After 20 years of running Minuteman Press in Port Washington, Mark Gutner and his wife Susan are moving on.
“We were not really thinking about selling,” Mark Gutner said. “Somebody approached us from town who was interested in purchasing our business. We decided to go forward with it because it was a good offer and he’s a nice individual.”
That individual was Joel Ronis, who will officially take over the press on Jan. 2. But Gutner said he will be hanging around for another two weeks after the change to ensure a smooth transition.
Gutner, who lives in Syosset, started the business almost a quarter of a century ago, on Dec. 7, 1993. He said the printing business was appealing because it had a strict Monday to Friday, 9-to-5 schedule.
The property had not been put on the market when Ronis approached Gutner about a sale, but Gutner, 63, said he was considering a sale in the next couple of years anyway.
He said Ronis appealed to him because he was an involved member of the Port Washington community.
“He knew a lot of our customers from living in town,” Gutner said. “He had worked with the nonprofits and had kids at Schreiber [High School]. So they knew our customers and had talked to them, and [Ronis] had a printing background.”
He also felt that Ronis would be able to tackle the changes in the industry. Even though the internet has taken a bite out of printing, Gutner believes the business has a future and new technology has helped.
“They said printing was dying when I bought [the business] 20 years ago,” he said. “With the advent of digital equipment, we were able to start producing work we couldn’t do before and then get accounts we couldn’t before.”
He said Minuteman had started ramping up focus on providing marketing and social media services to customers, and Gutner felt Ronis had a good grasp on those areas.
As for what he and his wife would do after Gutner leaves the store for good in mid-January, he wasn’t quite sure.
“We’re expecting our first grandchild, we’ll stick around for that,” he said. “Maybe just take a few trips, just sort of relax. I’m a musician, I’d like to do something with music, something less stressful, more fun and more meaningful.”
Before they leave, both Mark and his wife will be in the store all day on Jan. 4 and 5 to say goodbye to old customers and introduce them to the new owners. Gutner said there are a lot of things he won’t miss about running Minuteman — the stress, managing employees, making sure the numbers are right — but he will definitely miss the customers.
“The things I’ll miss most are the customers and relationships I’ve built up over the years,” he said. “Some of the people with us today were there from day one and we’ve become friends with them. That will be the hardest thing, not having the day-to-day interaction. Port Washington is a fantastic town.”
