Gallery
New Owners, new services...
Press Release, 11/27/06
Morrisville, VT – Dennis Clancy, founder of Great Big Graphics, Inc. of Morrisville, has completed the sale of the business on November 1, 2006 to Shannon Matthew Long and Julie Ruth of Montgomery Center. The new owners are both professional artists and designers, and will expand upon the successful sign and graphics business that Clancy has developed over the past twenty-six years.
Great Big Graphics opened for business in 1980, and Clancy quickly established a reputation for quality craftsmanship and design as well as excellent customer service. Specializing in dimensional, carved and hand-painted signs and trucks, Clancy steadily built up a loyal customer base in the greater Lamoille County area. Upon building the 5,100-square-foot facility to house the business in 1998, Great Big Graphics increased their offerings to include additional services such as comprehensive vinyl signs and lettering, screenprinted apparel and large-format digital printing.
With retirement in view, Clancy listed the business for sale in 2005 and began the search for new owners who would continue his tradition of quality and service to the area. He found the match in Shannon (Mat) Long and Julie Ruth.
“I knew it would take time to find just the right person to take over the business. It takes just the right combination of creativity, business sense, hands-on experience and high energy to make Great Big Graphics go and grow. And when I first met Shannon and Julie, I knew I had found not just one right person, but two,” Clancy says.
“With our roots in place here in northern Vermont, we jumped at the opportunity to do what we love and build upon a successful existing business,” says Ruth.
Ralph Monticello, a realtor specializing in commercial transactions with Pall Spera Company, coordinated the sale. Monticello was the first to match up the business with Long and Ruth, believing them to be the ideal people to carry on what Clancy had built up over the years. Financing for the deal was provided by Union Bank. The Morristown Development Fund committed funds for working capital.
The new owners are experienced and professional artists with custom signs in both of their backgrounds. Long is a sculptor renowned in the area for his work with wood, metal and natural objects. He is also a designer with prior management experience. Ruth is a painter with a long exhibition history, illustrator and designer with a career in marketing and communications. She is currently the supervisor of the Marketing and Printing Services Department at Johnson State College in Johnson, Vermont. Before moving to Vermont, she owned and operated a small business for six years in Ohio that specialized in graphic design, illustration and web design. Long moved to the area from the greater Philadelphia area seven years ago. They met while finishing studio art degrees at Johnson State College in 2003, married in 2005, and operated a fine art gallery in Waterbury together last year.
Clancy will stay on at Great Big Graphics full-time for one month, and will be available as a consultant after that period. All three remaining employees are staying on as well, and Crispin Jones will increase to full-time.
Great Big Graphics will offer expanded services immediately, including full-service design packages for both print and web-based media. Area businesses and organizations will be able to select from comprehensive branding and advertising strategies that include custom logo, graphic and web design, e-marketing solutions and publication design. Over the next few months, a non-profit discount will be put into place in order to best serve the numerous area organizations. Student interns from local institutions will be brought on for on-the-job training and portfolio development. Most important to the new owners is maintaining the high standard of quality and service that Clancy introduced in 1980, along with keeping Great Big Graphics’ products and services fresh with up-to-date solutions and new technology.