The Kansas City Star
Business
Printer wins award for small businesses
By Joyce Smith
Staff Writer

People are born to do certain things, according to Sam Gromowsky. He thinks he was destined to become an entrepreneur and it also was his lifelong dream, one that he finally accomplished when he was 29. Now, 31 years after he opened Almar Printing, Inc., he’s being honored today as the 1997 Small Business Person of the Year by the district office of the U.S. Small Business Administration.
The award is given for the company’s growth and staying power, innovative practices, increase in the number of employees and community support.
“I take a lot of pride in taking something belongs to someone else and making it better,” Gromowsky said.
Almar prints letterheads, catalog sheets, price sheets, forms and four-color brochures, and offers copying services.
Gromowsky’s father died when Gromowsky was 6 years old. Five years later, his mother came down with tuberculosis. Gromowsky and three of his five siblings were sent to an orphanage until she recovered. By then, he had graduated from Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska.
Boys Town put most of its charges through a trade program. Gromowsky started in the shoe repair shop, but after he misbehaved, the home asked him if he wanted to move into another vocation.
“I had an uncle who was a screen printer,” he said. “I assumed that was a good thing to do, but I didn’t know anything about it. I loved it.”
He learned to use a Linotype and a hand-fed press that was powered by a foot pedal. After he graduated in 1954, he joined a weekly newspaper in southern Missouri for a few months before joining a commercial printer on the south Texas border, Gromowsky later reunited with most of his family in Kansas City.
Gromowsky worked for a printer of law briefs for a few years, then started a part-time printing business in his basement. In 1966, he moved to a tiny space above a Waldo bar.
His large family sent business his way, and he learned to seize every opportunity. The company gets 20 to 30 price inquiries a day from prospective clients. Instead of just giving them a price, Almar employees try to sit down with them to determine their needs.
Labconco Corp. has been an Almar customer more than a decade. Shirley Hogenkamp, spokeswoman for the company, said she liked Almar’s quick response to orders and its customer service.
“They know us so well that they understand, without a lot of explanation, what we want,” Hogenkamp said.
Gromowsky said his 12 employees seem more like friends. When the company reached a million dollars in sales a year ago, he treated them and their spouses to a trip to New Orleans.
The company has expanded twice in its current location at 7735 Wornall Road. Sales were nearly $1.3 million in 1996. The company expected to increase that to $1.7 million this year before a February fire set it back.
The fire extensively burned the interior of the building and Gromowsky briefly considered retiring.
“Then I got news of the award,” he said. “It couldn’t have come at a better time.”

S.B.A. 1997 Small Business Awards
Small Business Person of the Year

Sam Gromowsky
President
Almar Printing, Inc.

 Sam Gromowsky spent much of his childhood at Father Flanagan’s Boys Town in Omaha, Nebraska. It was at Boys Town that Sam was first introduced to the printing classes and trade that would become his life-long career.
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In 1964, Sam purchased a small duplicator press with money loaned to him by his father-in-law. Setting the press up in the basement of the duplex he shared with his new wife, Mary, Sam planted the seeds of what would grow into a thriving small business.
In the Spring of 1966, the company began to blossom when Sam - with no money, a two-year old son, and a second child on the way - moved his press to a ten-by-twelve foot room above a bar. Combining his mother’s name, Alice, with his wife’s name, Sam wrote “Almar Printing” on a shingle and opened the door to his one-man operation.
The company grew steadily during its first years and in 1970, Sam hired his first part-time employee. By 1976, Sam and Mary were operating their growing business with the help of three full-time employees. In its first decade, Almar Printing increased its gross sales every year.
In 1980, the company moved to its present location. Since then, Almar has enjoyed constant growth - topping $1 million in sales in 1995. Achieving that sales milestone prompted Sam and Mary to show their gratitude to their employees by taking them and their spouses (22 people) on a weekend trip to New Orleans.
Disaster struck in February 1997 when a fire nearly destroyed the business. However, with a rush of community support, including assistance from his competitors, Sam decided to forge on - for the sake of his loyal employees and customers. From a rental trailer parked next door, Almar Printing continued to operate - sometimes round the clock to ensure customer satisfaction. The company moved back into its building in early Spring.
Sam stresses to his employees the importance of creating and maintaining business and personal relationships. The company has local and national clients that have been returning for more than 20 years. Almar’s very first customer still gets it printing done by the company.
Living by the philosophy that he cannot possibly thank all the people who contributed to his upbringing, education and success, Sam honors them through the many community projects he and Mary are involved with, including foster parenting and volunteering weekly at a soup kitchen. Sam has also had long-time involvement in numerous local organizations, including the South Kansas City Chamber, the Optimist Club of Southwest KC and the Waldo Area Business Association.


