Australian Printer’s 7 over 70 (part 2)

To commemorate AP’s 70th anniversary, we look at the journeys of seven print veterans over the age of 70 and their contributions to the local industry. 

  • Neil Mulveney
Neil Mulveney

Now in his early ‘90s, Neil Mulveney has had a long-standing career while he was in print. Back then, the industry piqued his interest when, at the age of around 11 years old, he delivered ‘copy’ to E. Angelo & Sons, commercial printers in Campsie, on behalf of his late mother.

Fascinated that the ‘copy’ he dropped off returned a few days later as a printed result, Mulveney got ‘hooked in’ to the concept of printing.

When he turned 19, his late brother purchased an ADANA Hobby Printing Press from Anthony Hordern and Sons. At that time, Mulveney was as a salesman with a soft goods and furnishing warehouse in Sydney.

“I had always been very interested in printing. I began producing social printing, whilst still employed, then moved into business stationery. I then decided to resign my job in sales and made printing my new career,” he said.

“From a garage in the back yard of my parents’ home, I began trading as Dalnor Press (my brother Ronald’s name, backwards). This, was the beginning of what was to become Champion Press.”

Mulveney’s business quickly outgrew the garage and was moved to a shop and dwelling on Stanmore Road, Petersham, in 1954. He acquired his first Heidelberg press, a 10 by 15-inch platen – a giant platen for its time – a small Heidelberg cylinder press, and his first KORD offset press.

The business was there for seven years before it moved to Marrickville, when he purchased another KOR offset press, then a single colour Heidelberg RON offset press. In 1968, Dalnor Press bought out the Langlea Printery, which was located in St Peters, and combined the two plants into the Langlea premises. Champion Press was founded as a result, in 1967.

“We built on the business of Champion Press. We moved again in 1975; land was acquired in Campsie and a new purpose built building was constructed. By now, the company had become a Roland house, with Favorits, both single and two colour, Rekord in single colour, and a four colour Parva. We also had a Muller Martini binding line, Stahl folders, and a Polar guillotine,” he said.

Mulveney attended his first drupa in 1967, and continued to do so until 2004.

“That very first trip overseas opened my eyes to a whole new world – not just in printing, but a vision for my life,” he said.

“In 1987, I visited the US with a view to purchase a narrow web Harris M110 5 colour web offset press. This was the beginning of a whole new phase for the business as we could then print both sides of the sheet simultaneously, dry it, and fold it, ready for the finishing processes. For me, this was the beginning, of creating ‘in-line’ finished products.”

The business grew rapidly and it was necessary to move once more. Mulveney purchased five acres of land at Minto, and an 80,000-square foot complex was created. Another Harris M110 was also installed.

“These presses were very hungry and needed supporting equipment. There were products that I had seen in the US for this, but were unavailable here in Australia as it was a much smaller market. This led us to build our own equipment,” Mulveney said.

“The manufacturing of our own equipment was largely the result of David Llewellyn, our technical director. He was an English man who had been attracted to this country. How very fortunate were we that he joined Champion Press.

“We were also fortunate to have Doug Alexander join Champion Press as sales director and his skills, together with a team under his direction, were able to generate the sales required. They were selling products, that had never been seen in this market, made in-line. Without the sales and marketing approach of Doug and his team, we would not have survived.”

As the printing industry has always been known to be capital intensive, Mulveney added that forming a close relationship with UDC (United Dominions), which worked closely with the printing industry, led to Champion Press’ finance of equipment.

“The NSW manager, Brian Chittenden, was of great assistance to us over many years. Without his able assistance, we would not have arrived where we did,” Mulveney said.

In 1987, Champion Press was approached by Hannanprint, by Michael Hannan, and Champion Press got acquired by the latter in February 1987.

“We could not have had a better outcome. The summation of the work of many paid off. The Hannan family were outstanding to deal with, and very accommodating to our staff,” Mulveney said.

Mulveney said he has seen much changes happen (and still continue to happen) in the print industry in his time, especially with the growth of digital.

“The industry has changed so much, and there is still a lot more to come. I see the largest growth area for print in packaging, although one of the biggest problems for the trade remains in recycling,” he mentioned.

At almost 92 years of age, Mulveney still has great affection for the trade.

“I am more than pleased that I am no longer in business. Like many of my contemporaries, I’ve had the best years in print. I now fill my days very well with hobbies and old friendships,” he added.

  • Richard Downie 
Richard Downie

Richard Downie is a name that many in the industry know. Currently aged almost 82, he started Kosdown Printing in late 1981 and together with his family, has built the business into a state-of-the-art pre-press, printing, digital printing and production and mailing house.

Having been in operation for almost 40 years, the business is now run by his children – Derek Downie, David Downie, and Sandra Downie – while Richard is semi-retired.

Richard, together with his wife Maureen and three children, were Scottish immigrants. Having immigrated to Australia in 1966, he first worked in the steel industry in Sydney and lived in an immigration hostel for the first two years.

“I arrived from Scotland with my wife, three kids – Derek was seven years old, David was five and Sandra was just six months old – and two suitcases. I had a young family, so I was always looking for a better job to better provide for them,” Richard said.

