All About “That Swift Guy”
The family legacy behind Swift Printing is now three generations strong, so it’s only fitting to sit down and hear stories from Walt Gutowski Jr. about his father, Walter Gutowski Sr.
A hard working original WestSider, Walter Gutowski was born in 1922 and grew up in a modest house near Seward Ave and where I-96 now runs through Grand Rapids.
A STRONG WORK ETHIC
Walter got his start at a couple of local print shops, including Pantlind Printing (their building is now the Amway Grand Plaza Hotel!) and Ellinger Printing, although he only spent a couple weeks before Ellinger offered him a job making $1 more an hour. Back then, that was a significant raise and there was really no other option than to take it.
“To give you an idea of the type of guy my dad was, when he left his first employer after just a couple days on the job to take a better-paying job at Ellinger Printing, he told them to just ‘pretend I never worked here’ and forgoed any pay he was owed,” shares Walter Gutowski Jr.
His dedication to printing and entrepreneurial spirit inspired him to pursue business, so Walter enrolled to take some Dale Carnegie courses and face his fear of public speaking.
In 1950, he started a side business printing projects for his own clients out of his house. He would scour the papers for wedding announcements or business news, then call them up to offer his printing services. An entrepreneur for sure!
HIS BLOOD RAN INK
The name Gutowski means “always ready,” but he was known for being swift. In the 40s and 50s, local printers sourced their paper from one supplier, Carpenter Paper. (In 2023, we are grateful for direct on-demand deliveries from our trusted paper suppliers!) Printers would gather in the morning at the paper house to purchase what they needed to complete their orders for that day or week. Often, they would hang around and socialize during pickup hours, drinking coffee and playing cards.
In the early days of his career, Walter would handle the daily or weekly pickups for the print shop where he worked. He quickly established a reputation because he would run in and get his paper and run out, passing by all the other printers socializing in the print house. The manager of Carpenter Paper would always say, “Here comes that swift guy!” whenever Walter came in for a paper order. That name stuck, and it inspired what we know today as Swift Printing Company!
Walter was an extremely hard worker, loved by many because of his light-heartedness and congenial spirit.
Want to learn what it was like to work with Walt Sr.? Read this passage a friend wrote.
“He could get away with things that the average person could never because he had such a great sense of humor,” recounts Walt Gutowski Jr.
INTRODUCING: SWIFT PRINTING COMPANY
In 1954, Walter was ready to take Swift Printing to the next level and rented a building on Bridge Street and set up shop. He needed to establish a strong customer base, so he purchased another local print shop operating out of Muskegon and transferred their business to Swift Printing.
“Dad was self-actualized and hyper-aware of what the most important things in life were,” says Walter Gutowski Jr. “Social status was not something he saw as important or worthy of attention, so I don’t believe using the Gutowski name for the business was ever considered.”
Over time, Walter Gutowski Jr. became more involved in the business and through a series of signed documents and teaching moments with his father, was running the place by 1986.
“Dad wanted us to know how to work and how to be successful, so he spent a lot of time teaching me how to run a business,” says Walter Gutowski Jr.
Today, that same process is happening between Walter Jr. and his daughter, Jessica Gutowski-Slaydon, who just recently joined the ownership team of Swift Printing Company, making Swift majority women-owned.
Jessica Gutowski-Slaydon becomes apart of the ownership team announcement
She is joined in the business operations by her brother, Walter Gutowski III.
One hard-learned lesson with a long-standing client stands out: a client requested a one-day turnaround on a color postcard. They wanted it printed and in mailboxes the next day, but that just wasn’t possible with the prep and coordination required. (Back in the day, printing in color was a long, arduous process – we could certainly meet this deadline for a customer now!) So, Walter Gutowski Sr had to say no. The next day, a single-sided black and white postcard was in their mailbox. The lesson? If you can’t do something for a client, tell them why and offer your best plan B. Lesson learned!
It was lessons like this that Walter Gutowski Sr was able to pass along to his son and grandchildren before his passing in 2013.
Read more about Walt Gutowski Sr. here.
LIFE ON BRIDGE STREET
In the 80s, Walter Gutowski Jr. purchased the building they had been renting from a woman named Mrs. Pursebacher. At the time, they were paying only $75 per month in rent. This was the first purchase from what would later be established as Swift Realty, a company led by Walter Gutowski Jr. that has helped shape Bridge Street as we know it today. In 1996, they purchased a second piece of the building they are in today from Bob Sullivan, a deal that was sealed with an agreement written on a napkin.
The building they are in today at the corner of Bridge Street and Mt. Vernon is actually four separate storefronts, all of which were slowly acquired to give the business more space to grow and serve clients across West Michigan.
None of these buildings had air conditioning, but as technology advanced and computers introduced digital printing, the need came to the forefront in order to keep their computers working. The team was happy about the addition of air conditioning, too!
In the 90s, HP came on the scene selling digital printers and called on Swift Printing year after year. Every year, Walter Gutowski Jr would pass on the digital printer which was a massive investment at the time.
He was finally ready to buy a press from them, but the price was still too high. The same year, Xerox released a similar machine but with a much bigger printing area. He decided to invest in that digital printer in 2008, upgraded in 2012 and then again in 2021 to add the iGen5 to our collection. Today, Swift Printing Company has over 15 different printers in their print shop on Bridge Street. The lesson here? The early bird doesn’t always get the worm!
A LEGACY CONTINUED
You’ll hear things like “all that its name implies” and “my blood runs ink,” from the members of the Gutowski family. Everything that you see today is as a result of the legacy created by Walter Gutowski Sr.
He set the standards in customer service and community involvement for the family behind Swift Printing Company, and it’s our goal to honor that legacy today and every day.
