Thomas Northup always wanted to be an airline pilot. At 62, that seems unlikely at this point, but Northup can still count hundreds of thousands of miles of flight time.
For 20 years, he worked for the MotterStitch Co., traveling the world to install the company’s machines that staple publications such as magazines and sales fliers. In February, he and his wife, Linda, bought the business. Thomas Northup called the purchase job security, lest another buyer snap up the 25-year-old company.
“This was defense,” Northup said. “What do they say? The best defense is a good offense?”
After purchasing the company, Northup moved MotterStitch from its New Jersey location to Charlestown, closer to home. His wife became office administrator and he became president. Together, they spent long days learning the ins-and-outs of business and documenting the institutional knowledge the previous president could rattle off without ever referencing a single note.
Originally founded by a trio of Swedes, the company draws its name from the Motter family, one of its early investors. The Motters owned Motter Printing Press Co. in Pennsylvania and suggested the founders borrow the name to lend the company creditability. Ironically, Motter Printing was later sold but MotterStitch lived on.
The company designs stitching machines that sit in commercial printers that spit out hundreds of thousands of copies of a publication an hour. As a press releases the publication, the stitcher shapes a cord of wire into a staple and drives in a pair at a rate of up to 100,000 volumes per hour.
Northup estimates 450 or so of MotterStitch’s machines are in use around the world, stapling everything from the Home Depot circular in Mexico to the Chicago Tribune’s magazine in Illinois.
“Probably anybody old enough to read has picked up something stapled by us,” he said.
The walls in his office demonstrate the reach of the company. Photos of presses around the world adorn the walls. Three clocks – showing the time in Rhode Island, Sweden and Australia – hang above the conference table.
MotterStitch contracts with engineers in Florida, Sweden, Switzerland and the United Kingdom to undertake the design work and most of the equipment is manufactured in Sweden. A typical system takes about three to four months to design and build. But before that can happen someone – usually Northup – needs to personally inspect the printing press and return with exact measurements.
The publications that rely on MotterStitch technology print on tight deadlines. If the equipment fails, it could jeopardize the timely delivery of the newspaper or the sales flier with time-sensitive advertisements.
The owners say the company has had a solid track record, with no machine ever failing because of a mechanical or design flaw. And the company keeps a service technician on call. For years, that job fell to Northup, a former printing press technician, who met his wife while installing a press.
Now he spends much of his time at the office, although he still makes the occasional trip. In January, he plans to travel to Australia to install stitching machines. A trip to Sweden is also in the works and would provide Mrs. Northup a chance to meet the long-time engineers that she converses with almost daily.
And the Northups see a promising potential for the company. They point to newspapers increasingly establishing new auxiliary publications to generate cash. Many of them are stapled and folded. That makes them easier to read and less likely for pages to blow away. And, Thomas Northup says, public transportation agencies appreciate the fewer sheets left behind by passengers. Hence, the rise of e-readers and e-books does not scare him.
Neither does the poor economy, which has been a drag on sales, but not the death of the company. Still, MotterStitch wants to develop a less expensive stitcher more palatable to smaller presses and smaller newspaper. The company presently sells its machines for between $95,000 and $300,000. Northup wants his engineers to come up with more machines at the lower end of the price range or costing even less.
And when they do, chances are good he’ll be in the air to present them to potential buyers or install them. He does, after all, still need to visit Antarctica.
“I don’t think there’s the Polar Gazette or anything down there,” he said, “yet.” •
COMPANY PROFILE
MOTTERSTITCH CO.
OWNERS: Thomas and Linda Northup
TYPE OF BUSINESS: Designer and installer of commercial stitching machines
LOCATION: 080 South County Trail, Charlestown
EMPLOYEES: 4
YEAR ESTABLISHED: 1985
ANNUAL SALES: $2.5 million
Rhode Island's Market Has Changed. Developers, Builders, Investors and Sellers Must Change With It.
By Emilio DiSpirito IV License Partner | Engel & Völkers Oceanside Leader | The DiSpirito…
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