Today we’d like to introduce you to Dan Banakis.
Thanks for sharing your story with us Dan. So, let’s start at the beginning and we can move on from there.
M13 Graphics began back in 1998 as DPB Graphix operating as a freelance design company, and consisting of just one person. This operation went on for four years with continuous growth until March of 2002 when there was a name change and it was finally set out to become a business. The name was changed to M13 Graphics and aggressive growth was about to begin.
M13 Graphics started out as a company that mainly provided graphics and web design. It was not until July of 2002 that M13 Graphics shifted its business model into a printing company.
Afterwards, M13 Graphics grew extremely quickly obtaining enough business to justify moving out of our “basement” office and into a 250 square foot office in Schaumburg. M13 Graphics had captured a market that was new to the business world and it would grow at an astronomical rate. Web design was no longer offered and M13 Graphics had become a printing and graphic design company like no other.
By August of 2003, the company that had been in a basement office just a year and a half earlier had now grown to a company with five employees and an 850 square foot office. By this point, annual revenue had doubled each year and business was going great. A formal agreement was made with an out of state printer to do all of the offset printing for M13 Graphics.
In August of 2005, M13 graphics made yet another move into a new office space. This time it was a 3,000 square foot office and we had now increased our staff to a total of ten. Shortly after the move to the fourth M13 Graphics location, an exclusive agreement was made with a local printing company to do all offset printing for M13 Graphics. This agreement would increase the company’s reliability and speed tremendously!
M13 Graphics moved to its fifth and current location in November of 2007. The new location, this time, would be a 50,000 square foot office and plant. The building was purchased in May of 2007 and underwent a massive renovation to make it the building you see today. Upon making this move, M13 Graphics purchased its first 40 inches six-color press with UV Coater from Mitsubishi. A stronger partnership was formed between M13 Graphics and its exclusive printer and they would now share space and equipment with us at the new facility. M13 Graphics at the same time increased its staff and now employed about 18 people.
Our exclusive printer underwent some struggles from the economy in 2008 and 2009 and moved out to a smaller operation on their own. As of October 2009, M13 Graphics is now completely independent. We now manufacture entirely on our own at the same facility with almost 50 employees.
There is no telling where M13 Graphics will go from there. At this point (December 2017), M13 Graphics has serviced over 30,000 customers nationwide and has printed several billion impressions.
Above all else, there is no way this would have been possible without the overwhelming support from my wife, family, friends, and great people in our organization.
Has it been a smooth road?
Back in 2006, we partnered with a company to do our printing. I invested personally in this company to help strengthen them and was a 20% owner with no deciding votes. This did not involve ownership in M13 were I was still 100% owner. As an owner of the other printing company, I had to guarantee loans for this company. In 2008 they fell under hard times and tried to raise my pricing.
When I decided to use another company for printing instead of paying more, they went under and left me holding the bag on all their debt. I was sued for millions by two big banks and eventually by my former partners. I was able to fight, negotiate and settle all of these lawsuits after a few years. To make matters worse, shortly after settling that battle, we had a fire in the print shop.
At the time we had only one big press and it was nearly impossible for us to produce everything in-house. I found another company to do our work for the few months it took us to get back up and running and keep it as seamless as possible for our customers.
So let’s switch gears a bit and go into the M13 Graphics story. Tell us more about the business.
We specialize in small business marketing materials such as brochures, postcards, business cards, etc. The biggest thing that sets us apart from others is our price, speed, and reliability.
How do you think the industry will change over the next decade?
The biggest shift I see in the future is technology. The machines we currently have will likely be obsolete. I have agreed to buy one of the newest digital printing presses that should run near offset press speeds without the setup costs and each sheet can be different.
More information about that can be read in this article: http://www.piworld.com/article/m13-graphics-signs-loi-with-komori-for-40-inch-impremia-ns40-press-featuring-landa-technology/
Contact Info:
- Address: 1300 Basswood Rd, STE 100
Schaumburg, IL 60173 - Website: www.m13.com
- Phone: 847-310-1913
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