The origins of Wheal-Grace can be traced to 1946 when it was a small letterpress shop. From that humble beginning Wheal-Grace has grown to a family owned, six-color 40” sheet-fed printing business that services major corporations and advertising agencies.
The mission statement of Wheal-Grace has always been to become the leader in “kept promises.” While any company can print ink on paper we have made service along with quality and competitive pricing our core values. These values have always separated us from the rest of the pack.
Wheal-Grace is an approved Small Business Enterprise under the Small Business Set-Aside Act and Minority and Women Certification Programs. While this status helps our clients meet their diversity needs our size has not prevented us from being a recognized innovator in the print industry.
We have always been passionate about the environment. In the late 1980’s when most of the business world believed concern for the environment was passé or non-existent, Wheal-Grace became a pioneer in green printing. We created the Green Print program and trademarked the name and web domain www.greenprint.com. Through our proprietary software Green Print quantifies the environmental savings of printing on paper with high post consumer waste.
Our longstanding green credentials gave us the opportunity to provide the benefits of green printing to our clients. Environmentalism slowly became a core American value and our clients have turned to us to help communicate their green initiatives. We changed our environmental footprint over the years by switching to vegetable based inks, eliminating film and related caustic chemicals.
A major innovation took place in June 2007 when Wheal-Grace switched to 100% wind energy- no carbon footprint. Our clients are now able to display our “printed with 100% wind energy” globe trademark on their printed pieces. We were also one of the first printers to be certified by the Forest Stewardship Council™.
If imitation is indeed the sincerest form of flattery then we could not be more pleased to see the rest of our industry follow us on the green road less traveled.
I decided to conclude our story with one of my favorite poems:
The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost
“…Two roads diverged in a wood, and I-
I took the one less traveled by.
And that has made all the difference.”
I welcome you to travel that road with us on your next printing project and to experience the Wheal-Grace difference.
