New Haven Register (New Haven, CT)
Tyco reaches 50-year milestone
Family-run print shop survives by mixing new and old
Ahalf-century after it started, Tyco Printing remains a family affair. The copying business Michael P. Iannuzzi started as a college junior while studying at Southern Connecticut
State University has changed its location, added a Branford shop and shifted the focus of its operations.
But the close-knit family operation has stayed close to its roots by bringing in family members to the business whenever possible
and treating non-family employees the way they would treat their own kin.
“Our core group has not changed dramatically in all these years,” Iannuzzi said.
Tyco Printing truly became a family business when his wife, Ellie, joined the company in1995. The Iannuzzis married in 1971, the same year he opened Tyco Printing.
His son Michael C. Iannuzzi joined Tyco in 2006. The elder Iannuzzi said having his son join the businesses was easier for him than when his wife became part of Tyco.
“Having a husband and wife working together was a challenge, a huge challenge, but we’re still happily married,” Michael P. Iannuzzi said. “With my son, it was different, because we don’t work side-by-side. Do we agree about everything? No, but it works.”
Michael P. Iannuzzi’s son-in-law also works in the business as Tyco’s sales manager.
Michael C. Iannuzzi got his undergraduate degree from Boston College in
2000 and then went to the University of Connecticut to study law, getting his degree in 2003.
After getting his law degree, the younger Iannuzzi was part of a business law practice for three years before joining Tyco.
It’s a career route his father could relate to: Michael P. Iannuzzi was studying to be a teacher when he started the business while still at SCSU. After graduating, he briefly worked as a middle school teacher while still operating his printing business.
“The business was growing, so I didn’t stay in teaching long,” he said.
Turn and face the change
When Tyco Printing started, “initially we were mainly doing academic copying,” the elder Iannuzzi said. The New Haven store was near the heart of Yale University’s campus and the business operated satellite locations at SCSU and the University of New Haven in West Haven, he said.
Tyco opened its Branford location in 2017, according to Michael P. Iannuzzi.
“We just saw more of an opportunity to get more business along the Shoreline,” the elder Iannuzzi said.
Tyco further solidified its position acquiring a pair of rival commercial printers, Royal Printing in Guilford and Branford-based K&G Graphics, in 2018 and 2019, respectively, to expand its customer base in the suburbs east of New Haven.
The elder Iannuzzi said when his son joined Tyco, “he brought in a whole new background, a whole new way of thinking.”
“I’m old school and he is new school,” he said of his son.
The younger Iannuzzi agrees with his father — to a degree.
“My goal has always been to grow and change the business, but maintain the old values,” Michael C. Iannuzzi said. “It’s a service business: We’re not just selling signs or copying.”
Over the years, the commercial printing and copying businesses have changed, a shift driven to a significant extent by advances in technology, according to Michael C. Iannuzzi.
“With the technology, I’ve tried not to fight it, but embrace it,” he said. “We’ve gone into signage and promotional products to offer to businesses.”
And as a result, Michael C. Iannuzzi said Tyco has a customer base “that includes some clients who have been with us for decades.”
Although traditional copying and commercial printing remain a significant part of Tyco’s business, making signs has grown to 30 percent to 40 percent of total business, he said.
“We’ve been very fortunate,” the younger Iannuzzi said. “New revenue streams have opened up.”
Making it through the pandemic
Those new lines of business have helped Tyco survive through the pandemic, Michael P. Iannuzzi said.
“We’ve definitely had some challenges over the past 18 months,” he said. The biggest impact, according to the elder Iannuzzi, was colleges and universities taking their classes online.
Tyco Printing’s experience during the pandemic is similar to what other family businesses around the state have seen, according to Robin Ann Bienemann, entrepreneur in residence with the University of Connecticut’s Family Business program.
While data regarding the failure rate of family-owned businesses is not readily available, Bienemann said, “My anecdotal information is that family businesses have done better then other types of businesses because they have stronger balance sheets, stronger financials.”
“I haven’t heard of any that have closed in Connecticut,” she said. “If you have been around from generation to generation, you learn to think outside the box and adapt quickly. Anyone that’s been around for more than 30 years has had to do that.”
Family-owned businesses play an important role in the national economy. Family Enterprise USA, a group that promotes businesses in the sector, reports that nationally, family firms generate 54 percent of gross domestic product in the United States.
That translates into $7.7 trillion as well as 88 million jobs, which represents 59 percent of domestic employment. In terms of new job creation, 78 percent of it comes from family-owned firms, according to Family Enterprise USA.
Family firms have higher employee retention rates than non-family firms, something that makes family-owned businesses important to local economies, Bienemann said.
“I like to say that family businesses are stickier: They’re not going to pick up and move,” she said. “These are business that have a lot of pluck, and from a state and local perspective, that makes them worth investing in.”
Bienemann said having a higher employee retention rate than non-family firms also means family businesses provide a higher level of job security for employees.