More than a century after its founding, the family-owned Cummings Printing is in the hands of the fourth generation with a bright future ahead.
“We’ve been doing well the last three years coming out of COVID—as profitable as we’ve ever been, frankly,” says Jack Cummings, who retired from the Hooksett-based business in 2021 and turned its management over to his sons, Chris and Sam, who serve as co-CEOs.
The company has come a long way since its founding. Today, its 100 employees print magazines (including this one), catalogs, and other publications for clients across the country.
“In 1865, my great grandfather, George Cummings, was in the [Union Army] cavalry as a printer,” Jack says. “His sons, George and Lew, went into printing. George went to Peterborough and started the Peterborough Transcript. Lou went to Concord and started the Lou A. Cummings Company in 1914.”
After a fire in the 1930s, Lou moved to Manchester and bought a place on Central Street. In a desire to grow, he built 215 Canal St.—a building that retains his name and will soon be home to Harpoon Brewery and other businesses—in 1954.
His son, John, oversaw operations in the next decades avoiding bankruptcy and the transition to four-color offset printing. In 1993, the company built a 65,000-square-foot building at its current site at 4 Peters Brook Drive in Hooksett, according to Jack.
With an eye to becoming more efficient and streamlined, the company has invested $4.6 million in recent upgrades including a perfect binder and 32-page web press. Sam notes the city approved a 25,000-square-foot expansion.
“We haven’t had any plans to do that yet, but it helps with growth long term if we need to go a little bit bigger and install more machinery,” he says. “But other than that, we’re going to continue to buy the cutting-edge equipment as it comes out.”
Chris agrees, “We definitely see a future in print, maybe not the capacity it used to be, but we have a really good niche here in New Hampshire.” For example, the company prints more than 30 college magazines, Sam says, noting it’s a financially strong product with a dedicated audience.
Post-COVID, Chris says the number of printers has dwindled due to consolidation in the industry. “A lot of the bigger guys swallowed up some of these smaller printing companies across the country. So that provided us with a lot of opportunity,” he says.
However, with about 30% of their workforce looking to retire within the next five years, finding employees is challenging. “It’s going to be tough task to replace all them because, as you know, no one’s going to school for printing anymore,” Sam says. “Some of the best people have been from Starbucks, construction, or even a bartender.”