Company History

Hampton Roads Stationery and Printing opened its doors in the Pembroke area of Virginia Beach in 1984 under George Cheshire. It was a local resource for office supplies and copies. Eventually, it expanded to two stores - the first, in Virginia Beach - and the other, in Norfolk. As a retired colonel in the Air Force, George ran a very efficient company known for its on time performance. The company’s success grew.

As the big-box office supply stores moved in the area, Hampton Roads Stationery and Printing changed names and strategies. In 1991, the company decided to focus primarily on printing and changed its name to Spectrum Printing. In 1995, they moved to their current location, 4716 Virginia Beach Boulevard in order to get out of direct competition with one of those big box stores. Today, one of those stores sits directly across the street - again.

Copying one’s success is the ultimate flattery.

The company was sold in 2002. Along with the sale went the character and all of the prestige of Spectrum Printing. In the next three years, the company was pillaged and the reputation tarnished. It’s always sad to see greed and ethics destroy a good company.

On August 5, 2005, Dick and Nadine Olenych bought Spectrum Printing. The fun was just beginning.

Dick was a National Sales and Marketing Director. Since he had close to 23 years of experience in Corporate America, he figured this would be a piece of cake. His last job before buying Spectrum Printing was Marketing Director for a multi-billion dollar international corporation. How hard could owning a small business be?

"WOW… it’s a lot harder than it looks."

Doing what he does best, Dick researched the competition, and the problems in the industry, and set out on a new course for this Hampton Roads landmark…and, “The Happy Printers” was born.

It’s not just a moniker, it is the very essence of who we are.

Dick is widely known as an advocate for superior customer service. From his business novels, “Joe Sails” and “The Ladder Part of our Lives”, to his folksy business articles, the one constant that flows through his writing and his print shop, is that people matter. Shouldn’t that always be the case?

Within 8 months of buying Spectrum, printing revenues grew up almost 400%. And then, within 3 years, Spectrum Printing was surveyed as the 9th largest printing company in Southeast Virginia. Dick was everywhere promoting and discussing his company, or advocating better customer service. He’s very proud of the fact that he was smart enough during this time to become a member of the Virginia Beach Rotary Club.

But, since neither Dick nor Nadine knew a lot about running a factory - a printing factory, profits did not follow suit. The bottom line was just not measuring up. That’s when Dick rolled up his sleeves and dove into process improvements. And, Nadine took over full control of all of the accounting functions.

Gross profits for each manufacturing process were evaluated, and administration procedure challenged. This was the beginning of the great recession and everything was on the table.

Today, Spectrum Printing and Marketing has dramatically stream-lined printing operations. From a dynamic digital workflow, within the factory, to the new website, every aspect of the production and administrative processes has been evaluated. It means that we’re more efficient, and those matrices mean more saving to our customers. Our customers love our print portals

And, The Happy Printers are happy to extend those stream-lined operations to our customers. Our online portals are the most dynamic, and cost effective way, to order print in the industry. Customers can save tons of time and tons of money utilizing our free portals.

That doesn’t mean that we’ve given up on our customer service. That will never happen. Spectrum Printing won the best commercial printer for 2011, 2012, 2013, 2014 and 2015 in Virginia Beach, Newport News,  Hampton, Norfolk, Chesapeake, Suffolk, Portsmouth, and throughout Hampton Roads. And, we’re very proud of that.

A stunning printed product is what we manufacture. But, what we really do is nurture life-long relationships. Come on in and check out our antique barber chair, our Kiss pinball, or tour our factory. Maybe you want free stuff. We got them, too.

We don’t sell print. We sell happy.

Thanks for visiting the best printer in all of Virginia, The Happy Printers.