Service backs these paper profits

PRINT IT: Charles Perkowski, vice president of Central Paper Co. Inc., at the company’s new location in downtown Providence.  The storefront targets the growing number of people interested in letterpress and traditional printing techniques. / PBN PHOTO/FRANK MULLIN
PRINT IT: Charles Perkowski, vice president of Central Paper Co. Inc., at the company’s new location in downtown Providence. The storefront targets the growing number of people interested in letterpress and traditional printing techniques. / PBN PHOTO/FRANK MULLIN

Charles Perkowski wants other New Englanders to be as excited about paper as he is. Vice president of Central Paper Co. Inc., a regional paper distributor that’s been in his family for more than 60 years, Perkowski grew up around reams of white copy paper, boxes of envelopes and all imaginable types of stationary.
While some may have sought out a more fashionable career when they got out of college, Perkowski couldn’t wait to put his own mark on the paper industry.
“I was excited by the family business through and through since birth,” he said.
To bring some of that excitement to others, Perkowski is helping Central, and its retail affiliate Paperworks, move into more specialized, high-end and boutique papers.
Last summer, Paperworks opened its first retail shop in downtown Providence, in a Dorrance Street storefront targeted to Rhode Island School of Design students and the growing number of people interested in letterpress and traditional printing techniques.
“The retail side is incredibly specialty focused,” Perkowski said. “We have all-cotton paper or Italian metallic paper and all kinds of wild colors.”
After getting out of college in 2007, Perkowski launched online stores for both wholesale and retail. Although businesses buying wholesale still prefer placing their orders with the help of a salesperson, Perkowski said about half of retail sales are now made over the Internet.
Significant as they are, the rise of online sales and the popularity of specialty papers are only two of many changes that have shaped the business since Central was founded in 1950.
The Perkowski family’s first exposure to the paper business was in printing, which Charles’ great grandfather took up after moving to Central Falls from Poland in the 1930s.
Charles’ grandfather was more of a salesman and in the 1940s began buying and selling paper in bulk between different printing houses.
Eventually, he decided to drop the printing business altogether and focus on selling paper as Central Paper.
In the early years of the company, most printing was done using letterpress, the direct application of ink with metal blocks, technology first developed in the 15th century. In the 1970s, printers started moving to offset printing, which transferred photographic images onto paper using rollers and allowed fast, high-quality reproduction on a large scale.
The new technique increased demand for paper with different properties, especially sheets that wouldn’t jam or wrinkle when run through large presses.
Then starting in the 1990s, digital printing and desktop publishing started taking off, a trend that continues as large, fast inkjet printers increase demand for paper with specialty coatings and gloss.
With some customers seeking out new papers for digital printing and others starting up boutique businesses making craft products with letterpress, the variety of paper Central sells has never been larger.
“Now Paperworks has gone full circle and sells a lot of letterpress, because that has become the cool thing to do,” Perkowski said. “We sell all kinds of paper now.”
Along with bulk sheet paper, Central and Paperworks can customize paper for envelopes, business cards, flyers, invitations and restaurant menus.
Including the Pawtucket and Providence stores, the company has four other Paperworks locations, including Boston, Hartford and Stamford, Conn., and Nashua, N.H. All but the Boston and Providence stores are also the sites of Central distribution centers.
Wholesale still represents the bulk of Central’s sales and allows Paperworks to offer retail products and prices it couldn’t on its own.
Even more than direct digital sales, perhaps the biggest change to the paper business brought about by the Internet is a reduction in the amount of printed paper used by businesses due to email.
That’s made Central refocus its efforts on selling a service, helping customers get the best possible paper for whatever they need, instead of just a product.
For that reason, Perkowski doesn’t see direct Internet sales ever taking over completely.
“Online is nice a backup for the retail end, but we really value the person-to-person contact in wholesale,” Perkowski said. •

COMPANY PROFILE
Central Paper Co. Inc.
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Paper distributor and retailer
OWNERS: Paul Perkowski
LOCATION: 400 Glenwood Ave., Pawtucket
EMPLOYEES: 90
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1950
ANNUAL SALES: NA

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