Bristol Towpath BNI president & 13th Floor Graphics print shop owner was featured this past Monday in the Bristol Press. See full article below:
BRISTOL — When Stephen Rejniak moved his print shop from Rocky Hill to Bristol two years ago, he didn’t know the business would soon be entering one of the nation’s worst economic downturns.
But despite the recession, the move has worked out pretty well for Rejniak, owner of Thirteenth Floor Graphics at 375 Lake Ave.
“I’m very pleased,” Rejniak said.
He had been renting space in Rocky Hill for 14 years when he bought the property in Bristol and moved his business here. The city helped him with an economic development grant, a boost that Rejniak said helped convince him to choose Bristol.
The grant was a $10,000 package — $5,000 for moving costs and $5,000 for job creation. The company hasn’t created any new jobs yet, but has a couple more years to do so and collect the grant money, said Jonathan Rosenthal, Bristol’s economic development director.
“They’ve pretty much remained about the size they came in at. Given the economy, it’s just fabulous that they’ve done that,” Rosenthal said. “They’ve managed to hold their own in a tough economy.”
His office has used the printer for some design and printing work and, “They did a nice job and they did it quickly,” Rosenthal said. About half his business is in business cards.
He wasn’t sure how well he’d be received in the Mum City, but since relocating, he has kept 90 percent of his old clients and added a lot of new ones.
“People are willing to try new things,” Rejniak said.
A new, four-color digital press he bought — a $350,000 investment — makes printing small runs faster and less expensive.
Because of that, Thirteenth Floor Graphics has a natural market in small and mid-sized companies.
“There’s no shortage of four-color work,” Rejniak said. “We’re not a big operation, but we do some pretty good work here.”
Press operator Steve Anthony, who has worked at the company three years, said instead of the four or five printing jobs that a regular press could handle in a day, the digital press can do about 14.
“It’s almost photo quality,” Anthony said, adding customers “like the quality we give them.”
And some of the bigger printing houses aren’t getting as much work, which means more for shops like Thirteenth Floor Graphics, Rejniak said.
Through business networking, he’s picked up some larger clients since moving to Bristol.
When he moved to Bristol, he had seven full-time workers. Now he’s got six, and one part-time worker after laying off one pressman.
Though it hasn’t always been easy keeping the business going in the recession, Rejniak said the timing really worked to his advantage. He sold stock to help buy the building just before the market collapsed. It was “a stroke of luck,” he said.
And he received a loan, something he might find much more difficult in today’s banking climate.
“The move happened at such a phenomenal time for me,” Rejniak said.
After those lucky breaks came the recession, but Rejniak said he feels good about this year.
“I’m an optimist,” he said. “I think that things are going to turn around in 2010. It can’t stay like this forever. I think people are ready.”
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