Business View Magazine | Volume 8, Issue 9

73 BUSINESS VIEW MAGAZINE VOLUME 8, ISSUE 9 Y ou may not have heard the name RPI, but chances are good that you have connected with something created by them. From books to retail promotions, and everything in between, their work is all around us. Passionate about the success of their customers, RPI is a digital printing company, offering personalized printing options to businesses and creators across the globe. Customer relationships, sustainability, and quality products are a focus of the company, which began in 1979, when Barry Reischling opened a commercial print business in Seattle. Twenty years later, the company saw great success with the launch of their product website, ipads. com, offering custom photo notepads – an early example of a direct-to-consumer photo application. In 2006, the focus shifted again, when RPI sold their commercial division and began manufacturing for ecommerce companies. As the photo industry continued to grow and change, so did RPI, acquiring facilities in the Netherlands, Atlanta, and Rochester, and today distributing across North America, Australia and Europe. CEO Rick Bellamy describes the continued evolution of RPI, since his arrival to the company in 2009. He recounts, “While we were doing our acquisitions, we also were forming strategic production partnerships around the world for people to produce locally, to assure that we could ship in a day or two via ground and reduce our carbon footprint. During that period, we also built a technology platform that we call prInternet, which allows us to directly integrate with any ecommerce site, brand owner, or digital marketing application; accept data and an order; and then route that order to the best place to produce it.” The acquisition of ColorCentric in 2019 meant that RPI could further expand into the northeastern U.S. and southeast Canada, offering RPI Make Rea