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When shipping traffic dropped late last year at the UPS Store on Fairview Road in Charlotte, owner Peter McCranie started considering how he could boost other areas of his business to compensate. He turned to high-end, small-run printing - and so far, he says, the investment is paying off.
Shipping, packing, mailboxes and postal supplies have traditionally supplied the bulk of the store's sales. But those areas had already been declining, and fell even more dramatically after Wachovia crumbled and the stock market plunged last fall. Fewer customers came in to ship Christmas gifts to clients, for instance, McCranie said.
The SouthPark-area store's printing business had remained fairly healthy, though. Earlier this year, McCranie resolved to build on it. In recent months, he has installed a $45,000 Canon digital press that can print at magazine quality on a variety of papers, including textured and vellum varieties, and add a shiny, dual-layer finish.
He also bought a $4,000 laser-guided cutter, a $1,000 brochure folder and a $200 padding press, which can make notepads and carbonless duplicate and triplicate forms.
The new equipment has given the store the ability to serve a new set of customers: small and medium-sized local businesses seeking high-end work in limited quantities - say, 300 copies, instead of the thousands a larger commercial press might require as a minimum, McCranie said.
McCranie e-mailed, called and visited customers to spread the word on the expended printing options. He also checked corporation filings, to market to newly formed businesses. He had more time to leave the store, he said, because walk-in traffic was down anyway.
"It's been absolutely worth it," he said. "The business has replaced the business we lost due to the slow economy."
Though the economy is still sputtering, he said, overall sales are about even with last year at this point. Though shipping business is down 11 percent, printing is up 60 percent, and McCranie said he thinks there's still plenty of room to grow.
The store is aiming to double printing sales by the end of the year. If the current trend continues, McCranie said, he may be able to hire another full-time worker. The store, he said, has not cut any employee hours or pay during the recession.
