Keeney named May Business of the Month
Print shop has been familyowned for over four decades
LANSDALE >> The May winner of Lansdale’s Business of the Month award is a multi-generation family business that has left an imprint, literally, all over the area.
The Keeney Printing Group, based at 816 W. Second St., has managed not only to survive but thrive in a challenging time for their field.
“Their list of clients is too long to mention. And they treat them all with warmth and respect, with the kind of reputation that’s built slowly, over decades,” said Economic Development Committee member Bruce Schwartz.
The Keeney story starts in the late 1950s, when Chuck Keeney met his future wife Margaret while working on their college yearbook at St. Lawrence University in upstate New York, Schwartz said while presenting the award during borough council’s May 15 meeting. Chuck and Margaret married, had four children in several states over the next two decades, and Chuck nursed a passion for the printed word the whole time — until seeing a newspaper ad for a printing franchise available in Lansdale.
“He bid on, and bought, KopyKat Printing on East Main Street, across from McDonalds, in 1976. Thus began what today is known as the Keeney Printing Group, now located in the building that once housed Lansdale Discount House Fabrics, at 816 W. Second St,” Schwartz said.
“It is a thriving print shop — no mean trick in today’s challenging market environment — with the most modern equipment, an experienced production team, and a backstory that is typical Lansdale-ian: an entrepreneur chases his dream, starts with a small shop, and builds it into a successful family enterprise, growing with, and within, the borough, and becoming a part of the community.”
All of that started with an idea, and a single sentence, Schwartz said.
“Chuck told Margaret he thought the franchise would be a great opportunity. Margaret asked him who he thought would run it. He said, ‘Maybe you could do it for a while...?’” Schwartz said, as Margaret and son Michael grinned.
Over the years, the country continued to grow, and the name changed from KopyKat to Kwikprint after the former company declared bankruptcy. In time, Margaret learned the business from the bottom up, Chuck left his day job to join, and the two worked together until Chuck lost a battle with leukemia in 1989, after which Michael helped keep the company growing and going.
A name changed to “Keeney Printing Group Inc.” followed in 2005, and two years later the company moved into their current home, the 20,000-squarefoot former Lansdale Discount House building at 816 W. Second. Not all of their clients can be named due to third party arrangements, Schwartz said, but those residents may recognize include the Schwenkfelder Church, Simcox McIlvane Funeral Home, St. Stanislaus with Mater Dei and Corpus Christi church and school, and the Lansdale Volunteer Medical Service Corps.
Keeney even prints products for a group of nuns in Philadelphia known as the Holy Spirit Adoration Sisters who have kept up prayers for over a century, and helped design a paper ruler to measure child development for a mission to Honduras, according to Schwartz.
“The changes in print technology have been seismic, with complex projects that once took a dozen hands, and a dozen hours, now being done in minutes, with one hand, on a mouse,” Schwartz said.
“How does a shop survive? Michael will tell you that, no matter the task, and however tight the deadline, they won’t take shortcuts. The key to their success is that they care about their product, and do topnotch work,” he said.
Michael and Margaret both thanked Schwartz and the Economic Development Committee for the award, and Margaret said she’s grateful the community believed in, and has stuck with, her company.
“We have wonderful, wonderful people who trot in and need stuff, and we make friends, and it has been a pleasure, really, working in Lansdale,” she said.
She recalled longtime volunteers from the Lansdale Public Library who came to Keaney for their printed products, and particularly thanked late borough Parks and Recreation Director Carl Saldutti, who had used the shop for borough publications for years before passing away in October 2018.
“Particularly tonight, I think of Carl Saldutti, who was just a great, great friend and supporter, and how we loved to see him. We have been very lucky to be a part of all of this,” she said.
The Keeney Printing Group is located at 816 W. Second St. in Lansdale and can be reached at (215) 8556116 or by visiting www. KeeneyPrinting.com.