(Photos courtesy of Xpress Printing)
Xpress Printing, a Sisters printing shop and commercial printing service, was founded in the early 1990’s with the mission to provide fast service and a great value to all clients. Jeff Swales, the owner and CEO of Xpress Printing, was their manager for 14 years before purchasing the business in August of 2021.
Before joining Xpress Printing, Swales had a career in the print industry beginning with Lazerquick in Portland, moving up from customer service at the U.S. Bancorp Tower to managing a location in the Salem/Keizer area, and finally senior management. On the side, he owned a number of franchises in the Seattle area.
A lesson learned from his time in business is to always differentiate yourself by your merit. At Xpress Printing, this looks like being extremely responsive, detail oriented and hyper-focused on providing the best value possible.
“In 2002, I lost those franchises in the Seattle area as our business died out in the several months following 9/11,” Swales said. “We tried too hard to always be the lowest cost provider and that strategy backfired in the end. I learned along the way that it is much better to differentiate yourself from your competition by providing a high level of service.”
Swales and Xpress Printing strive to be more than a typical “print shop” by partnering with their customers to access, advise and execute their print and marketing strategies. This level of expertise provides more value to their clients, and helps them guarantee the quality of their work.
Aside from setting themselves apart with their service and expertise, Swales made sure to modernize his practice as time and technological advancement allowed. In addition, his drive to diversify their offerings has helped the business remain successful.
“We have successfully transitioned the business from traditional offset printing to an all-digital print environment over the past decade and a half,” Swales said. “During this time, we have also built a lot of our business around mailing services. We are able to provide our customers with a number of print/mail solutions, led by our VP of Marketing and Mailing Services Bart Platner.”
“Bart was previously the owner of Blue Sky Mailing in Redmond and has brought a wealth of knowledge to our clients here at XPress,” Swales continued. “He is especially good at working with nonprofits to provide them with options that can help to facilitate a successful direct mail fund raising campaign. We also have very experienced customer service and production teams that we feel include some of the best people in the industry. This includes six staff members with 15 or more years of industry experience.”
Speaking on the future of Xpress Printing, Swales sees growth on the horizon. “Our goal for the future is to continue to grow by providing printing and mailing solutions to our clients here in Central Oregon and beyond,” he said. “As other printing businesses come and go and online printers fail to fill the gap, it is especially important for us to be a provider in the printing and mailing industry that local organizations can rely on.”
