From blueprints to 3-D design, TPM celebrates 40 years
Jerry Cooper was making $2 an hour as a draftsman at Fluor Daniel and had $700 to his name when he launched The Print Machine, now TPM, in 1973. Forty years later the company has four locations, four divisions and a growing clientele, and Cooper sees a bright future thanks to a willingness to transform while holding onto core values.
“We embrace change on a weekly and daily basis,” said Cooper as he walked through his office filled with high-tech equipment. “I learned that early on. You listen, you adapt and you are always looking to change.”
The early days
The Print Machine began as a blueprinting business, and thanks to Cooper’s connections at Fluor Daniel, he found steady work early on, offering blueprints and drafting supplies for architects and engineers.
“Anything we made, we invested in the company,” Cooper said. His wife Brenda kept the books and is still in the office most days as TPM’s accounting manager.
In the 1980s, the company moved to its current location on Laurens Road.
“We didn’t have enough money to put sheetrock like I thought I would, so I tore down an old barn and used barn wood instead of sheetrock,” he said, proudly pulling out a photo of the building’s earlier incarnation.
A turning point came in the mid-’80s, when technology became a key factor for many industries, including drafting and blueprinting.
“We had to go into the software business or go out of business,” Cooper said. “We had to reinvent ourselves.”
The shift to computer-aided design paid off, and while other blueprinting companies struggled, Cooper opened a Columbia office in 1985 and also began selling and leasing printers, accessories and software. In 1989, TPM became an Autodesk Authorized Reseller for architects, engineers and contractors.
“Clients need service and support, and that’s what we sell,” Cooper said. “We sell service.”
Broadening the scope
In 1997, TPM added The Color Lab, which creates vehicle graphics, signage and trade show displays. Their capabilities were recently tested when they were asked to create a 150-foot Gamecock that wrapped one side of Williams Brice Stadium in Columbia. With clients such as NASCAR, Verizon and Fox Sports, the large-format printing division now makes up about a quarter of TPM’s business.
The year 2000 brought another expansion with the launch of Solidworks, 3-D design software that targets the manufacturing industry.
“We knew that was a $4 billion industry and we needed to be in manufacturing,” Cooper said. “We knew who had the best software, so we went with Solidworks and it’s been a great decision.”
Through this division, TPM also helps companies use 3-D printing to improve efficiency and product quality. Clients such as Proterra and Michelin can animate and test their assembly lines, or stress test a product before it is manufactured.
The family business gained a new generation in 2004 when Kasey Fay, the Coopers’ daughter, joined the company after graduating from Clemson with a degree in management and entrepreneurship.
“I still have my first time card from when I was four,” Fay said. “This is what I always wanted to do.” She now manages marketing and business development.
Her husband, Chris Fay, joined the company in 2011 as general manager after working in business development for the Harper Corporation.
The fourth division and what’s next
TPM continued its geographic expansion by opening a Charlotte office in 2007, and despite a looming recession, launched a new division, Document and Print Solutions, in 2008.
The company sells Canon copiers, but Chris Fay said growth in this division is on the digital scanning and document management side.
“Most competitors are trying to sell copiers, but we’re going with a full solution,” he said. “We want to help streamline the process, helping people print less and manage their documents using software and technology.”
A Raleigh office opened in 2012, focusing on software, and plans include growing there along with further expansion along the coast. TPM now has 91 employees, with about 50 in the Greenville office.
Chris Fay said operating four divisions benefits clients. “No one does everything we do. When we collaborate and cross-sell between our divisions, no one can touch us in the marketplace.”
He said some customers, such as Michelin North America, work with all four divisions, while a growing number use two or three. “Someone may use us for design software, and then we’ll handle their document management and copiers, and then we’ll handle their trade show displays and graphic needs.”
As TPM’s 40th anniversary arrives this month, the staff has been too busy with trade shows and product launches to plan a party, though a celebration will happen. Cooper is proud of his company’s culture and expects to stay involved as long as possible.
“I wish I didn’t love it so much,” he said. The younger generation of employees “comes up with great ideas, and I just love being part of it.”
The company philosophy will continue just as Cooper wrote in the TPM mission statement a quarter-century ago.
“We must embrace the change and never stop learning,” Cooper read from a large sign posted in the conference room. “Change is constant, and nothing happens unless you make it happen.”
