Print Solutions November 2006
FEATURE
Midwest Single Source Inc. Celebrates 30th Anniversary
Kansas distributorship sees its client base change
This year’s Annual Customer Appreciation Day on Aug. 17 at Midwest Single Source Inc. was
different than the previous years. There was live music and a prize drawing but
the Wichita, Kan., distributorship also celebrated its 30th anniversary.
More than 100 clients attended the event along with suppliers and manufacturers
who set up booths to display the numerous product lines that Midwest offers.
The party also featured the debut of Midwest's corporate capabilities brochure that contains client testimonials on every
page.
Many of the invitees included print buyers who had worked with Midwest for
years. A few of them were retirees who had enlisted the distributorship's help in the 1970s.
Midwest Single Source President John H. Osborne (center) celebrates the Wichita, Kan.-based distributorship’s 30th anniversary during its Annual Customer Appreciation Day in August. Attendees included A.J. and Betty Campbell, two of Single Source’s first customers.
“One of the guys there used to be a data processing manager,” says John H. Osborne, president of Midwest and a DMIA board member from 1987 to
1989.
“I thought, ‘There used to be monthly data processing meetings that forms distributors would
sit in on.
’ But now that title, data processing manager, doesn’t even exist.”
Mike King, CFC, general manager at Midwest, said the mix of attendees—both new and old clients—illustrated how much the company, its client list and the print industry, in
general, have evolved.
“Our client base is definitely different from when we started 30 years ago,” King says. “Some have been acquired, changed hands, gone out of business, you name it.”
“We changed our mix of products about 15 years ago,” Osborne says. Now the list includes printed and promotional products, postal
and shipping systems, statement processing, direct mail, value added services
as well as office products.
“We bought office products companies and made a few mistakes along the way,” Osborne says. “It isn’t easy being in all those segments of the market, but the customers have
requested that we reduce their vendor base so you have to do more. Now you have
to specialize in several different areas outside of traditional business forms.
”
