opportunity to stay in Bismarck rather than moving to larger cities like 20 or 30 years ago.

“When we do well, the community is proud because they were part of it,” he said. “If we succeed, the community grows from that.”

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September 4, 2014 at 11:29 AM