About
www.schmidt.com
Schmidt Commercial Printing is a commercial printer that provides web-offset printing solutions and commercial printing across the country, around the world. Customers include: magazine publishers, card pack publishers, multi-channel merchants, direct marketers, franchise businesses, business owners.
- Status
- Private Company
- Founded
- 1912
Company History
Since 1912, when founder Gustave A. Schmidt first began operating a tiny printing business above a grocery store in downtown Rochester, Minnesota, Schmidt Printing's reputation for excellence in service and value has flourished. As our relationships increased, so have our facilities and the diversity of the commercial printing products and services we offer to clients.
For over sixty years, Schmidt Printing was owned and operated by Schmidt family members. Gustave’s two sons (Harold and Norman) and his wife Dorothy operated the business following Gustave’s death in 1931. In addition to printing, the company also sold office furniture and supplies until 1969. Large customers, at the time, included the Mayo Clinic and IBM.
Harold’s son, Casey, bought the business from his father in 1966 and was the last Schmidt family member to own the company.
Casey Schmidt sold the company to Sacred Design (a printer of church bulletins) in 1972. In 1976, Casey and Al Tuntland bought the company for $1 and the cost of paying off an outstanding tax bill. Al then purchased Casey’s interest in the company in 1983.
It was during Al’s leadership that Schmidt emerged as a web offset printer focused on printing insert cards for the magazine publishing industry in addition to general commercial printing.
Understanding the opportunity a large printing conglomerate could offer Schmidt, Al sold the company in 1989 to Minnesota-based Taylor Corporation. This alignment fortified Schmidt's value-added printing services and enabled the company to add the card pack line of business in 1990 with the purchase of Dimensions in marking, a B-to-B card pack company.
During the nineties, we continued to evolve, grow and develop our offerings due to the monumental changes and opportunities brought about by technology. We expanded our production facilities to the East Coast and were one of the first companies in the industry to utilize click-and-print technology between our Byron, Minnesota, and Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, plants.
Further advancements in technology and an ever-changing market enabled us to move all production facilities back under one roof with an 80,000 square foot expansion of the Byron plant in 2004.
In March of 2006, Schmidt acquired the card pack and reader service card lines of business from Scoville Press, Inc. in Plymouth, Minnesota. The purchase of print and collating assets greatly enhanced our ability to serve both the direct mail and publishing markets.
The addition of Scoville’s technology enabled Schmidt to capitalize on the strengths of both organizations, broadening the spectrum of products and services to include full-bleed card packs and unlimited size configurations of cooperative direct mail packages in addition to in-line UV coating.
Today, Schmidt serves over 200 newspapers and half of the top magazines published in the U.S., as well as direct marketers around the world. Our 200,000+ square foot facility is located in Byron, Minnesota, 15 miles west of our humble beginning.
From a tiny three-man print shop atop an old-fashioned grocer, to a team of more than 350 talented people, Schmidt continues to set new standards in excellence.