By CRISTINA JANNEY
Hays Post
After 38 years in the printing business, Marvin Rack and his wife, Jennifer, have sold Northwestern Printers, to a longtime employee.
Josh Zweifel, 40, has been an employee at the company for 22 years. He took ownership of Northwestern Printers on Aug. 1.
Marvin, 61, said he and his wife have been considering selling the business for at least a couple of years. They had discussed a sale with Zweifel and were slowly allowing him to become more involved in the management of the business.
“It’s a good business,” Zweifel said. “A lot of people in town rely on this business. I think if it wasn’t here, it would put many people into a bind, trying to find somewhere to have their printing done because print shops are getting to be less and less.”
Zweifel said he had no immediate plans for major changes within the business. He said he hopes to continue the success the business achieved under the Racks and continue the business’ community involvement.
He said he would like to increase the business’ presence online. He envisions designs for some invitations or business cards could be done online.
Marvin said Zweifel has enthusiasm.
Printing was not Zweifel’s intended career. He received his degree in elementary education from FHSU. He worked at the print shop, starting when he was a freshmen in college. He completed his student teaching, went back to the print shop and never left.
The Racks and Zweifel said the transition thus far has been smooth. No employees nor customers have been lost in the transfer of ownership.
Marvin said although neither he nor his wife are quite to retirement age, now was the right time to transition the business.
“We have been in business since 1981, and we have a very good, needed business here in Hays. The last thing we would have ever wanted to do even in 10, 15, 20 years is close the business,” Marvin said.
The Racks have children in college and one still in high school, and they wanted to be able to spend more time with their family. The couple regularly worked seven days a week at the shop.
The Racks are slowly pulling away from the business. Although they are still coming in regularly, that should start to slow within about a month.
Zweifel said, “Marvin and Jennifer stopping in or being able to call them has been priceless.”
“All we needed to do was provide Josh the opportunity, and he took it,” Marvin said. “He had a lot of confidence and a lot of knowledge. It was easy and it was natural.
“Josh had a very good concept of the working parts of Northwestern Printers. He knew the jobs. He knew how to get them done.”
A history in downtown Hays
Marvin purchased the printing business from Northwestern Business Systems when he was only 23.
He had been working in sales. When the print shop was left without a staff, he found himself spending evenings printing his own jobs as well as those of other salesmen. He said he soon discovered he enjoyed the printing more than sales and, as a certified diesel mechanic, had an interest and knack with the machines used in the process.
“It was just like art class,” he said. “It was fun to build this stuff and make it.”
Rack spent many long hours in the print shop, doing the printing and running the business side of the company.
In 1981, the printing process still involved film.
“It was a long series and a very technical series,” Marvin said. “It took a lot of talent to make sure everything was straight and everything was correct and all the halftones were perfectly shot. We were probably one of the lucky print shops that saw that if we didn’t follow the technology, we’d get so far behind we couldn’t afford to keep up with it.”
Northwestern Printers hasn’t had a dark room in a couple of decades. Today, jobs are designed on a computer and printed to a plate setter that is similar to a copier. Those plates go directly to the press.
Jennifer came on board in 1994 and computerized the shop’s hand-written order process.
“At that time, we were still doing everything manually,” Marvin said. “We were still writing up job tickets by hand. We were still filing by hand. We had a card Rolodex that had every customer in it. Jennifer got us on the computer, and that made us the big jump.”
Jennifer, Marvin and Zweifel all said keeping up with technology in the printing industry has been what has kept the business competitive.
“With us having progressed with technology or advanced with technology, we probably kept our customer base strong,” Marvin said. “We kept our employees challenged because I think one of the biggest things in a job is to learn the technology and get good at it.
“When you buy a piece of equipment that is thousands and thousands of dollars and has an instruction book that is 2 inches thick, you sit there and say, ‘I had the old process down so well and felt so comfortable with it and now look at what I got.’ It kept them thinking, and I think that’s why we kept them as we did because it was always exciting.”
The Racks feel their 12 employees are family. They have monthly potluck lunches at the shop.
“Everybody brings food and everybody sits down over lunch and eats and visits,” Marvin said. “It is that type of camaraderie that I think we have always inspired or talked about and encouraged. I think that has helped us keep some of our employees as long as we have had them.”
Hays once had four or five print shops — today Northwestern Printers is the largest print shop in the region. They also complete jobs for customers as far away as Texas, Colorado and Nebraska, Jennifer said.
In addition to quality service, the Racks said giving to the community has also been important.
“We knew in order to be successful, we had to give back to the community,” Marvin said. “I think both of us have always been very kind hearted, and so we have always shared what we’ve made — not just downtown, but with Hays and northwestern Kansas as well.”
Jennifer said stepping away from the business after so many years has been difficult.
“It is definitely a change,” she said, “but it’s exciting, and we are looking forward to something different.”
“But we know it is in good hands,” Marvin added.
The couple is still planning what they will do in retirement, but they said they hope to continue to stay connected to the community.