Quad history

In the midst of a national recession, Quadracci convinced key production personnel from Krueger to join him at Quad/Graphics, and in 1972 he brought his father aboard as chairman of the board.

Surviving such catastrophes as press breakdowns and expensive press rebuilds, however, by 1973 sales had climbed to $2.8 million and the work force had grown to 25.

In 1974 he added a saddle stitcher to enhance his production capabilities; hired his first customer service rep; and adopted a three-day, 12-hour-shift work week so his presses could run around the clock, seven days a week.

QUAD was founded in 1975 by E.W. “Bud” Myers, an appliance repairman who suffered a spinal cord injury from a diving accident in the Sandy River.

The year 1976 was also the first in which Quadracci began requiring his delivery fleet to locate cargo to haul during their empty return trips.

Quadracci's hands-on approach worked, and in 1977 Newsweek agreed to give Quad/Graphics a try when its regular printer was unable to complete a press run.

Quadracci made sure the magazine was printed perfectly, and by October 1978 Quad/Graphics was also binding a portion of each week's Newsweek as it came off the presses.

Bud was able to bring together donors, contractors and, advocates and by 1980 they opened Meyers Court, QUAD’s original community.

When it began printing People magazine in 1987, Quad/Graphics had become the world's largest printer of newsweekly magazines, with more than 3,100 employees and sales of $226 million.

In 1988, it launched Quad/Tech Europe and broke ground on its High Tech Centre in Sussex.

In 1989 Quadracci acquired W. R. Bean & Son of Thomaston, Georgia, established CB Graphics (now Quad/Sheetfed), and began offering customers in-house mailing list management services initially under the name of Quad/List Management, then later Quad/Data Services.

In 1990, Harry V. Quadracci, the founder of the nation’s largest privately held commercial printing company, Quad/Graphics, had become frustrated.

In May 1994, the company established a company record when it stitched more than 912,000 copies of Newsweek in a single day.

By 1996 Quad/Graphics was operating no fewer than 70 presses in eight locations.

In 1997 it followed this with an agreement to print catalogs through Brazilian printer Plural Editora e Grafica and pursued ventures with printing firms in China and India.

Burnside Station Apartments opened for service in 2004 with 21 new apartments in East Portland.

Joel Quadracci, Harry’s younger son, took over as president and CEO in 2006 during the 35th anniversary of our company’s founding.

As a result of the game-changing Worldcolor acquisition, Quad became a publicly traded company on the New York Stock Exchange on July 6, 2010.

Since joining QuadMed in 2011, Michelle has established strong client partnerships built on trust, responsiveness and a passion for service excellence.

Previously Stefanie held positions at ProHealth Care before joining QuadMed in 2013.

Our latest building, East Portland’s Station 162, added 45 more units in January 2017.