Island Blue - 90 Years Strong
©Kathy Smith: July 2002 - The Business Examiner

Building solid working relationships is at the core of what makes Island Blue successful. "The success of a 90-year-old business is built on customer service, excellent staff and suppliers who provide quality products and state-of-the-art equipment," says Mike Shemilt, president. "Without these people, this company wouldn't be what it is today."

What started in 1912 as the Electric Blueprinting and Draughting Company (now called Island Blue) with Joseph Davenport at the helm, Island Blue is now one of the most unique retail art store, reprographic and digital printing companies in the world.

Davenport, an Englishman and experienced draftsman came to Victoria in 1911. He teamed up with Bateman Hutchinson, a local land surveyor. Victoria area maps were then being designed by T.N. Hibben Stationers. But when fire completely destroyed their only original map of Victoria, Davenport was hired to provide a new one. He saw the opportunity for map printing and was soon involved in a full-fledged business doing just that. Thus, the Electric Blueprinting and Draughting Company became The Island Blue Print and Map Company.

In 1913, Island Blue Print began work on an atlas of Greater Victoria, reporting all the legal descriptions of area properties. However, when the First World War saw Davenport return to England to oversee an ammunitions factory. Island Blue Print business continued with Hutchinson who was supervising the company's only employee - Howard Shemilt, father of Island Blue's CEO, Victor Shemilt.

Howard Shemilt spent a year from 1916 to 1917 working for Island Blue Print, moved on to another local company, Gore Blue Print (later purchased by Island Blue Print) until 1921. When Davenport subsequently returned from service, he and Howard resumed their friendship, and in October 1950, Davenport took on Howard's teenage son Victor. "I wish I could have known Mr. Davenport," says Mike of the man who had taught both his grandfather and father about the printing and drafting business.

After returning from England, Davenport completed his work on the atlas which has been revised and reissued every year since. He bought Hutchinson out and became the single owner of the company. And he continued producing large numbers of general and detailed maps covering the east coast of Vancouver Island.

As you can imagine, turn-of-the-century printing technology was certainly much different than today's. When the company started producing old-fashioned blue prints (white lines with a dark blue background), the process was very slow and labour-intensive. Now much of the work is done with computers.

Back in 1942, Island Blue Print was moved from its original location in the basement of the Sayward Building to 718 View Street. But in 1954, Davenport died suddenly. His widow decided to take a chance on Victor, now just 20 years old: the office boy and junior draftsman was suddenly catapulted into managing the business. And he was up to the task.

Later in 1955, Island Blue Print was relocated to 1124 Blanshard Street where, over a great many years, it continually expanded within the building. The new space was filled with more survey and drafting supplies as well as updated production equipment.

Victor's wife Pamela became involved in 1957, managing the office. The Shemilts began purchasing shares in the company in the early 60s, and by 1969, they were able to purchase Mrs. Davenport's interests and become owners with full control.

Although Island Blue Print was still producing maps, Victor could see reason to expand and began focussing on building the printing, copying and supplies areas of the business. In the 1970s, much of the mapping was contracted to Custom Drafting Ltd. who eventually took over the map operations completely. A local company, Davenport Maps Ltd. now produces the maps started ninety years ago.

Could Victor and Pam have seen what lay ahead? Today, more than 50 years after Victor began working at the only company he would ever know, Island Blue continues to flourish - with all three of Victor's children holding key positions.

Mike says there weren't any major downturns as Victor was building the business. "My mother was the office manager and today is the family mediator," he quips. Pamela, now retired, and Victor, semi-retired, are still partners in the business. Mike says the brothers learned much from their parents.

As a youngster, he soaked it all in. "Victor has been my mentor," he says. "I've always looked up to him as a parent and as someone I've worked for." He also remembers his parents spending many long hours working into the night or on weekends. But, he says, they were always there for their children.

