By my
count, there are, today, approximately 20 print-center locations in the Tampa
Bay FL market area that provide “blueprinting” (or, I should say “plan and
spec” printing) services to customers in the A/E/C Industry. (I am not including shops like Fedex Office
and other office-print service providers, such as Staples and Office Depot,
since they have never been, and still are not, real players in the
plan-printing marketplace.)
Although A/E/C plan printing volume is still well
off its heyday marks reached in 2006/7 – and is not expected to ever recover to
what it once was – the number of A/E/C print-center locations has not
significantly declined since the heyday, and I kind of wonder, what the heck
are reprographers doing to stay in business – is there enough plan-printing
business to go around (or, possibly, has large-format color display graphics
been the savior for all?)
These
two facts – a)
virtually all of the reprographers who were in operation back in 2002-2007 are
still around, still in business, and b) virtually all of the reprographers who
were around back then are probably (most probably) printing less today than
they used to print (I’m speaking of plan and spec printing work) back then
– point out the resiliency of companies
in the reprographics community.
A few of the reprographers in the Tampa Bay
market area have reached, or will shortly be reaching, their 50 year
anniversaries! Amazing. I kind of wonder how they’ll be doing 20
years from now.
Here’s a brief rundown, company by company. (I may have missed some; corrections are
welcome.)
Tampa Blue Print
(celebrating over 50 years in business):
–
one
location in Tampa
–
same
owners also own a Fastsigns franchise in Tampa
“We are the oldest reprographics shop in
town. We are a certified small and woman
owned minority business enterprise. We
are locally owned, so the money that you spend with us stays in the local
community.”
Tampa Blue Print is owned by Andy and Theresa
Keaton. Andy Keaton is related to the
owners of Xact Supply, a Tampa-based seller and servicer of reprographics
equipment. In Theresa’s LinkedIn profile
information (see below), you will learn about how Tampa Blue Print came to be
owned by the Keatons. In addition to
owning and operating Tampa Blue Print, the Keaton’s also own and operate a
FastSigns franchise in the Tampa market.
From Theresa Keaton’s profile on LinkedIn:
“I started in the reprographics industry back
in 2005 when my husband Andy and I purchased Xact Reprographics. In 2007, we
decided to purchase FastSigns on Fowler Avenue. Andy left Xact to run Fastsigns
while I took over the helm at Xact Reprographics.
At the beginning of the downturn in the
economy, we decided that we either needed to grow or close up the repro shop.
The opportunity to purchase Tampa Blue Print revealed itself, so in 2008, we
purchased Tampa Blue Print. Although it was a struggle to make it through the
downturn, I am happy to say that both companies are doing well. In August of
last year, we moved into a beautiful new facility that has become our new
forever home. It has allowed us to greatly increase our productivity and
workflow. The new facility is very assessable with great visibility and
parking. My team and I could not be happier.”
City Blue Digital Imaging
(2017, apparently, will mark the 50th anniversary of
this company’s founding):
– one
location in Tampa
“In 1967, Henry Lewis founded the City Blue Print
Company in the Channel District of Tampa, Florida with the goal of fulfilling
all of the professional printing needs of local businesses and beyond. Today,
under the name City Blue Digital Imaging, we continue to research and implement
the newest in digital printing technology to provide the most compelling and
advanced signs, trade show displays, and specialized printing services.”
Shawn Scalise is CEO of City Blue Digital
Imaging. Per LinkedIn, Shawn joined City
Blue in March 2015 (so he is still a relative newcomer to the reprographics
business, but note that he had prior experience in the offset printing field.)
Rapid Blueprint
(now over 45 years old):
–
three
locations in Tampa Bay area (Tampa, Brandon, St Pete)
–
one
additional location in Sarasota
–
sister
companies include Group Z and Digital Imaging Services
Rapid Blueprint says that it is the “largest” reprographics
company in the Tampa Bay Area. That may be because it operates more
locations in the Tampa Bay Area than any other reprographics company in that
area, or it may be that Rapid’s sales are greater than all other reprographics
companies in that area (Blog Publisher’s Note: I doubt that the latter is
the case.)
