Printing Solutions of Kansas Inc. just landed a contract that will let it place blue and black ink on 418,000 business cards, 1 million sheets of letterhead and nearly 2.5 million envelopes for the biggest employer in town.

Not bad for a business started five years ago by two guys out of their garages in Lawrence.

“This is a good thing,” said Terry Jacobsen, the company’s chief executive officer and co-owner. “We’ve seen some strong growth.”

Printing Solutions is now the sole supplier of stationery at Kansas University, under a contract received recently by the state of Kansas. The deal, which excludes Kansas Athletics Inc., is expected to produce sales of $525,000.

Kansas University sought bids after it closed its Printing Services operation on West Campus a year ago. The operation had handled $2.2 million worth of annual work before it closed, ranging from simple photocopies to specialized, four-color jobs.

The stationery contract covers notepads, letterhead, business cards and envelopes. Printing Solutions had been handling such work on an interim basis since the closure, but other printers had been able to make deals with individual schools or departments.

Pete Cobb, two-color press operator works on printing out letterhead stationary for the KU department of student housing.

Not anymore. The contract calls for all materials to carry the same, new standardized logo – “KU” in PMS 293, a shade of blue; and “THE UNIVERSITY OF KANSAS” in PMS 430, a shade of gray – and be printed at the company’s complex at the southwest corner of 31st and Louisiana streets.

“Now it’s a state contract,” Jacobsen said. “It requires that we be the supplier, the one and only supplier.”

It’s a long way from 2001, when Jacobsen and co-owner John Hutton went to work printing business cards for a national department store chain, as part of a contract with a national printer. Working out of garages on Lawrence Avenue and Scottsdale Drive, they had hoped to grab $200,000 in sales during that first year but ended with $497,000.

Today they still handle contract work, but the KU deal secures their position as a stand-alone operation. The contract lasts for a year, with options for four one-year renewals.

Hossein Gerami, president of Copy Co., 1401 W. 23rd St., missed out on the stationery contract but still has a slice of the KU business. He handles four-color printings of brochures, newsletters and booklets.

The competition for the stationery contract was tough, he said.

Printing Solutions of Kansas Inc. Terry Jacobsen, CEO, left, and John Hutton, president, right, have landed the state contract to print all stationary, business cards and letterhead for Kansas University.

“Everybody I talked to was offering very attractive prices,” he said. “Very attractive prices.”

Paper pushers

Printing Solutions of Kansas Inc. recently won the state contract for printing Kansas University’s stationery. The company expects plenty of business during the coming year:

Letterhead: 1 million sheets

Business cards: 418,000

Monarch and Memo letterhead and envelopes: 13,200

Other envelopes: 2.474 million

Mailing labels: 50,000