Today we’d like to introduce you to Keith Sevigny.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Keith. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
Chromatic was founded 40 years ago as a small commercial print company by my parents, Richard and Genie Sevigny. My brother, Mike and I have been in the business for over 25 years and took over full ownership in 2011. Like my father, Mike has always had ink in his blood and like my mother, I would rather shed blood than have anything to do with Ink. This juxtaposition of passion has been key to our success in working together as a family for 4 decades. The world of print has been getting roughed up for the last decade. I am sure you have all heard the phrase “print is dead” This phrase rings in my head constantly and is probably the thing that drives me the most. Print is not dead but it is changing. Understanding this change has been key to our recent success. We have transformed Chromatic from a large volume low-profit company to a low volume high-profit company. This transformation was driven by a complete change in our equipment arsenal.
Ten years ago, we were known for our ability to produce medium to long run (10,000 ++ ) generic print pieces and today we are known for our ability to print very short run (1-1000) highly targeted high-quality print pieces. As print continues to change we continue to change too. We recently started a publishing division that has allowed us to create our own best print customer. (we publish these magazines from start to finish including the editorial, design, print and distribution) www.pelicanhillmagazine and www.sautemagazine have become 2 of our top clients The nice thing about publishing is the print runs are predictable and consistent- something that is rarely found in the world of generic print. With the same goal in mind of creating new clients for ourselves, we are very excited to launch our newest venture www.resortsnap.com a mobile app that allows guests of luxury hotels to design and order printed photo books right from their mobile device.
Without a doubt, the most important part of our success has been our employees. We have an amazing group of employees, many that have been with us for over 20 years, that create an experience for our clients that can’t be matched. Simply put they care. They care about me, they care about this company and they care about our customers.
Great, so let’s dig a little deeper into the story – has it been an easy path overall and if not, what were the challenges you’ve had to overcome?
Like most businesses the road has not been smooth. There were multiple times that we were told by industry experts and even people close to us to close our doors. We put second mortgages on our homes and leveraged anything and everything we could to keep paying the bills. We believed in each other and we believed in our employees-and most importantly they believed in us. And as I said earlier- nothing drives me more than being told I cant do something. Our decision to transition into a short run digital printing company coupled with the success of our publishing division are the reasons we are thriving today.
Chromatic Printing – what should we know? What do you guys do best? What sets you apart from the competition?
We are a high quality digital printing and custom publishing company. Any print company still in business has to deliver high quality – what sets us apart is our service. The level of service and personal attention we offer our clients creates long term relationships that allow us to succeed together with our customers. I am most proud of the fact that we have created a business that allows us to offer the big 3- “Better, Faster, Cheaper”.
What moment in your career do you look back most fondly on?
The proudest moment of my career was watching our father, Richard Sevigny receive the Printing Industries of Southern California Executive of the Year award which honored him for his lifelong commitment to the printing industry.
Contact Info:
- Address: Chromatic Inc
127 Concord St
Glendale CA - Website: www.chromaticinc.com www.sautemagazine.com www.pelicanhillmagazine.com
- Phone: 818-335-1928
- Email: [email protected]
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