With a printer’s devil of a grandfather, an uncle who printed wedding invitations on a German-made machine from his shed at home and a father who was managing editor of a newspaper, it’s no wonder Ian Almond found himself working in the printing industry.
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The recently retired printing stalwart, and his wife, Jan Almond, owned Willprint Shepparton for 28 years.
Mr and Mrs Almond moved to Shepparton with their two young children at 25 and 23 years old, respectively, when Mr Almond was offered a position at Max and Thelma Williams’ Numurkah Rd printing factory, S.M. & T.A. Williams.
Mr Almond had previously completed a hand and machine composition apprenticeship with the Castlemaine Mail, the newspaper his father managed, and spent eight years working there before making the move.
He then dedicated 18 years to working for Mr and Mrs Williams, while Mrs Almond gave birth to the couple’s third child, and studied and worked in different industries, when the former owners decided to retire and put their business up for sale.
By this time, Mr and Mrs Almond’s two eldest children were also working at the factory; one as a printing machinist, one as a graphic artist — both as apprentices.
The couple had toyed with the idea of buying a business, such as a corner store or mixed business, but when the opportunity to purchase the printing business arose, it just made sense to them to buy it.
It was a chance to cement permanent employment for more than half of their family of five.
“Max (the owner) had been spending a bit of time away as he wound down ahead of his retirement so I’d been having a lot of contact with the customers for some time anyway,” Mr Almond said.
“I was virtually the front man there for a while, so we took the plunge.”
The couple took over in February, 1996.
Despite agreeing the move was terrifying, they quickly settled into their new role as business owners when they realised the business’ existing customers were going to stick with them and the cash flow was there right from the beginning.
“We’re not saying it was easy,” Mr Almond said.
“It was long hours, and we worked hard.”
“We had to put everything on the line,” Mrs Almond said.
“They weren’t having much luck selling it,” Mr Almond said.
“But they assisted us to get into the business as owners and we’re forever grateful to them for that.”
Mrs Almond was working in childcare then, but she was no stranger to office and accounts work, which was important knowledge to have once they became business owners.
It was only a couple of years before the business’ growth determined Mrs Almond needed to give up her other employment to work in the family business full time.
When Mr and Mrs Almond bought the business, there were just six staff, which grew to 14 by 2000, when the equipment also outgrew the Numurkah Rd premises.
“We had one machine operating in the loading bay up the back,” Mr Almond said with a laugh.
It wasn’t necessarily in the plan to move to the bigger factory in Drummond Rd, where they saw out the remainder of their working lives and as owners of the business, but the pair said plans were constantly evolving.
“We’ve always just gone with the flow,” Mr Almond said
“As the business grew, we grew with it. We adapted to what was needed; we never had a business plan.”
They noted that the biggest changes throughout their time in the industry were the technological ones.
“We were the first company in country Victoria to move into compugraphic, which was cold setting rather than hot type setting,” Mr Almond said.
“I had to go to school in Melbourne for two weeks just to learn the operation of it.
“I had to learn a whole new keyboard.”
As a compositor, Mr Almond had learned a linotype keyboard, which is designed with the most commonly-used letters in the English language first, descending to the least commonly-used ones.
The first row, for example, is E, T, A, O, I, N.
“Technology right across the board changed, not just in pre-press with the computers and typesetting and photos and the artwork, but the booklet makers and binding machines,” Mr Almond said.
The couple said they were happy to embrace the changes.
They knew offset printing was coming in.
“We used to do all hand-combining of all the film and the negatives and then the making of plates was a slow laborious process, where now it’s just straight computer to plate,” Mr Almond said.
“If someone came in for a coloured job back then, you’d have at least a week before you had a set of plates to print from. Now you can print within hours.”
At its staff peak, the business employed 18 people — including more family members than the initial three at the beginning — but as technology advanced, it cost some jobs, and the number of staff working at Willprint in the past four years averaged about 14.
The couple, who retired in April after a patient wait of two and a half years to find a buyer, employed more than 30 staff during their time as employers, and put many through apprenticeships that resulted in them earning esteemed trade qualifications.
Their business won service and sustainable green print awards, while apprentices were nominated for and won apprentice-of-the-year awards.
They say their business wouldn’t have been so successful without the dedication of their loyal staff, many who became friends as well as employees.
But the most rewarding thing about being in business for Mr and Mrs Almond was the give and take in their local community.
“The most satisfying thing about being in business was that we produced quality products that customers bought from us and came back to buy again because they were happy with us and what our staff were producing, our deadlines, we got the things out to them on time,” Mrs Almond said.
“So we provided for the community, but the community provided for us.
“It went around and around — even though we did a lot of printing for a lot of people in other towns, it was really the locals who supported us.”
“And we tried to support the locals as much as we could, too,” Mr Almond said.
“If we ever needed anything, we’d try and source it locally first before we’d go out of town.”
Further to the business elements, they used their business as a vessel to support other community causes that were important to them, such as sponsoring and donating to local schools, events, sporting clubs and charities.
“When people heard Willprint, we wanted them to associate that with a good price, a good product, a good service and good people,” Mrs Almond said.
While the Almonds gained much satisfaction being their own bosses and making their own decisions, they always enjoyed supplying quality printing to customers whose eyes lit up when they saw their finished product.
“People come in, they’ve got no idea what they want, so you sit down with them and you discuss with them some options and then you end up giving them this beautiful finished job and they’re rapt and there’s great satisfaction in that,” Mr Almond said.
“Making those customers happy makes you happy,” Mrs Almond said.
“They were stoked and you think ‘yes, so are we’.”
The hardest part was price rises in stock and supplies and having to pass those on to their customers, along with the cost of continually upgrading technology to keep up with modern processes.
“You get into a comfort zone and then new technology comes along and it’s another 50 to 100,000 more dollars to upgrade,” Mr Almond said.
“Breakdowns were hard when you’re trying to meet deadlines,” Mrs Almond said.
“But, when you balance it all out, it’s been good,” Mr Almond said.
“We’ve enjoyed the journey. The business was good to us,” Mrs Almond said.
The pair don’t have any hard and fast plans of how they will spend their retirement, other than keeping fit and healthy.
“Like our whole business life, our plans may change,” Mr Almond said.
“We’ll probably do some travel down the track, but at the present we’re going to be catching up on jobs around the house that we haven’t been able to get to,” Mrs Almond said.
“I’m going to continue on with my family history research, keep running, do a bit of reading, catch up with friends and family. We’ll find plenty to do.”
“I’ve got some antique printing machinery that I’ll tinker around with,” Mr Almond said.
“What we used to try and fit into the weekend as far as looking after this place (their Grahamvale home) and keeping it neat and tidy and liveable, we’ve now got all week to do.
Unlike couples who’ve never worked together but retire at the same time and have to navigate seeing more of each other than they ever have, Mr and Mrs Almond will probably see less of each other than they’re used to because their differing hobbies will see them spending time in different areas.
“We worked together for 28 years in the same building,” Mr Almond said.
“So why would we get on each other’s nerves?”
“He’s my best friend,” Mrs Almond said as she and her husband — and now ex-workmate — smiled warmly at each other.
Senior journalist