The Story of Swift Printing & Communications

Our beginning

Swift Printing & Communications has been proudly serving the printing and communications needs of companies/organizations in West Michigan and throughout the country for over a half a century.

The company was founded in 1955 by Walter D. Gutowski, Sr. and his wife, Lorraine. Walt Sr. began his career at the age of 19, when he worked for many years in printing for the Pantlind Hotel in downtown Grand Rapids. He worked first as a pressman and later as Operations Manager. After serving in the military for several years, he returned to work at Ellinger Printing, which is where he honed his printing skills and where he came to realize that he was destined to own his own shop. In 1954, Walt Sr. bought the assets of a print shop that was closing in Muskegon; this acquisition quickly became Swift Printing Company. Since that time, Walt Sr. has been the heart and soul of our company. He continues to work on a regular basis running presses and inspiring the entire Swift team with his amazing work ethic and unweilding commitment to the customer and employees.

In 1984, Walt Sr.’s only son, Walter Gutowski, Jr., joined Swift Printing and co-managed and operated the company with his father. As a young child Walt Jr. worked at the print shop, pushing a broom and learning about all aspects of the business and printing equipment. Later, he earned his associate’s degree from Grand Rapids Community College and graduated magna cum laude with a Bachelor of Science in Business Administration from Aquinas College. Today, Walt Jr. is sole owner of Swift Printing, but continues to include his dad in many aspects of managing the business. He and his wife, Amy, have four children.

Our Commitment

So, Swift Printing Company was officially born January 1, 1955. From our company’s conception, Swift has been devoted to three main tenets - tenants that, to this day, govern everything we do:

1. Content, well cared-for employees.
2. Outstanding, solution-oriented service, which includes providing products to our customers on their time schedule (as our current owner often says, “That’s why it says Swift on the door!”).
3. Being a leader in technology.

We believe that these three tenants are crucial to providing the level of service that our customers deserve and creating satisfied customers.

Our heritage as an innovator

Swift Printing has a built a reputation on innovation and customer-centered solutions. Here some highlights of our Swift “firsts”:
1960 - Swift invested in two new Kluge automatic presses

Owning even one Kluge was considered cutting edge at the time; owning two was similar to what it was like in the early 1900’s to have two television sets in one household; most printers have now eliminated these presses from their shops, but Swift continues to utilize their Kluges as a way to continue offering our customers the lost art of Letterpress and an economical tool for perforating, numbering and scoring

1986 - Swift led West Michigan in the purchase of the first computerized guillotine paper cutter

At that time, this was the new cutting-edge technology for this area

1990’s - Swift Printing was the first printer in the country to utilize Mitsubishi direct-to-plate technology with the full-color Shinohara press

2006 - Swift purchased the first iGen3™ 90 Digital Production Press in the world

Our team

Since that day in 1954 when Walt Sr. realized his dream of owning a print shop, Swift Printing has built an outstanding team of professionals who work together every day to not only meet, but exceed, our customer’s expectations. Our team at Swift is second to none!

Our team brings an impressive range of skills together to benefit our customers. At the same time, as Walt. Jr. notes “The success of Swift Printing Co. is based on the hard work of owners and employees, and on the always-emphasized focus on team work. No one in the company is too important to perform any job that needs to be done!”