How Printers Are Transforming: The Heritage Printing & Graphics Story

In the beginning, there were printers. Then as technologies and economies transformed, we emerged into a digital world as … printers. The point is that no matter how you describe your business today—a marketing service provider, packaging solutions firm, display graphics enterprise, etc.—we are all still printers, but how we got here brings us to sharing this transformation story…

The 2015 Print Leadership Summit is the event for printers, by printers. In this blog series we will explore transformation stories of some of our most notable speakers, so you can discover fresh ways to reinvigorate your business.

If you’ve ever wondered what it would be like to leave the strain of daily operations and get a fresh perspective, you’ll want to ready this story.

Over the course of nearly four decades, Heritage Printing & Graphics, led by President and Co-Owner Joe Gass, has seen plenty of transition. Along the way Heritage has identified itself as a quick printer, then a commercial printer, and today with the addition of wide- and grand-format capabilities, a visual communication company. During this time Heritage has grown geographically from Leonardtown, Maryland, a suburb of Washington, DC, south to add a production facility in Charlotte, North Carolina.

Here Joe tells his story of transformation.

1.   When did you decide you needed to make a change?

I took the reins of the family business in 1988 after serving for six years in the United States Navy following high school. Heritage was pretty successful through the 90s, transitioning from a multi-location quick printer into a single location commercial printing and mailing company. We invested heavily in the late 90s in direct-to-plate technology and larger, faster 28-inch offset presses to focus our business more on process color publications, marketing materials, and direct mail.