4/30/01 (WhatTheyThink.com) A long-standing Austin company and previous $120 million printer has closed its doors. According to a company spokesman, 219 workers lost their jobs at Hart Graphics. The company has been in business for 89 years and had 2001 sales of around $50 million. The company was unable to invest in new equipment needed to stay competitive in their niche market. A spokesman said the company just decided to close up and would not comment on the fate of their client base. Hart Graphics is still in the process of helping employees find new jobs. At their peak, Hart Graphics posted $120 million in sales and had 650 employees. Their primary product was manuals for software publishers and hardware manufacturers. Hart Graphics had a niche in the high tech sector providing end to end solutions for software companies with labels, CD ROM duplication, cartons, packaging and even maintaining inventory. One source said the market was very tight and margins were not there. An example was their relationship with TV Guide. The company had printed more than 2 million copies of TV Guide each year, - that figure had "dropped substantially with more people getting information from other sources." Major customers included the American Heart Association, CTB/McGraw-Hill, and Sage US. The Steck family of Austin, Texas, founded the company in 1912. In 1974 chairman William Hart bought the company and incorporated it as Hart Graphics.