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For almost a decade, Tim Mullaney's northern Charlotte printing shop churned out retirement book covers and other materials for Evergreen Investments, a division of Wachovia Corp.
Consolidated Press of Charlotte counted on the work for a large chunk of its business. Then, a year ago this week, the financial meltdown seized Charlotte. Wachovia crumbled and eventually was sold to Wells Fargo & Co. In the months that followed, the recession began to pinch his other clients, and work from the bank shriveled to zero.
"There's been times where it's kind of scary," said Mullaney, 49, who took over the business five years ago. "It's like, oh my gosh, gee whiz, where's the money?"
He and his eight employees worked hard to cut costs, installing automatic thermostats and light switches and holding regular meetings to talk about other ways to save.
He tried to refinance the loan on his building to take advantage of lower interest rates, but after two months of discussions with his bank, the application was denied.
Still, Mullaney was determined to keep his company afloat. He had worked for a decade at a large computer company, and survived several rounds of layoffs, which intensified after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks.
He assumed he'd one day retire from that company - but he got his own pink slip five years ago and took the job at Consolidated Press, which his father had launched in a garage in 1966.
"Having been kicked to the curb once, I'm a little more sensitive to not doing it," Mullaney said.
So he worked the phones, drumming up more business - meanwhile rejoicing the fact that he'd never let a single client make up more than 8 percent or 9 percent of his business.
Over the last year, other local printers who built their entire businesses on car dealerships and banks struggled, slashing employees' work weeks to 32 or 28 hours, Mullaney said.
Times were tight at Consolidated Press, too - some of its clients, feeling the economic pain, were slower to pay their bills - but the printing shop pushed through. Six months after the Wachovia deal was announced, business was picking up, he said.
Overall, the company has added about 40 clients over the past year, about the same number it has added the last five years. Many of them are small businesses or charitable organizations, he said.
One, a new nonprofit with 5,000 members, recently enlisted Consolidated Press' help printing its monthly mailings.
Another area that has grown dramatically has been work for neighborhood artists. Encouraged by one artist client, many others have called on Consolidated Press, whose shop is near the NoDa arts district, to print reproductions of original artwork, Mullaney said.
Printing shop staffers have looked for other ways to expand, too. They've upgraded some equipment, which has allowed them to take on new work, and the business is on target to grow this year, Mullaney said.
"It's still tight, and we still have to be smart," but the company is better off a year after Wachovia's fall, he said. "It's definitely not hurt us."
He expects the coming months to look even brighter. His shop is getting more calls recently, and clients who have cut back orders are slowly returning to prerecession levels.
"It's definitely better than I'd hoped it would be," he said. "From our perspective, it looks like we've started to turn the corner."
