Small town doesn’t have to mean sub-par production quality. We’re proud of where we’re from and we’re here to show our local community that you can have the best of both worlds.
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The RMP StoryIn 1968, four production employees at the Cranbrook Courier - Joe Gnucci, Ken Fee, Nash Mailhot and Wally Tymchyna - entered into a partnership and opened Rocky Mountain Printers, in what is now the High Country Sports building. Meanwhile, another print shop was opening up just across the alley, Cranbrook Lithopress, founded by Jim Rasmussen. The two companies competed for years but eventually combined under one name of Rocky Mountain Printers when a young local shook up the print scene...
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Don Wik has spent most of his life around a printing press. Growing up, he started out as a carrier for the Kimberley Daily Bulletin and later moved up to cleaning the presses. Then, in his last year of high school, he was offered a job as a printer. One year later, at age 18, he had the sole responsibility of running the web press at the Cranbrook Courier newspaper. "In those days, there was little or no training," says Wik, "I was basically self taught."
He eventually moved to Golden, B.C. where he worked as a commercial printer for the Golden Gazette. This background gave him the necessary experience to make the next step in his career - owning a print shop. So in 1973, when Cranbrook Litho Press came up for sale, Wik felt ready to make the move. At age 21, he became the owner of the one-man shop. For many years, Cranbrook Lithopress & Rocky Mountain Printers competed for business in Cranbrook until June 1985 when Don & his business partner Helmut purchased Rocky Mountain Printers and ran both offices for a short time. After one year, the two companies combined under one name of Rocky Mountain Printers.
He eventually moved to Golden, B.C. where he worked as a commercial printer for the Golden Gazette. This background gave him the necessary experience to make the next step in his career - owning a print shop. So in 1973, when Cranbrook Litho Press came up for sale, Wik felt ready to make the move. At age 21, he became the owner of the one-man shop. For many years, Cranbrook Lithopress & Rocky Mountain Printers competed for business in Cranbrook until June 1985 when Don & his business partner Helmut purchased Rocky Mountain Printers and ran both offices for a short time. After one year, the two companies combined under one name of Rocky Mountain Printers.
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Sprinter Printer Logo
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Don and Helmut soon went to work expanding their business to Kimberley, opening their Sprinter Printer office the same year that Cranbrook Lithopress closed its doors. In 1990, Helmut retired, passing his sales legacy onto Stuart Gorner, but Don continued expanding in earnest. Between 1994 and 1996, he extended the Sprinter Printer offices to Cranbrook, Creston and Fernie, effectively spreading the instant copying enterprise across the Kootenays.
Printers for the People.In 2011, Stephen Wik joined Rocky Mountain Printers in the role of Business Development Manager. Together, Don and Stephen came up with a fresh idea that turned the business model on its head. The company purchased new Konica Minolta production machines, which they serviced themselves; they also began selling and servicing machines for other businesses in the Kootenays. As the company expanded their offerings, they changed the name to Rocky Mountain Print Solutions and then eventually to RM Office Solutions. The success of the Copier business model allowed Stephen to expand his service area and focus his efforts solely on delivering printers for the people. Do you want to learn how to print it yourself? Contact Stephen at (250) 426-2241 or visit RMOffice.ca for more information.
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After a brief retirement, Don Wik is once again the owner of Rocky Mountain Printers and is celebrating the company’s 53rd year in business. Although a lot has changed in the print industry, his approach has always been the same - investing heavily in the latest printing capabilities so that RMP can take on a wide variety of jobs.
“We’ve been in the business a long time and we’ve seen an incredible amount of change. We used to hand pick type one letter at a time and now we have fancy computers that spit out gobs of copy.”
Today, Don Wik continues to lead our company, share his knowledge with the team and innovate the print business.
“We’ve been in the business a long time and we’ve seen an incredible amount of change. We used to hand pick type one letter at a time and now we have fancy computers that spit out gobs of copy.”
Today, Don Wik continues to lead our company, share his knowledge with the team and innovate the print business.
How can we help you today?
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