All three brothers are business partners. Like his father, Mike was offered a job straight from high school. Brother Rob, Vice-President, focuses on account sales. Craig, also Vice-President, is the general manager of the second division of Island Blue Print - Tiki Enterprises - a wholesale picture framing business.

Tiki Enterprises was established in 1986 as the second division of Island Blue Print. The company supplies picture framing materials and mat boards to framers on Vancouver Island via wholesale purchase. This company was also moved and now resides at 587A Bay Street.With 55 full time and part time employees, turnover is small. "A lot of staff have been with us for over 10 years," says Mike. He sees some of the counter staff in the retail and reprographics division come and go only because many of them are young and move onto other jobs.

The Shemilt family believes staff satisfaction is as important as customer satisfaction. They recognize workers spend more time with each other than their own families on a day-to-day basis, so it's important they feel comfortable at work. "We have to work hard, have fun and satisfy the customer to the utmost," says Mike.

"We hire for attitude and train for skill," he says. "We've grown this company on customer service - quality, dependable service. We look for employees that fit in with the team. I've learned that through my father. Treat your customers well with a quality product and great service and they'll stay with you."

In 1977, the current location at Fort and Quadra Streets was purchased and the company moved in later that year. Once again, the new expanded space was soon filled to the brim with top-of-the-line graphic arts materials and fine art supplies. In 1985, and again in 1996, the inside of the building went through major renovations to create more space for product and services.

The retail division has had its own share of changes. Once stocked with supplies for only architects and engineers, the department's extensive range of competitively priced graphic and fine art supplies is impressive. Customers looking for brand name paints including oils, acrylics, glazes, etc as well as assorted brushes and papers will find them all at Island Blue. Drawing supplies, easels, mat boards, decorative papers etc. are perfect for any artistic endeavour. Journals, sketch books and archival photo albums are also available. And there are several books on the shelves that delve into painting, marbling, drawing, air brushing and more to help everyone from beginners to experts.

Island Blue also offers a series of art classes and workshops geared to students with a wide range of abilities. Classes are offered year-round in watercolours, oils, acrylics and drawing. Classes for children are a vital part of the program with Saturday mornings and week-long summer workshops being given on a variety of themes.

Getting back to printing, print-on-demand services continue to grow. Island Blue Print was the first to purchase the first Canon Colour Copier (5 copies per minute) in Victoria, one of the most dramatic changes the company has seen in reprographic services. Two years later, they were the first to connect a Mac computer to a colour copier and print colour graphics from digital files.

Throughout the 90s, Island Blue Print has continually upgraded their Canon colour copiers as faster and better quality equipment comes to the market. Examples of these incredible machines include a BJA1 colour copier that can produce copies up to 22" X 33", a CLC 700 (9 copies per minute) and a CLC 1000 (31 copies per minute) that can reproduce anything up to 11" X 17" in size.

Small format digital colour is now a major part of the growth at Island Blue. Rack cards, business cards, covers, brochures, ad sheets, invitations and art cards are some of the many items that can be printed in full colour.

Early in 2001, Island Blue installed the Xerox DocuColour 2060, a digital printing machine capable of printing up to 60 copies per minute. It is the first and only such printer on Vancouver Island for printing onto glossy papers and card stocks in short runs of a single copy to one thousand.

Island Blue is committed to providing fast turn-around times. For example, they can receive a digital file first thing in the morning, produce a proof within a couple of hours, and deliver 250 full colour prints that afternoon. "We can customize projects to suit any number of requests," says Mike, referring to presentation folders. "We'll do one or 200, whatever the client needs."

Island Blue's large format "UltraCHrome DigiColour Printer" can produce colourful, life-like graphics up to 60" wide by almost any length from either Mac or PC files. Posters, banners, trade show displays, point-of-purchase displays and retail signage are many of the indoor products that can be produced on different types of materials.