Missouri House of Representatives
Resolution

Whereas, Sam Gromowsky, President of Almar Printing, Inc., of Kansas City, Missouri, has recently attained a rare measure of distinction in being selected to receive the 1997 Small Business Person of the Year award from the U.S. Small Business Administration of Kansas City; and
Whereas, this prestigious award is presented annually to outstanding entrepreneurs and the small business advocates who work to improve conditions for small business owners; and
Whereas, coming from an impoverished background with little formal training, Sam Gromowsky has created a thriving printing business which has contributed substantially to economic development of his community for many years, and he has also succeeded in making his business a stable, happy work place for several full-time employees; and
Whereas, Almar Printing has enjoyed steady growth ever since its founding, a period of progress that has been marked by such events as the hiring of the first part-time employee in 1970, the company’s move to its present location in 1980, and the attainment of the company’s $1 million milestone in sales in 1995, and event that prompted Mr. Gromowsky to take all his employees and their spouses on a weekend trip to New Orleans; and
Whereas, while stressing to his employees the importance of creating and maintaining business and personal relationships, Sam Gromowsky has built a local base of local and national clients who have been returning to the company for more than twenty years, including the company’s very first customer; and
Whereas, Sam Gromowsky has contributed substantially to the welfare of his community not only as an entrepreneur, but also as a dedicated volunteer leader who has participated in many community projects with his wife, and who has also maintained a longtime record of involvement with such local organizations as the South Kansas City Chamber of Commerce, the Optimist Club of Southwest Kansas City, and the Waldo Area Business Association:
Now, therefore, be it resolved that we, the members of the Missouri House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth General Assembly, hereby join unanimously in extending our warmest congratulations to Sam Gromowsky as he receives this well-deserved recognition as Small Business Person of the Year, and further extend to him our very best wishes for continued success; and
Be it further resolved that the Chief Clerk of the Missouri House of Representatives be instructed to prepare a properly inscribed copy of this resolution for Mr. Sam Gromowsky, as a measure of our esteem for him.

Offered by Representative Sandra D. Kauffman, District No. 45

I, Steve Gaw, Speaker of the House of Representatives, Eighty-ninth General Assembly, First Regular Session, do certify that the above is a true and correct copy of House Resolution No. 1596, adopted June 2, 1997.

Steve Gaw, Speaker

“Salus Populi Suprema Lex Esto”

Ingram’s
Kansas City’s Leading Business Magazine
A Salute to Small Business

Sam Gromowsky
Owner, Almar Printing

   Sam Gromowsky believes in treating people right, and takes that philosophy seriously when it comes to the employees of his Kansas City printing company.
   “I think one of the reasons we’ve been successful is that we hire good people, then stay out of their way and let them do their job,” says Gromowsky, who started Almar Printing more than 30 years ago.
Gromowsky says he appreciates his staff’s good work and tries to show that through providing a variety of benefits - the company pays for full health and dental coverage for employees and their families, contributes to each employee’s retirement plan regardless if the employee makes a contribution, and provides paid time off for sick days, jury duty, family emergencies and funerals.
“I believe if I take good care of my employees, they’re going to take care of my customers,” he says.
Gromowsky was named the 1997 Small Business Person of the Year by the U.S. Administration, and was honored at an awards ceremony this month.
Almar Printing was begun in 1965 with a small duplicator press that Gromowsky set up in the basement of the duplex where he and his wife, Mary lived. The next year, Gromowsky moved to a small space above a bar, named the company (combining Alice, his mother’s name, with Mary) and opened his one-man operation to the public. The company moved to a bigger space in 1969 and again in 1980.
The company grew steadily, increasing sales every year during its first decade, and in 1995, Almar Printing topped $1 million in sales. To celebrate, Gromowsky took his wife, their employees and spouses - 22 people in all - on an expense-paid trip to New Orleans.
It was 1980 when the company moved to its current location, and has since expanded twice to accommodate growth. A fire nearly destroyed the operation earlier this year, forcing Almar Printing to set up a temporary facility until a renovation was completed in April.
Gromowsky is being honored this month by the SBA for “the growth and staying power” of Almar Printing, his innovative business practices, the increase in the number of employees and his community support - which includes foster parenting and active participation in the Waldo Area Business Association and the South Kansas City Chamber.
Gromowsky attributes his positive attitude to the kindness that followed him after his hard start in life.
“I’ve been very fortunate in my life,” says Gromowsky, who grew up at Father Flanagan’s Boys Town. “People treated me with utmost respect, and I’ve tried to pass that on.”

