Since its founding in 1980, Streeter Printing has been serving San Diego and beyond. Streeter focuses on being reliable, responsive, and resourceful to meet clients’ printing needs, from concept to completion, with knowledge, experience, and superior customer service.
Adrienne Streeter grew up in Baltimore in a printing family. Her parents’ business started with a small printing press in the basement and grew to two presses in the garage until the business was large enough for a storefront and finally an entire facility that offered design, fulfillment, and mailing services in addition to printing. They also opened other locations in the area.
“I was collating around our dining room table at the age of seven,” Adrienne says. “But even if this is a family business, I will tell you that Streeter Printing is ‘Not Your Father’s Print Shop.’”
That’s always been the case. Adrienne and her husband Jack, who was also trained in printing, opened Streeter Printing together when she was 27. If there are few woman-owned printing companies today, then they were almost nonexistent in 1980.
“Salesmen would come into our shop and ask me where the owner was,” she says. “I still get that sometimes, but it’s not as prevalent as it once was. In any case, I’m confident in my knowledge and in my experience.”
Streeter Printing was ahead of its time in other ways, too, namely embracing “Going Green” before it was a phrase. Recycled papers have long been a print option, and the company has used soy and vegetable-based inks for years. They also recycle every bit of paper, their chemistry is clean enough to go down the drain as-is, and they’ve adopted two highways from Cal-Trans to keep clean. Adrienne sees it as their way of giving back to the city that has been so good to them.
Streeter works to set itself apart in other ways, especially through its service.
“I think people used to think of printers as blue-collar guys with tattoos and cigars who love to drink,” Adrienne says. “There’s nothing wrong with any of those things, but I wanted to elevate our level of professionalism. To put ink on paper is easy, but we go way beyond that by providing graphic services, assisting the clients to define their target market, and really providing education on how to maximize their printing dollar to enhance their business. In simple terms: “we care’.”
That’s so important in a business that provides both a service and a product; and printing is one of the few industries that does. Streeter keeps its edge thanks to a team of 20 experienced employees who have embraced the company philosophy of “doing the best job as humanly possible for clients,” Adrienne says. “Without our clients, we’re nothing.”
What makes Streeter Printing perhaps rarest of all among businesses is that it will become a third-generation family business when their son Jon takes it over.
“Jon understands the industry and brings a new and energized perspective. He’s up to date with the latest print innovations so that we can offer those to our clients,” Adrienne says.
In the same way that Streeter provides both a product and a service, its innovation lies in not only in its embracing change, but in having navigated such change over the course of 40+ years. It’s easy to forget that innovators are not just the new kids on the block; sometimes they’re the third-generation business whose reliable service and expertise have cemented them into the innovation ecosystem.
