Lane Hickey-Wiggins is the President and CEO of DPrint, a family-owned printing company based in Lakeland, Florida. With a rich history dating back to 1939, Lane is the third-generation leader of the business, which specializes in screen printing, digital printing, and custom labeling solutions. Under her leadership, DPrint has maintained a strong commitment to creativity, customer satisfaction, and community involvement. Lane is also passionate about supporting initiatives like Women in Print and the Printing United Alliance, while making a significant impact through charitable projects like the Polk County Kids Tag Art program.
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Chris Santomasimo: So just by way of background, Lane is going to talk about DPrint, which has a rich family history that goes all the way back to 1939. I don’t want to spoil your thunder, but great history. And I love what Lane is doing in terms of supporting the printing industry through Women in Print, as well as her work with the Printing United Alliance. So, Lane, again, thank you so much for joining us today. Why don’t we talk about DPrint and talk about that rich family history that I mentioned?
Lane Hickey-Wiggins: Okay. So, I am a third-generation CEO. We started back in 1939 as Douglas Signs. My grandfather came on board somewhere between 1939 and 1964. I don’t have the exact year. And he incorporated the company as Douglas Screen Printers in 1964. And then in 1997, my mother, Lisa Kaiser Hickey, took over the company. In 2012, I took over. So, during the period of her taking over and me taking over, we rebranded as DeepPrint. So while we still operate as Douglas Screen Printers, we go by DeepPrint to be a little more modern and with the times. But we are definitely still deeply entrenched within screen printing. And while we have incorporated wide-format digital printing into our plant, I would say we still lean pretty heavily towards screen printing, probably about 60% screen printing, 40% digital, possibly even more screen printing than that. But that’s a good guess.
Chris Santomasimo: So, was your grandfather, was he primarily a sign printer back in the early days?
Lane Hickey-Wiggins: Yeah, I would say that, yeah, they manufactured signs by hand. And it was very much like an art form and a craft. And as you know, over the years, signs have obviously evolved to be a much more complex thing. And now there’s electrics involved, or electrical, I should say, and things like that. So the split, I think, was pretty natural between him and Leroy Douglas because Leroy went and created a sign company while we kept on the label side of things. So while we still do signage, we don’t do electrical signage or things like that. So it’s a different world, I think, back in the ’30s through the ’60s. Like I mentioned, it was just a different craft. It was a different world than it is today.
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