Squeegee Printers, Inc.

Squeegee Printers, Inc. We have 2 automatic printing presses and 18 embroidery heads to offer fast, reliable service.

Merry Christmas from all of us at Squeegee!
12/23/2019

Merry Christmas from all of us at Squeegee!

01/29/2019

Part 9:
So here we are, after 35 years. What I didn’t talk about are the various projects that came and went: Holiday and Special Occasion buttons, our patented Christmas Tree kits, our “Embroidery for Quilters” fabric squares. All these were Dick’s brainchild and although they were good for a while, Squeegee Printers is first and foremost a “T-shirt shop”. Printing and embroidering clothing is what we do best and what we will continue to do.
It hasn’t been as much fun without Dick, but with the help of Squeegee’s amazing employees and the support of our customers, Squeegee will continue to print and embroider beautiful shirts.
I’ll be scanning and posting photos throughout the week. If you’ve been following this story, thank you. And thank you for your kind comments.

01/28/2019

Part 8:
It was Moose Festival weekend and we had been selling Moose Fest shirts on Friday and Saturday in Colebrook and Canaan. Sunday evening, a pick-up pulled into our front yard to tell us that smoke was coming out of the shop building. We called 911 and ran out to investigate and sure enough, the building was filled with smoke. The Beecher Falls Volunteer Fire Dept. arrived quickly and discovered that the fire had mostly been extinguished and was smoldering. The building had apparently been struck by lightning in the vicinity of one of the automatic presses. There happened to be a rubber hose that connected our screen room to our water supply and the heat of the fire caused the hose to burst and spray out water, effectively putting out the flames. The building and most of the equipment were saved and any losses were due to smoke damage. Within a week, we were back to work and eternally grateful. I still have that length of burst hose in my office…

01/25/2019

Part 7:
Contract printing was an avenue to be explored. With contract printing, the client handles the sales, the artwork, and the purchase of the shirts and Squeegee handles the production end of it. We acquired our first contract account – one we are still privileged to work with. We built a reputation for providing fast service, high quality work, and confidentiality for our clients. We were able to build our contract customer base and through them, we shipped orders throughout New England, and eventually throughout the United States and the Caribbean.

Several of our clients asked if we did embroidery, and we always had to regretfully say no. We finally decided that adding embroidery to the shop was a good path to take and we purchased a 12-head embroidery machine. This enabled us to offer full services to our contract and local customers. We expanded our client base and our work was featured in several national catalogs and chain stores. Unfortunately, we couldn’t take credit for any of this because it was produced for a contract customer. But we know who it was for and we are quite proud of that accomplishment! After several years, we decided to upgrade our embroidery equipment. The existing machine we had was able to embroider 12 items at one time, but all 12 heads had to embroider the same design. We opted to purchase single-head machines that gave us the flexibility to embroider different designs on each head. Everything went well until the summer of 2004…

01/24/2019

Part 6:
Dick had been working full time at Squeegee for a while; local business had picked up and an employee was hired. Pat eventually left her day job and became full time at Squeegee as well. The front half of the barn had become congested and it was decided to open up and refinish the back portion of the building. At the same time, a 2nd automatic press was added and the electric oven was upgraded to a larger gas oven to be able to support both automatic presses. A line of stock prints was designed for retail sales, and Pat took to the road to call on potential customers. Although the shirts were well received, it was decided that this wasn’t the right path for our company. So, what happened next?

01/23/2019

Part 5:
Dick used to be a dairy farmer and the barn was located next door to the Beauregard home. Because he had not farmed for many years, the barn was used for storage and the time had come to put it to better use. In 1988, the front half of the barn was updated to house Squeegee Printers. Radiant heating was installed, walls put up, and the existing equipment was brought down from the upstairs work area and into the shop. The 1-color automatic press was a wide format press and was able to print signs, posters, and other flat non-fabric items. An 8-color, 10-station automatic printing press was soon added. There was so much work space – we knew we’d be all set for a long time! Well, maybe not…

01/22/2019

Part 4:
Realization that options were limited with a 1-color press set up in the garage (winters are COLD in northern Vermont), more research was done and the decision to upgrade was made. A 4-color, 4-station hand press and a small electric oven was purchased and moved into a vacant apartment upstairs at the Beauregard home. Upstairs – keep that in mind… Slowly, word got out that shirts were being printed and a few local orders were made. The Cape Cod friend introduced us to a retail chain at the Cape and we provided them with shirts for their stores. Business was picking up. The small electric oven couldn’t keep up, so a bigger oven was needed and had to be hauled upstairs. Exposure equipment was added, as was a darkroom. A full-size exposure camera was purchased for the darkroom and hauled upstairs. A 1-color, 1-station automatic press was added and hauled upstairs. Upstairs was beginning to get crowded, so what did we do? Part 5 will give you the answer…

01/21/2019

Part 3:
With the small hand printing press set up in the garage (where else, LOL), a few shirt orders were being processed, using screens that were manually made and ink that air dried. It was a fun hobby while both Dick & Pat held down their day jobs at the balloon company. At one point, a family friend who owned an advertising business on Cape Cod, asked if we could print on burlap bags. Sure! Why not? (This response ended up being a theme throughout Squeegee’s history). Burlap was a challenge; an even bigger challenge was printing a 2-color design with a 1-color press. There was a learning curve…
New equipment, new location – read about it in Part 4…

01/18/2019

Part 2:
After much trial & error, foil balloons were being screen printed at the balloon factory, which was located behind The Balsams Grand Resort Hotel. The owner of the Balsams Gift Shop was interested in this screen printing project and asked if it would be possible to print T-shirts for the shop. The equipment used for balloons wasn’t really compatible for garment printing, but that didn’t stop Dick (!). With a little more research, he found what was needed for shirt printing and purchased a 1-color, 1-station screen printing hand press.
Where did it go from there? Part 3 coming up…

01/17/2019

How we began Part 1:
Squeegee Printers was founded by Dick & Pat Beauregard in 1984. At that time, both were working for a balloon company – Dick as production manager and Pat in sales. Latex balloons had been around for many years, but the mylar, or “foil” balloons were pretty new to the industry. Dick was tasked with finding a technology that could print on foil balloons in a small production run. After several months of research, he found a method to screen print these foil balloons in a way that didn’t melt the balloons and didn’t add too much ink to weigh them down. It was a success.
How does this relate to Squeegee, you ask?
Stay tuned for Part 2…

01/16/2019

So, how did Squeegee Printers get its start? Check back soon for our story...

01/09/2019

We've updated our page with more information. Check out the videos if you'd like to see how shirts are printed and embroidered.
Happy 2019! Hope this year will be the best one yet!

Address

Canaan, VT
05903

Opening Hours

Monday 7am - 4pm
Tuesday 7am - 4pm
Wednesday 7am - 4pm
Thursday 7am - 4pm

Telephone

(802) 266-3426

Website

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