Making an impression for 40 years

The Vennell family: Shawn, Jimmy, Georgie and Cathy.

When it began in 1983, the Taupō Weekender (forerunner to the Taupō and Tūrangi News) was first printed at Quality Print. Now Quality Print owner Shawn Vennell, who began at the company just a year or two after the first paper rolled off the press, has clocked up four decades on the job.

By Chris Marshall

Shawn Vennell who celebrated 40 years with Quality Print this month can’t quite believe where the years have gone.

From starting as a sheet-fed printing apprentice in the mid-1980s – sweeping out under the machines, he jokes – to now owning and running the business seems to have gone past in the blink of an eye.

Though he wasn’t that keen on the idea of a print apprenticeship when his father first suggested one.

“When I got invited, would you like an apprenticeship at 16 years old?’ I thought oh what's print? … I said to my dad. No, thanks.”

His father suggested he have the manners to take a look. 

“I walked in there and it's full of machinery, heavy printing equipment, and I actually wanted to be a mechanic but in 1985 there were very few jobs going and I was absolutely desperate to get out of school. So, it looked like this or nothing really at the time.”

Some of what Shawn affectionately calls the ‘old girls’ that do die cutting and creasing are still in existence.

“We use those daily and those are the machines I actually started on.”

While they and their lead type may not be used for printing anymore, they can still cut out boxes, he says.

“If you look at a McDonald's burger box that technology hasn't changed one bit, right?”

The advent of digital, when it came along, could have been a trap that saw the business over-extending itself, says Shawn.

“I'm proud to say that we took that path very carefully. We got into it quietly to start with where there were larger more expensive offerings that didn't really have the distance in them at the time, we chose to go a slightly cheaper platform which revolutionised what we offered like colourful business cards or funeral service sheets in colour for a fraction of the price that they would have been on a printing press.”

The company adopted new technology as it proved itself and as the price became reasonable. “We prided ourselves on being the leading edge not the bleeding edge. We weren’t so far forward on it that we were haemorrhaging money.”

In July 1993 Rex and Rebecca Mathieson purchased Quality Print outright with an integral part of their business plan being succession and early on they involved Shawn, promoting the idea that he would one day be a partner in the business.

In 2000 he bought in and in 2008 Shawn and wife Cathy purchased the Mathieson’s half-share in the company and now own it outright.

Aside from being the face of Quality Print, a feature of Shawn’s local renown has been his conservation work, particularly with Greening Taupō – a passion that he finds rewarding when he sees areas revegetated with natives and looking healthy.

“It's an actual win-win, really I don't do it for that reason (for publicity), but it can't help but have positive effects.”

He even looks back with some fondness at getting knocked out 10 years ago in a King of the Ring fight with Nigel McAdie – not for having survived to the third round when many were writing him off, but the fact that he raised the top figure of $95,000 and therefore also got a $10,000 bonus for the bout which has all helped Greening Taupō get another 50,000 plants in the ground.

But he’s also proud that the company has taken in some challenging staff.

“I've taken guys that others wouldn't employ and managed to get them through their time and keep them out of jail and that stuff has been rewarding.”

In looking back at his early time with the company, two reflections have reinforced for him that hindsight is 20/20.

A 16-year-old Shawn, away at trade school, is helping with the dishes where he is boarding:

“It was an older retired couple, and I said to Mr O’Gorman, ‘what did you do during your life?’ You know, just trying to make conversation and he said ‘I was 40 years with the railways’.

“I don't know how many minutes it took me to get over what he said to me… I couldn't even imagine being 40 years old, let alone working for 40 years. It was just astounding, I'd only been in the position a few months, just into my time and it was a three-year apprenticeship.”

Then a little later, having just bought his first house at 21 years old:

“I'm in this place and I've got a wing commander living next door to me and when I asked him ‘Oh, were you married?’ And he said ‘yes, well, she's been gone 30 years.’… I'm trying to imagine being 30. Let alone living without someone that you've had a long match with. He was 90 at the time.

“I mean where did those years go?”

Looking ahead, and a little like the Mathieson’s succession planning, Shawn and Cathy’s two teenagers are now working in the business.

“It seems to work… and it's a good grounding for them. It is a good business, and it still has some legs.”

Hopefully another 40 years’ worth.