Business shutting down presses after nearly a century

Phil Durkee of Pioneer Printing displays hot lead type from the early days of the business, which began in 1910. (Julia Anderson/The Columbian)

Steve Durkee of Pioneer Printing.

Pioneer Printing & Stationery, with nearly a 100-year history in downtown Vancouver, will close its doors at the end of this month.

Owned by the Durkee family since 1944, the business has been struggling with the double challenge of changing publishing technology and a weak economy, said Phil Durkee, a Pioneer shareholder.

“Things have gotten so slow that we can’t maintain a staff to keep the operation going,” said Durkee, who began working in the business for his father, Ken Durkee, in 1967. “We felt at this point, we needed to cut our losses. It’s an emotional thing to be closing.”

Pioneer employs a staff of 12 including general manager Steve Durkee, a nephew of Phil Durkee, at 1315 Columbia St.

The business grew out of a Vancouver newspaper operation from the late 1800s called The Independent. Lloyd DuBois published the Independent from 1894 until 1910 when he sold the subscription list to The Columbian newspaper. He shut down his newspaper but kept the print business. That business was named Pioneer Printing and sold to the Clancy family. The Clancys operated the print business from 1910 to 1944, when it was purchased by Ken Durkee.

Pioneer built a successful diversified enterprise using several presses to produce everything from business cards to annual reports, brochures to stationery letterheads. But in the past few years, more of this work has gone to desktop computer publishing.

“So many things have changed … people can do more things online,” said Phil Durkee, 67. “Computers are more efficient than presses. Businesses don’t need to spend the money for fancy letterheads.”

Durkee said revenue began to slow several years ago but dropped off more dramatically in the past year with the economic downturn. Durkee stepped away from day-to-day management eight years ago.

Steve Durkee, 55, said that while the business will shut its doors on Oct. 31 and not take new orders, it will continue to handle ongoing customer needs and wrap up bookkeeping through the end of 2008.

The Durkee family owns the Pioneer Printing building and real estate at the corner of Columbia and Mill Plain, amounting to about two-thirds of a block. The real estate will either be remodeled or sold but that hasn’t been determined, said Phil Durkee, who also owns the three-quarter block parking property across the street to the west.

Phil Durkee said the economic outlook is for more deterioration of business, which forced the closure.

“I came to work here in 1967 and I’ve grown up with a lot of ghosts … friendly ghosts,” Durkee said. “It was hard to operate, easier to close.”