| HEMLOCK
Hemlock Printers Crosses Borders to Deliver Quality Product, Win Awards It's not every printing company that can walk away with eight awards at the 2000 Emerald City Craftsmanship Awards, but Hemlock Printers Ltd. did - six golds, one silver and one bronze, to be exact. Although their manufacturing plant and head office is in British Columbia, Hemlock continues to support a separate U.S. sales office in Seattle and San Francisco to service the Pacific Northwest and California market. The integrated resources of Hemlock Printers are used to produce a wide variety of printed materials, from stationery to multi-color annual reports, from high volume commercial printing to limited edition art prints.
The privately owned company was incorporated in 1968 and grew to become a major force in the Canadian and Pacific Northwest commercial printing market by the 1980s. With over 230 employees and more than $40 million (Canadian) in annual sales, Hemlock serves all major business sectors and specializes in advertising literature, fine art printing, labels and packaging, publications and corporate communications. Hemlock Printers also takes enormous pride in their commitment to reducing environmental impact at their facilities. Hemlock was the first major printer in the Pacific Northwest to be completely "alcohol free" and to eliminate harmful isopropyl alcohol from their press dampening systems. The majority of their inks are soya based, all ink waste is recycled and reused and the company uses recycled and/or acid-free papers for most of their printing projects. SPRINGS PRINTING Springs Printing; A Tradition of Innovation Seattle-based Springs Printing was founded on a pretty simple business axiom; respond to the marketplace and the marketplace will respond to you. At critical junctures throughout the company's thirty-seven years, Springs Printing has assessed the printing needs of the Washington clients it serves and has responded with the latest in technology, growth in personnel and service innovations. Most recently, that's included a move into a new 31,000 square foot facility. Nearly two and a half times the size of their previous Queen Anne building, the move allowed for new employees and new equipment, including the latest in bindery technology. In addition, says Don Andrews, Springs Printings' president and owner since 1980, the printing company is expanding its six-color printing capabilities to accommodate even more sophisticated projects. "With these changes, I expect that we'll increase sales by forty percent over the next two years," said Andrews. "We're currently running two shifts and have the ability to gear up even further to meet the needs of our clients." And that client base is pretty diverse. With projects ranging from magazines and long-run work to stationary sets - and from brochures and marketing materials to books and annual reports - the 35-person staff at Springs is constantly adapting to fill changing needs. "We service many of the major advertising firms and graphic designers in the area," said Andrews, "as well as corporate clients like SAFECO. We combine digital and traditional methods and equipment to meet whatever projects come into our facility. With our latest investments in equipment and space and people, there's little that our clients can bring us that we can't handle extraordinarily well." |