Richard heard that the pay was slightly better in Melbourne so he made the move with his family and got a job in a printing company as a labouring assistant on a printing press. That was his first foray into the print world. He then became a guillotine operator at another printer even though he had no guillotine experience.

“I moved around in a few jobs and also juggled part-time jobs – I used to be a cleaner at night after fulfilling my duties at my day job to make ends meet. My wife had a part-time job at a dry cleaner’s before she worked full-time at a factory. We both had ambition to create a better life for our family,” he said.

Richard then landed a job at Bradford Printing as a guillotine operator and moved up the ranks into production, then manager.

“I was working eight to 12 hours a day and was there for 10 years before Maureen got homesick and we decided to move back to Scotland. I worked at a paper mill in Scotland, working night shifts. But not long after, we decided to return to Australia as that wasn’t the life for us,” he said.

Richard returned to the same role at Bradford Printing, where he was for another 10 years, before ambitiously deciding to strike out on his own and start Kosdown Printing in 1981. He partnered with a colleague, Kosta Petratos, and with both their holiday payouts combined, opened up the new company in the suburb of Richmond – ‘Kos-down’ is a conjunction of their names.

It was a family affair from the start. Parents and children put their houses up as collateral to get the business going. After two years in the business, Petratos decided to be bought out as an owner but continued on with Kosdown as a full-time staff for another 25 years before his retirement.

“The early days at Kosdown were hard. The first press that we got was a two-colour, second hand Dominant press. We couldn’t afford a folding machine or anything else so had the kids in after school to give us a hand. They were involved in the business from the start even though they ended up working in independent jobs for a while,” Richard said.

“But they all ended up working at Kosdown, along with Maureen and my nephew, who I brought from Scotland to Australia 28 years ago when he was just 18. Now, three of my grandsons are in the business full-time too.”

Kosdown had in place a barter-trade arrangement with its then neighbor, Debden Diaries, to provide the company with paper in exchange for some office furniture. The company grew thanks to word of mouth and the opportunity to rent a part of Debden Diaries’ facility in Port Melbourne arose.

“I was going to go half with Debden Diaries in exchange for print, but that deal fell over and it never eventuated. We still took the plunge and moved in,” Richard said.

That was almost 35 years ago. At the end of 2012, the firm relocated to Rocklea Drive. Then Maureen’s health took a turn in 2014, so Richard semi-retired to spend time with his wife and the company relocated to its new home on the other side of Port Melbourne.

Derek, David and Sandra have led the business since.

“The principles at Kosdown today is the same as what it was yesterday – it was (and still is) all about hard work and honesty. It’s also about providing good service. Within the business, my children always kept me up-to-date with the latest in technology and we always made the investment if there was room for efficiencies. I never worried about what anyone else was doing,” he said.

“My motivation has always been my family, and over time, my long-term clients and staff have become like family too. Kosdown, to others, may just be a company name but to me, it’s a member of my family.”

  • Robert McMillan
Robert McMillan

No real introduction is required for Robert McMillan, aged 77, who grew his family business of JS McMillan Printing into one of the stronger companies in Sydney until finally being bought out by Blue Star (now IVE).

JS McMillan Printing began with Stewart McMillan (Robert’s father) who was a solo operator. Robert McMillan began his career at the tender age of just 14, when he entered the industry doing an apprenticeship.

“My father had a printing business and back in the day, I went to a selective high school but I wasn’t allowed to go on and further my studies because he had arranged for me to become an apprentice printer. That’s how it was in those days – your parents make the decisions for you,” Robert said.

He then went on to serve his apprenticeship as a letterpress printer at Kenmure Press (Offset Alpine) for five years.

“Back in those days, it involved a lot of hard work. It was a big printery – probably one of the biggest printeries in Australia – and involved leading-edge technologies. It was very interesting for me, as an apprentice, to explore all these new technologies,” he said.

From there, Robert joined his father and brother at JS McMillan Printing, which was operating out of Sydney’s western suburbs.

“That was 70 years ago when I joined them in the business. My father was very old-fashioned in his approach and I was very anxious to grow the company. So, in 1973, I did my first takeover – I bought a company named William Andrews Printing Company, which was one of the oldest printing companies in Sydney at that time. That business was bigger than ours but I was persistent,” he mentioned.

With a desire to expand the business across Australia, he went on to acquire about 30 companies, mostly in the Western district of Sydney. All of those businesses were combined into one.

“I wanted to grow the business by acquisition and learnt to do it; I had very good advisors that helped me. There were a lot of failures in the printing industry and I had worked out how to buy those companies and amalgamate them into ours and keep growing,” he said.

As the business grew, Robert invested in real estate to house all the acquired businesses.

“I also sidelined into the nursery business for a while, and also bought a famous chain of music shops called Edels but then got rid of those and concentrated more on the printing company,” Robert said.

Shortly after, he launched a takeover bid for a company in Queensland, Inprint, but got thwarted in that takeover by Michael Hannan, who was the executive chairman of IPMG (now a part of Ovato).

