Feb. 3—TUPELO — Much has changed at the company Stark Weatherall founded 100 years ago, but he would still appreciate and likely admire what it has become in the capable hands of the Lehman family.
Weatherall Printing Co. was founded as an office supply and stationers store, and shedding the office supply portion in 1957, it has grown to be a premier provider of digital, offset large format printing and more.
Following the purchase of the company by Bob Lehman in 1983, Weatherall Printing moved from Varsity Drive to its current facility on Cliff Gookin Boulevard.
Lehman’s son, Bobby, is vice president, and his daughter, Deborah, is operations manager and is married to company president Wade Kellett. In addition, Bobby’s wife, Jody, is marketing and sales manager.
“I was I high school when my dad bought it, so I worked here during the summers and all that,” Bobby Lehman said. “After college I worked different jobs for a little while, then I finally came back and started working here in 1995 and I’ve been here ever since.”
Wade Kellett, joined him a year later. Kellett, who had been in the printing industry for several years before joining Weatherall’s, said the company has evolved as needed to meet the needs of its customers.
Powered by some of the most sophisticated, state-of-the-art equipment available, Weatherall can print just about anything.
But not everything is new.
“When Weatherall’s started it was still lead type, and we still have the press the place got started with here,” Kellett said. “And we still have a letter press that’s still in operation that was installed in 1950. They literally don’t make stuff like that anymore. I know that gets used a lot, but that’s the truth.”
As a commercial printer, Weatherall’s provides services for a range of businesses, from banking to manufacturing.
Those tags warning not to remove them from the bottom of a mattress or seat cushion? It was likely made at Weatherall’s. The direct mail pieces from Ole Miss, Mississippi State University and ICC were made at Weatherall’s as well. Bank deposits slips are in the company’s wheelhouse, too.
In addition to the tags for the furniture industry, Weatherall’s also produces point-of-sale pieces that go on the furniture directly and in the showrooms. On top of the deposit slips and other forms for banking and finance, the company produces direct mail pieces
All that can’t be done on the old letter press, of course.
“Digital printing is much more prevalent now, where it’s push a button and it prints,” Kellett said. “So on the other side we have one of the most advanced digital devices you can have. It’s a big difference from then to now.
“Like any industry, technology has just transformed it.”
While the technology has changed, many of Weatherall’s customers remain the same. They, too, have evolved over the years. For example, a long-time customer has been the Bank of Mississippi, which is now Cadence Bank. The former People’s Bank and Trust Co., is now known as Renasant.
“They were clients of Weatherall’s before even the Lehman family got involved,” Kellett said.
After the Lehman family purchase, the company expanded in 1994, and expanded again 10 years later to reach its current 30,000 square feet.
The company can do more with less thanks to the ever-evolving technology. And even as sales have doubled from 20 years ago with just half the number of workers (who now total 15) it still takes a creative, talented, dedicated workforce with a different skillset than when Weatherall’s got its start
“The front end of the business was a real craft. Watching somebody set lead type by hand is one of the most remarkable things you’ll ever see, and you’d think it couldn’t be done.,” Kellett said. “It’s a lost art. I don’t know anybody who can still do that. But now it’s just instantaneous. It’s amazing how print has changed from being really the center of marketing and advertising when I started. Whereas now the digital world — the internet — is really the center of marketing and advertising. Now print supports that.”
Kellett cited catalogs as a great example of the complementary relationship print has with digital.
“You still get an unbelievable amount of catalogs through the mail, but what was once a vehicle for ordering is now a vehicle for driving you online,” he said. “And that’s how it’s really changed. They’re not expecting you to buy anything out of that catolog; they’re wanting you to go online.”
Kellett said print products are reaching a new, unexpected market — the tail end of Gen Z and younger people.
“They’ve had no exposure to printed items and find it really neat,” he said. “As long as I’ve been doing this I’ve seen this transition of people. I’m dealing with many of the same companies and the older people have aged out and the younger people are coming in, and they have such completely different ideas.”
As for the next 100 years, Weatherall’s expects to, well, weather any changes that come its way. Through the Great Depression, the Great Recession and several economic downturns during and after, the company has remained aloft.
“Printing continues to get more automated and more digital,” Kellett said. “And processes that I would never have thought would be digital 10 years ago are becoming digital. Technology is finding a way, so eventually all these things we do will eventually become digital. So, there’s need for constant reinvestment in new technology and devices.”
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