The way architects and engineers design buildings has changed with the use of AutoCAD and Vector Works computer programs. "The day of the drafting tables and manual drafting are going by the wayside," says Mike. Island Blue now has three high speed, wide format black and white printers capable of printing drawings up to 35 copies per minute. These machines can process drawings up to 36" wide from digital files or take plotted originals and scan them once and print many sets. Projects are stored electronically and held for re-prints that can be produced at any time.

In late 2001, Island Blue added scanning services of documents up to 50" wide by Ѕ" in thickness in either black and white or full colour. They also offer the option to scan to file or scan to print. Customers that still do manual renderings of new buildings can have Island Blue scan originals in full colour and produce prints at full or reduced sizes.

Currently, Island Blue is working with a client on a large black and white scanning project. The client will now be able to view all their buildings on a computer screen instead of having to look at the originals which are all located in one building. A new service just added is OCR (Optical Character Recognition), scanning of small format text documents for storage or working files.

With all the digital printing and copying services, Island Blue also has the capabilities of drymounting, laminating and encapsulating presentations. Drymounting permanently mounts prints to a number of substrates, thereby enhancing the presentation and durability. Laminating surfaces allows for further protection against different elements, and encapsulating protects posters and banners against moisture.

Looking to expand printing services, book printing and binding is one area Island Blue definitely wants to pursue. With its current print-on-demand digital print service, it makes sense for them to branch out into this area. They have provided soft cover books for several clients, booklets for university students and more.

With a high-speed Xerox DocuTech black and white printer, Island Blue's printing department can take a digital book file and print as many copies as are needed and also provide various kinds of binding. Once the job is on file, any changes or updates can be made easily and the book can be printed once again. "We invest in technology," says Mike. "We always stay up-to-date. Customers are smarter today. They demand more."

And staying with the times, Island Blue also has a web presence (www.islandblue.com). In fact, the web plays a major part of Island Blue's market share. 90-95% of Island Blue's in-store products are online, including their catalogue. Since creating their web site in 1987, Island Blue has brought in sales from all over the world. "These are certainly sales we never would have had before," says Mike.

"Even now, we're taking digital files from architects and engineers designing buildings in Toronto, Vancouver, the US, etc.," he says. The files are received on the Island Blue's FTP (file transfer protocol) site, are then transferred to the specific computer in the office and voila, the job can be printed and shipped to a preferred location or delivered right to the construction work site here in Victoria.

As fast as technology is these days, helping clients meet their deadlines can present challenges. For example, when a company travelling to Victoria for a conference lost its posters in transit, Mike got an early morning call. After receiving digital files, Island Blues staff produced the work and was able to deliver the materials before the conference opened the same day.

Island Blue has been through its share of moving and renovations. And they're renovating yet again. After 10 years of looking for a new space, they purchased the building next door. "We didn't want to give up this corner," says Mike. "We did a customer survey and people asked us not to split the operation."

Mike says the reprographics and printing departments will be moved into the new space and a door connecting the two buildings will be added. The retail store will stay where it is, with more room for art stock, graphic supplies, and classroom space. The new building will also be air-conditioned, a great relief for staff who work with hot printing machines. Mike says the renovations should be completed by year-end.

As well as renovating, keeping on top of technology sure keeps Mike and his staff hopping. He knows how important it is that Island Blue has the right equipment to service their customers. When asked about the competition, he says, "We've carved out our own market niche. No one in Canada offers an art store, reprographic, digital printing service all under one roof. We cater to all walks of customers; from the person who needs a couple of photocopies, to architects who design new buildings."

Island Blue's 90 years in business is remarkable. Last year the word "Print" was taken out of the business name, but the company is still officially known as Island Blue Print Company Ltd.

In 2000, Victor Shemilt celebrated 50 years with Island Blue, and he's not planning to fully retire until the 100th anniversary. It's clear the Joseph Davenport/Victor Shemilt legacy is continuing with no signs of slowing down. The steadfast business values this company was built on are as strong as ever. With a solid reputation, excellent staff and top quality suppliers, Island Blue will surely continue its extraordinary success long into the future.

Link to Island Blue