Cliffe Printing, established in the early 1930s, is a fourth generation Sault Ste. Marie business.
“It’s an honour and a pleasure. It’s really nice to come to work in the morning and work with, and work for, people you know,” said Andy Inch, Cliffe Printing president and owner.
“I’ve been told it’s very rare for a Canadian business to last four generations,” Inch said, accepting complimentary SooToday coffee mugs alongside his son Adam, who is preparing to take over the reins of the business.
The Cliffe presence in Sault Ste. Marie began when Charles Cliffe moved to the community from British Columbia in 1902, purchasing the Algoma Pioneer, a weekly newspaper which he turned into a daily.
That paper came to an end when, six years later, a fire destroyed its office on Pim Street.
After the fire, Cliffe moved his company to March Street, and later, in 1926, relocated to a larger space at the company’s present location at 118 Spring St. (Cliffe also edited the Steelton News and owned a china shop and bookstore at 506 Queen St. E.).
Cliffe continued with the newspaper business until 1930, when his sons Herbert and Osborne joined the business and started up a commercial printing business (Charles Cliffe passed away in 1931).
Osborne moved to Chicago to set up his own printing shop in 1938, Herb remaining with the Sault business until his death in 1974.
Herb’s son Charlie Cliffe then took over.
Charlie had started with the family business in the early 1950s, and sold the company to five employees in 1979 (Charlie Carpenter, Larry Vincent, Al Marshall, Don Martell and Andy Inch), with himself as the remaining principal shareholder.
Andy Inch bought out the other partners in 1987 and became Cliffe Printing’s sole owner and president, and now runs the business with his son Adam.
Since the late 1980s, Cliffe Printing has expanded into advertising and marketing, adding designers and marketing managers to the team, along with computers, programs and imaging devices.
The 1990s saw Cliffe starting in-house, full-colour work with the purchase of more equipment and expanding the business’ market throughout northern Ontario and the U.S.
Cliffe Printing purchased a new four-colour press in 2000, further expanding its market presence in North America and also into Europe.
Andy Inch told us approximately 35 per cent of Cliffe’s business stems from the U.S. market.
From 2001 to 2016, Cliffe Printing operated out of the former Salvation Army building at 117 Spring Street (an historic building in itself, dating back to 1912), before moving back to its original location across the street at 118 Spring Street.
Services Cliffe Printing offers include designing of signs, decals, billboards and banners, printing of logos on promotional items such as pens, calendars and mousepads, production of business cards, photocopying and designing of mail-out items.
Celebrating its 115th year in business in 2017, Cliffe Printing, recognized as an award-winning business within the community, stated “we look back at the growth of the company over the years and take pride in our continued efforts to structure a product line based on our clients needs.”