By Kate Sanchez

The Print Shop, located at 1101 E. 3rd St, in Portales, has been in business for 49 years.  Owned and operated by Leroy and Gaynelle Thomas, they are a print shop that produces all material by custom orders.  They have customers from all over NM and west Texas.

From letterheads, business cards, and envelopes, to wedding and graduation announcements, The Print Shop will suit your needs for any printing you need done. They are also a FedEx receiving company, meaning a customer can drop off an item to be mailed FedEx. Leroy says he feels this is a great service for the community, otherwise, you’d have to drive to Clovis for your FedEx needs.  

The Print shop is a family-owned and operated business.  Leroy and Gaynelle both are active in the day-to-day operations; Leroy performing tasks such as gluing, padding, and hole punching, and Gaynelle in bookkeeping and invoicing.  Their daughter, Cozetta, runs the front end of the store and her husband, Tom, is the press man. Meanwhile, Leroy and Gaynelle’s son also pitches in when extra hands are needed.  Although not born in Portales, Leroy says he has lived here since 1960, and purchased the business on July 1 of 1970, and in doing so, fulfilled a void of his own at the time. Although working for another printing press at the time, Leroy needed business cards on a certain occasion, and the company couldn’t get any done.  So, the young man printed his own, and that afternoon, the owner of the business was sitting at his doorstep asking if he wanted to buy the whole business from him, and from there, the rest was history.

The Thomas family takes pride in the town they live and work in and are glad to be here.  “We love Portales, it’s a great community,” Leroy shares. He and his wife are very active in the community and belong to organizations like the Chamber and Altrusa and are very active in their church.  “We stay very busy,” he shares with a chuckle. But most of all, Leroy says he’d like his customers and the people of the area to know that they feel fortunate to be living in such a great place and truly appreciate all of the business they receive year after year.   

Be sure to stop by The Print Shop for any of your custom printing needs!