“I did a full takeover bid for that company and did all the paperwork but Michael came in over the top and outbid me at the last moment,” he said

Investigating new horizons, Robert then became instrumental in moving the business towards and pioneering in the printer-led model of print management.

“We were bidding on contracts to grow that side of the business and by chance, we bid with Spicers on the paper side of a big contract. And Andrew Price, who saw our ideas, went off and started brokerage company Stream,” Robert said.

“I used to encourage other printers to go into print management but nobody really understood it so the brokerage side of thigs started to get a hold. And these brokerages messed things up for the traditional printing and manufacturing companies.”

Leading on from that, Robert bought a 50 per cent share in Scanlan Printing in Queensland and a 50 per cent share in 50 Piries in Canberra.

His daughter, Julie-Anne, then joined the business and they forged ahead in the eCommerce space having seen the potential of the Internet.

The company continued its growth with Robert at the helm until about 15 years ago when he had to have a liver transplant. Robert then decided that it was best for his health to retire and put his business up for sale.

“We had four people bidding for the business and it got sold to Champ Equity that also owned Blue Star. This happened in 2007, just six weeks before the stock market crashed,” Robert added.

Since retiring, Robert has been involved in his real-estate portfolio and mentoring a number of younger people in business. He also sits on the board of not-for-profit integrated cancer treatment centre, Chris O’Brien Lifehouse, which he helped raise money to build.

  • Terry Mulcahy
Terry Mulcahy

Terry Mulcahy is a person that has always taken challenges in stride. He was involved in the printing industry from 1963, working for a number of supplies companies, up till 2008 and saw the industry through a spectrum of changes.

Mulcahy left school when he was 15 and first joined Alex Cowan Pty Ltd – a paper merchants and manufacturing stationers company that also sold printing machines and printers supplies.

“I commenced work there as office boy and because I came from a technical school background, I became interested in the machinery side of the business. I had to wait for many months for a position to become available in the machinery division, which eventually it did, and I then commenced as an internal sales clerk. After a number of years, I advanced to become a sales representative for the company,” Mulcahy said.

“Printing, back in those days, was a craft. To see what people could produce and the work that got produced was amazing. I partook in a number of courses at the Melbourne College of Printing and Graphic Arts, which was a great learning establishment. Most of my knowledge of printing came from attending the college.”

Mulcahy moved on from Alex Cowan in 1975 to join Sidney Cooke Limited. He worked in the company’s Melbourne office before relocating to its then newly-established Townsville office in North Queensland in 1979.

“Sidney Cooke decided to open a branch in North Queensland, based in Townsville, and I was lucky enough to get the position. I was in charge of business in Townsville, travelling down south as far as Mackay, north to Cairns, and out west to Mt Isa,” he recalled.

After six years in Townsville, he returned to Melbourne in 1986 and was still with Sidney Cooke until 1990, when he joined Dainippon Ink and Chemicals.

“In 2008, I was still very much involved in the printing supplies business. That was roughly when the ‘big change’ came about with the introduction of digital printing. At that time, I was still working for Dainippon Ink and Chemicals, but with all those changes happening in the industry, I was made redundant,” he said.

“My expertise in the printing industry was worn out and I was offered the opportunity to enter the garden & landscaping industry – my brother and his wife own the business that I joined, and am still working for, and my experience in sales appealed to them.

“Even though I have left printing, I still have a great passion for it and have many friends in the industry. I also keep myself up to date with what’s happening in the industry and still read Australian Printer today.”

Mulcahy said when he started work, the industry was dominated by letterpress and with that came hard and heavy work to produce four-colour process blocks out of metal. From there, through the ‘70s, he said there was an explosion in the advancement of offset printing.

Going into the late ‘80s and early ‘90s, he mentioned that there was a shift in the industry towards multi-colour machines – from two to four colour, all the way up to 10-colour machines.

“On just about every corner, there was a multi-colour press. At that stage, Australia was leading the world in printing. The work that was produced was magnificent and we were right to the fore. I certainly did see the whole spectrum in my time,” he said.

“Moving over to digital was one of the biggest challenges for me, but that challenge was taken from me as I left the industry in its infancy. If I had stayed on in the business, I would have taken up the challenge but that wasn’t to be.”

To date, Mulcahy finds that opening the Townsville office for Sidney Cooke was one of his greatest achievements.

“I took it from a vacant factory to growing it to a branch that had so much business throughout North Queensland. Those were the best years of my life selling printing machinery and printer supplies,” he mentioned.

Regardless of the industry he has been in, Mulcahy stressed the importance of customers and said businesses and executives need to be honest in business.

“Customers are the most important to business. There has to be a partnership and trust between two parties, otherwise nothing will work. That has been my ethos all the way through and has paid me well for 50 years,” he said.

Currently 73 years of age and living in Victoria, Mulcahy thinks of age as just a number.

“I want to keep going and working for as long as I can. I have and I still do love helping people and that’s what drives me every day,” he added.

Apart from working in the landscaping business, Mulcahy is also currently the President of the Balnarring Picnic Racing Club, run under the auspices of Racing Victoria.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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