Mike Myers
Feeback Printing, a fixture in the local business community since 1947 and the longest-running print shop in Lexington, will close for good April 5 when its octogenarian owners, Herbie and Mary Lou Feeback, begin their well-deserved retirement.
Feeback customers will still find themselves in capable hands. The business has been acquired by another family owned, Lexington-based company: Myers Printing.
Owner Mike Myers said the opportunity presented itself about a month ago.
"Herbie is 84 and still working,” he said. “[Feeback] had a specialty envelope they couldn't run at their shop, so he brought it to me. We started talking. He said he wanted to get out and we pretty much had a handshake deal that day."
"We needed a rest," Mary Lou Feeback said.
The Feebacks have long been acquainted with the Myers family, she added; they knew Bernie C. Myers, the late owner of Lexington Business Forms, from their high school days. It was important to them to entrust their customers to someone they were familiar with.
All printing operations will be consolidated at the Myers Printing location at 737 Price Avenue.
"I think our customers will be very satisfied," Mary Lou Feeback said.
Myers Printing: 35 Years in the Printing Business
Bernie's two sons, Doug and present-day sole proprietor Mike Myers, opened their print shop business in 1983. The elder Myers funded the endeavor while Mike was still a student at the University of Kentucky.
"My dad had this genius idea of getting us out of the nest and starting our own entity," Mike Myers said. "He started sending us his work."
And, in those early days, there was plenty of work to go around—so much so that Myers left UK to focus on his business.
Mike Myers in front of the original location on Harrodsburg Road in 1983. / Courtesy Myers Printing
"It got to a point that I couldn't do them both," he said. "It was probably 70- to 80-hour weeks for the first 10 years getting this thing rolling."
After buying his brother out in 1985, Mike Myers focused on growing the company, even as technological advances rapidly changed the printing business.
When he started, print set-ups were still being laid out letter-by-letter.
"Just in the past 10 years," Myers said, "you used to have to make film just to print a book. You had to develop your film, put it on the table and mask it all out. We call it stripping. You had 4 pieces of film and they had to line up exactly."
Then, a 48-page booklet took a week to run: stripping, masking, burning the plate, putting it on the press, running the job, drying overnight, folding, collate, stitching, cutting and trimming.
"Now," Myers chuckled, "we get it out in 2 days. I don't have to work those 80-hour weeks anymore.
Staying competitive by leveraging a legacy
Myers has made a point of keeping one foot in the technological past. For example he uses his business's original equipment, including Heidelberg presses.
As color copiers, digital printers and other new tools have come along, he's added each in turn.
"You have to keep up with technology," he said.
For example, the digital color copier he's running now is four years old, but two new generations of the machine have come along in the interim.
Perhaps surprisingly to some, he credits having kept his older machines in good repair with helping him to keep his shop competitive for so many years. High-volume jobs are more cost-efficiently run on his older presses, Myers said, so having them in operation has allowed him to carve out a niche as a reliable, wholesale printing services provider.
Mike Myers said the company's collection of new and older printing technology, including a Heidelberg offset press, allows him to print a wide range of jobs. / Courtesy Myers Printing
"New machines cost you per-click. But our Heidelberg presses, once a job is set up, costs are done," he said. "That older equipment is paid for and that helps me keep costs low."
The Feeback acquisition will provide him with tabbing and mailing machines, allowing him to offer more services to his wholesale clients.
Ensuring continuity
Those machines aren't the only Feeback resources coming over to Myers Printing.
Customers have already told Myers they're glad that, as part of the deal, he'll be taking on the Feebacks' longtime employee LaShá Bennett.
"She has a good rapport with all of their clients," Myers said. "She's known some of them for years."
Myers has steadily been building back his labor pool after the 2008 recession forced him to cut back, over time, from 15 employees to five.
As the economy has rebounded, work continues to pick up.
Myers said he long ago repaid the loan he took from his own retirement to keep his business afloat through the rough times, and Bennett will become his ninth full-time employee, in addition to several part-time employees.
"We don't even have a sales rep. Most of our work comes through word of mouth," Myers said, noting that niche work often earns him referrals from other printing companies. "We can do special gold foiling, bindery and die-cutting."
Mary Lou Feeback said she and her husband have received positive feedback regarding the transition from their customers.
"We've had nothing but good comments," she said. "Mr. Myers knows the business and I think he'll treat our them well."