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AB Dick Bankruptcy is Signal Event for Graphic Arts Industry Part 1

AB Dick and the Printing Market &

Monday, August 02, 2004

AB Dick and the Printing Market – the History

The Chapter 11-bankruptcy announcement by AB Dick Company should be seen as a landmark event heralding another chapter in the long and steady decline of offset technology. It is also another example of leading technology companies seeking to anchor their businesses to reliable – though declining – conventional suppliers with broader product offerings.

AB Dick is an American icon of the small offset printing business, despite the fact that it was actually owned for nearly 20 years by a UK conglomerate. AB Dick has been in business for 120 years, founded in 1884 with Thomas Edison's patronage by Albert Blake Dick, the inventor of the mimeograph machine. American peers such as ATF Davidson passed into oblivion. AM Multigraphics, AB Dick's archrival, gave up manufacturing, sold off its international divisions and then was acquired by AB Dick. AB Dick remained as the last US-based representative of the small printing press, pre-digital era.


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