It all began in the 60’s
M&T started in 1968 as a small instant print shop on King St. in London, and has grown to a multi-million-dollar operation with branches across Ontario. The number of employees has grown from 6 to over 150. Dean Froome jumped into the world of digital printing early (about 20 years ago), embraced the technology and it has been a success story. Mike Froome said the business has taken a page from the auto industry with just-in-time production that avoids the need for big print runs that take up storage space. “It is now ‘print as you need it.’ We have always reinforced that you don’t need in ventory.” Though the company still uses traditional presses (in London, Brantford, and Kitchener) for some printed pieces, huge volumes are now produced by the latest high-tech publishing systems that incorporate multiple steps and churn out the finished product in a fraction of the time. “It took us a couple of years of investing in the latest equipment and perfecting our work flow, until we got it right,” Dean Froome said. “Now it’s paying off. The web-toprint services are our lifeline.” In keeping with web-to-print, M&T has developed a it’s own system known as product ordering online (POOL). This has helped M&T attract large corporate and institutional clients. With this customized system, a client can order anything from a business card or letterhead to a full colour brochure, track the order’s progress, look up previous orders of the same item as well as previous invoices all from their computer. Clients love it, especially when we tell them they can order as few as 10 copies. Another addition to the firm’s arsenal of services is the direct mail business. High-speed machines take a clients customer list and print, address and fold a letter, stuff it into an addressed envelope along with a separately printed brochure, and bundle the envelopes ready to go to the post office. A run of 80,000 is not unusual. About 15 years ago the company decided to apply its just-in-time printing technology to the field of book publishing. M&T launched Volumes, a separate division that offers authors the opportunity to publish their own novels, family histories, and scrapbooks without going through the traditional process of finding a publisher. Volumes takes a finished manuscript and creates the finished book, ready for sale. Volumes also offers the book for sale on its website: volumesdirect.com. The system allows for a small print run, and the title never goes out of print. In recent years M&T has acquired Hurry Print in Brantford and Stride Printing in Kitchener. Another Brantford business was also acquired. In 2017, M&T merged with D’Angelo Printing, a forty-year-old family printing company in Welland. M&T is looking forward to other acquisition opportunities in the future.