RECORD SHOP TO OPEN IN DAYTON

A Dayton printing company that recently sold its facility to Dayton Children’s Hospital is planning to move to Vandalia.

Progressive Printers, now at 884 Valley St., sold its longtime home for $550,000 to the neighboring hospital and is now moving to 6700 Homestretch Road, near the Benchwood Road exit of Interstate 75.

“Being in the printing industry is tough but having Dayton Children’s purchase the building allowed us to move into a modern facility and will help us immensely with efficiencies,” said President Ryan Livesay.

The family business, which dates back to 1946, has been adding on here and there to its Valley Street building but was in need of a new space. The new building will be about twice as large.

“We’ve added on and added on and we just can’t add on anymore,” said Livesay.

The company now has about 45 full-time employees and roughly 20 part-time employees. Within the next 12 months, Livesay said the business is looking to add between five and 10 more people.

He said their digital department in particular has been growing, with sales up 30 percent from the year before. With the digital printers, instead of using a printing plate, the printer can get the template digitally and start printing.

“If someone might need 1,000 postcards, I can deliver that this afternoon and it’s a lot more cost effective,” he said.

The business should be moved into its new home by Thansgiving, though Livesay said they will continuously run production the whole time between the two facilities.

The vacant building Progressive is moving to in Vandalia was previously home to a printing company, which he said makes it a good fit for the business.

As for Progressive’s old home, Dayton Children’s spokeswoman Grace Jones said it is part of the hospital’s long-term growth plans, but they are still evaluating what to do with the real estate, which neighbors the hospital’s main campus.

“We’re still determining what we will use that property for,” she said.