Some people say that print is dead. Just don’t say that when Brian Kirmse is around. He’s just getting started in the print industry…again – this time in a new location.
Brian Kirmse, owner of Witt Print Shop, at a new location in Columbia.
After 17 years as co-owner of Witt Print Shop in Columbia, Missouri, Kirmse bought out his long-time partner and cousin, Ray Ash, in the 54-plus year-old family printing business. “My wife’s uncle Harold Lloyd Nichols owned Witt Print Shop for 37 years and really made it a respected name in the print industry,” Kirmse said. “I bought the business with Ray, my wife’s cousin, in 1999. In January 2016, I decided that it was time to stop watching my uncle’s legacy continue to slip like other print shops in this country over the past 8 years. So, I wanted to go a different direction to try to save and continue the business. I believe it’s what he would have wanted me to do.”
Kirmse’s wife, Missy, is the SoBoCo Primary School secretary. The couple has two children, Layton and Alex.
Kirmse chose to buy out his partner but keep Ash on as the lead pressman until he retires in 2017. Kirmse had risky visions for the family print shop’s future that included a move out of the downtown area, spending money on radio advertising and equipment that would bring the print shop up to meet the needs of his clients and others seeking a commercial professional printer. Kirmse felt these changes were necessary in a “somewhat dying” industry in an increasingly “student focussed” downtown Columbia.
“Witt has been in Columbia’s downtown for 88 years. It was great for the majority of those years, but we simply started struggling with the direction the city chose to go starting around 2005, however, it really got worse for us these past eight years.” Kirmse added. “With student housing, long-term street closures and a seemingly student targeted theme in downtown, a commercial industry no longer seemed to fit.”
So, Kirmse decided that January 1, 2017 was a good date to move his shop.
~ Read more on this story in today’s Journal ~
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