Rapid’s web-site indicates that the company is
now over 45 years old. Quite a number of years ago, Rapid’s original
founders retired and sold Rapid to Chris Zametz (who is the current owner.)
Chris operates other Florida-based businesses, including Digital Imaging
Solutions (primarily an equipment reseller and equipment servicing organization
and Group Z, a large-format digital color enterprise.
Rapid Blueprint operates locations in Tampa,
Brandon, St Petersburg and Sarasota (Sarasota is about an hour+ south of the
City of Tampa.)
According to Rapid’s web-site, “the people who
work at Rapid are your friends and neighbors”; Rapid “is not a big out-of-state
corporation.”
Jiffy Graphics (formerly Jiffy Reprographics)
(this company was founded many years ago, not sure when, but I
think sometime back in the 1970’s):
– one location in the Tampa Bay Area
(actually, it’s in Clearwater, FL)
– apparently, now has sister companies who
are involved in marketing, graphic design and printing
Jiffy was purchased by Bob Roperti sometime
around 1989. Bob finally sold Jiffy
early in 2016.
Echo Blueprint
(this company was founded about 45 years ago):
– four locations in the Tampa
Bay Area (Clearwater, Palm Harbor, Hudson, Wesley Chapel)
–
“Echo Blueprint has been serving Florida and the
Tampa Bay Area for over 40 years. With 3 generations of family ownership and
operation, we know what it takes to provide top-notch customer services and
top-quality results.”
ARC Document Solutions
(inasmuch as ARC
acquired TRS, we can say that this operation is now about 32 years old in the
Tampa market area):
– three locations in the Tampa Bay area (Tampa Westshore, Tampa
Downtown, and St Pete)
– many locations across the U.S. and several international locations
LDI Reproprinting
(I don’t recall when LDI franchise locations were established in
the Tampa Bay market area; I think that happened sometime around 2006):
– two locations in the Tampa Bay area
(Tampa and Clearwater)
New Age Reprographics
(now about 8+ years old):
– two locations in the Tampa Bay Area
(Tampa and St Pete)
– one additional location in Orlando
Alex
Prieto, former manager at National Graphic Imaging (NGI) Tampa, left NGI to
found this company. He did that with a
partner, but that partner is long gone.
I worked for 10 years with Alex (when I was with NGI). Alex is an
outstanding person with top-rate customer service experience. Reportedly, New Age recently added two HP
PageWide 8000 XL wide Format systems to its equipment arsenal.
ABC Imaging
(since 2012 in the
Tampa Bay Area)
– one location in Tampa
– many locations across the U.S. and several international locations
Pasco Blueprint Co.
(I have no idea when
the above company was founded)
– one location in Tampa Bay area (in New Port Richey, FL)
Reprographers “gone from
the Tampa Bay Area scene” (since I retired from NGI in December 2007):
Gone in name only –
National Graphic Imaging (NGI), which was founded in 1986, was
acquired by ARC and operates under the ARC name. (Prior to ARC’s acquisition of NGI, NGI was
the largest reprographics operation in the state of Florida.)
Tampa Reprographics Service (TRS), which was founded sometime around
1984 (by Jack Dunn, Dunn Reprographics, Detroit, MI) was acquired by ARC and
operates under the ARC name (its operations were combined with NGI’s
operations)
Gone (went down for the
count) –
Florida Reprographics (FR) was founded by Chris Charles
sometime around 1982/3. FR was a victim
of the Great Recession; the company went Chapter 11 and was subsequently
liquidated. I think Chris Charles
currently works for ARC in the Tampa area, although I could be wrong about that
(LinkedIn has him at NewAge Repro)
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Reprographics 101 