Joan and I have seen many changes in the 20 years we’ve been in the copy and print business in Helensville and 25 years at Huapai. That’s not just in the traffic chaos and area development either.
Very few people had a home computer when Joan and I bought Datasec, an office services business, from Russell Prescott and Judy Remacha in 1993.
Cell phones then were literally the size of bricks and could only be used for making and receiving phone calls, Windows were something you looked at the weather through, and scan was something you did of the horizon.
When we moved from above the old FruitFed premises (now a pet food business) to our present location in Huapai in November 1998, we also opened in Helensville, where Helensville Fishery is now.
But the time has come for us to slow down, so during November we will be closing our Helensville shop and consolidating the business at Huapai. We will of course take all our Helensville customer files with us, so no one will be left stranded, and we will continue to operate five-days a week at Huapai. The move will reduce our overheads significantly, so our prices will not change, It will also enable us to carry on as long as possible at Huapai, where our services are still very much in demand, and mean we can take turns at having a day off! Most importantly Anita will be coming with us!!
We plan to continue the Helensville Community News, the same way we have for the last 9 years, offering a modest priced way for businesses to promote themselves to the general public. With 4,300 copies printed and distributed every month of the year, we provide a real community information service.
The services we offer may have changed over the years, but they are still essentially the same.
Back in the 1990s, the main tasks included typesetting newsletters, magazines and restaurant menus; typing letters, reports and CVs; Dictaphone typing, maintaining databases, managing payrolls and sending numerous faxes. Now, fax machines are almost a thing of the past, its now all “scan and email please”.
There is also less typing and typesetting as most people now bring in their creations on a USB or email it for printing.
My motto has always been “It doesn’t matter what you want, ask us first. If we can’t do it we’ll know someone who can.”
Brian, Joan and Anita
(See you in Huapai, we hope!)
