In a digital world, the printed word still has the most lasting impact. Never is that more palpable than during the holiday season at Charlotte’s own Arzberger Stationers.
From now until late December, nearly one thousand custom orders will make their way through Arzberger’s 17,000-square-foot facility in South End, where engraving machines have been pressing lettering-etched copper plates for more than 100 years. Arzberger’s, which features traditional services like engraving and embossing, as well as the more contemporary offset printing, employs a handful of people who have worked for the company for more than 40 and even 50 years.
“I get asked this all the time, ‘Emails have got to be killing your business,’” owner Luther Dudley says. “I say, ‘No, it's actually not. Our stationery business is growing.’ In the era of digital communication, the power of the written word is far greater than it’s ever been. It just has a bigger impact.”
Dudley was raised in Arlington, Va., by a mother who insisted their family sit down the day after Christmas and write thank-you notes. He believes it’s those same principles that have made Arzberger, which he bought in 1997, stand the test of time.
“The business we're really in is tangible gratitude,” says Dudley. “If somebody loses a parent, you’re going to write them a note to express your gratitude for your friendship. A wedding invitation expresses ‘We’re so happy. Thank you for being our friend. We want you to come and celebrate.’ That’s why it endures. The art is beautiful, but there’s something about holding something in your hands where somebody says thank you.”
Studies have shown, Dudley says, that a person’s eye goes straight to a handwritten letter in a pile of inserts and automated bills almost instantly. But are statistics even necessary? People see it for themselves.
“There’s something driving that, and we’re in the middle of it,” Dudley says.
When Dudley first moved to Charlotte in 1979 to practice law for Kennedy Covington, Lobdell & Hickman, there was a crisp, neat business card from Arzberger’s waiting on his desk.
He appreciated that kind of quality and told George Arzberger so. The two met after Dudley had left law and gone into commercial real estate.
“It must be fun making something beautiful like that,” Dudley remembers saying.
Arzberger’s response? “Maybe we should talk.”
By the time their conversation turned serious, Dudley had bought a smaller printing company in Raleigh called Parker Engraving, which did primarily commercial printing for universities and state government. Dudley bought Arzberger’s at the same time he was moving Parker Engraving to Charlotte and merged the two at Arzberger’s then-4th Street location.
Arzberger, which opened in 1953, had focused on high design and artistry for the discerning individual client. At the time, it was producing 100,000 orders of letterhead for attorneys, physicians and accountants all over town.
In the early 2000s, when email had Dudley rethinking his business model, another specialty printing company, W.A. Buening & Co., approached him. Buening, which was founded in 1922, had the spacious facility on Dunavant Street in South End with better electrical capacity and a loading dock. It also had a network of national representatives selling engraved stationery through retail stores nationwide.
Merging with Buening in 2004 allowed Arzberger to shift sales toward social products. Now, nearly 85 percent of their business is holiday cards, wedding and event invitations, and personal stationery.
“We pivoted pretty hard,” Dudley says. “The Buening acquisition in 2004 was a big part of that because that dealer network was 100% social. It was a conscious decision and turned out to be the right decision. In a relatively small industry, it gave us some scale.”
Dudley says there are about 50 engraving companies similar in size to Arzberger around the country, but only a handful offer an extensive list of boutique services like letterpress, blind embossing, die cutting, foil stamping and more. Arzberger customers can order holiday cards with printed photographs attached to custom-milled paper. A bride can get wedding invitations embossed with flowers from her veil or an artist’s rendering of their wedding venue on the liner of the envelope.
Given the scope of their work and such luxury design, Arzberger’s client list is exclusive. It includes prominent bankers, athletes, politicians and business owners not only in Charlotte but around the country. While Arzberger prefers to keep most of those names private, it doesn’t mind sharing a piece of its storied history that includes Jackie Onassis Kennedy and Gregory Peck among its former clients.
“We’re like vinyl records,” says Muriel DeLaPaz, design director for Arzberger. “People think, ‘Oh my gosh, records are going out.’ They’re not. They’re still around, and they’ve made a huge comeback.”
"In the era of digital communication, the power of the written word is far greater than it’s ever been."
“The business we're really in is tangible gratitude."