The Dingley Press began more than 70 years
ago in the Lewiston-Auburn area. It was then moved to Portland,
and in the 1930s to Freeport
when a long term relationship developed with L.L. Bean.
From 1940 to 1972, The Dingley Press was a tenant
of L.L. Bean, occupying the ground floor of the L.L. Bean retail store building,
and printing catalogs by sheetfed letterpress. New printing methods came
along, allowing The Dingley Press to advance from rotary letterpress, to sheetfed
offset, and ultimately to web offset with the move to a new facility in Freeport
in 1972.
The Dingley Press grew throughout the 1970s due in
large part to L.L. Bean, which experienced dramatic growth during this
time. The Dingley Press staff increased from 18 employees in 1972
to over 70 in 1981. At that time, L.L. Bean decided to change its catalog
printing process to rotogravure, which eliminated The Dingley Press from
eligibility as a vendor. The L.L. Bean account was 93% of the Company’s
volume when the contract ended in the spring of 1981, forcing all at
Dingley to rethink and rebuild to stay alive. In the end it was
the hard work of dedicated employees, an unwavering commitment
to our customers, a positive attitude (and a little luck) that
got us through the tough times.
In the years
since, we moved into a new plant in Lisbon, Maine and have continued
to support existing accounts while developing new ones in an extremely
competitive market. In fact, The Dingley Press is currently ranked
the 5th largest catalog printer in the nation.