Special to the Star.
Boss gives a ‘Big Easy’ thank-you
By Margaret Schmitz Rizzo

Almar Printing employees and their families get a trip to New Orleans as reward for helping the company thrive.

The employees of Almar Printing were all smiles Sunday when they got off the plane at Kansas City International Airport. A trip to New Orleans can do that.
The source of their glee - and the weekend in the Big Easy - was their boss, Sam Gromowsky.
It seems that five years ago Gromowsky promised the employees of this company at 7735 Wornall Road that if they reached $1 million in sales he would take them all to New Orleans.
They finally did, and he paid up this weekend - in a big way.
Gromowsky, his wife, Mary, the employees and their spouses - 22 persons in all - made the trip. He chose New Orleans because he considers it one of the top cities in the country for restaurants.
“I knew none of them would go there on their own,” Gromowsky said on Sunday. “It was just a fun thing to do.”
They checked into the historic Dauphine Orleans Hotel in the French Quarter, then headed to dinner at The Court of the Two Sisters. The menu included lobster, trout wellington and Creole seafood gumbo.
“Dinner was great, all four courses,” said Jeff Bennet, a 19-year employee.
Sarah Smith echoed the sentiment.
“It was great. We heard a lot of music, looked at a lot of shops. We had a great dinner…too much wine,” she said.
There aren’t many bosses like Sam Gromowsky, his employees say. In an era of corporate downsizing and greed, he displays old-fashioned values such as loyalty, concern and respect for employees.
“I have worked quite a few places and there was something not quite comfortable,” said Mary Kay Savage. “This is the best place I’ve ever worked.”
Compassion for others was founded in Gromowsky’s difficult early years.
Christmas was a box of No. 2 pencils at an orphanage where he grew up, separated from his brothers and sisters.
His Polish immigrant father died when Gromowsky was 6. His mother spent most of his childhood in the hospital dying of tuberculosis.
Gromowsky, now 59, learned the printing trade at Boys Town in Nebraska. He worked at a newspaper in southern Missouri, where he was paid 50 cents an hour with no overtime. It was then that he vowed to treat employees the way he wanted to be treated.
“There by the grace of God go I,” he said.
The trip to New Orleans was originally scheduled for April, the company’s 30th anniversary, but it was moved up to accommodate a pregnant employee.
One employee has worked for Gromowsky for 19 years, one for 15 years and one for 10 years. All four of his sons have worked in the business at one time or another. His youngest son, Steve, is the production manager.
“We are a family here,” Gromowsky said. “We spend more time here than with our blood family.”
Mary Gromowsky, who does the bookkeeping, insisted on carpeting throughout the business. She wanted a nice atmosphere, not the dirt and noise associated with a print shop.
So nice, in fact, that people who used to work at the print shop come back to visit.
Employees even pick their own titles.
“Everyone here has a title…except me,” said Gromowsky, sitting behind the first new desk he’s had in 30 years. But Gromowsky doesn’t spend much time at his desk anyway.
He spends most of his time out front with the customers.
Gromowsky’s first customer is still a customer. “I’m real proud of that,” he said.

Caption: The owner of Almar Printing, Sam Gromowsky, received a big thanks on Sunday from Jeanne Bennett after giving his employees and their spouses a weekend trip to New Orleans.
Gary Dunkin/Special to The Star

Note from Jeanne:
Sam & Mary,
I just wanted to send a little note to tell you how much we appreciate you, not just the trip to New Orleans, but for everything you’ve done for us.
Over the years we’ve had many obstacles but we always knew that we could depend on you. You’ve never seemed like a “Boss,” you’ve always been like “family.” We’ve grown up together, we’ve raised kids together and we’ve watched Almar grow together.
You’re the BEST! I couldn’t have hand picked a better couple to spend the last 20 years with.
Thanks for being you: kind, generous, thoughtful and caring. It’s made our life enjoyable.
Love
Jeff & Jeanne

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