Business Spotlight: Anchor Graphics
Welcome to our new video series, where we will take you for behind-the-scenes peeks at our amazing local businesses here in Pilot Point!
Anchor Graphics has been a community staple for label printing since the 1980s. During a time when manufacturing was primarily male-dominated, Anchor Graphics was purchased in 1984 and current owner Leslie Goolsby began working side-by-side with her mother in 1987, watching it grow from a company that did $140,000 in the 1980s to a $20 million company in 2022. Started as a label manufacturer, the company has grown to encompass packaging products, boxes, and other printing items needed in the fulfillment sector.
We got the chance to sit down with Leslie to hear about how her company – and the printing industry – has grown during this time.
Q: Tell me about the history of Anchor Graphics.
A: My mother bought Anchor Graphics in 1984. She wanted to be in manufacturing. Her brother helped her get a small company at the time. Anchor Graphics at the time was based in McKinney and very small.
Q: How has the label industry changed in the last 40 years?
A: It’s a huge change. There’s a lot of digital and progressive items that have come through the market. The need has not changed, as they still need product labels, but how those labels are made and the materials they’re made of have changed a lot. We reinvent ourselves all the time with what market we need to focus on.
Q: What would be the most surprising item you produce?
A: The most surprising item we produce is product boxes. When you get a phone from warranty from your carrier, like AT&T or T-Mobile or Verizon, the odds of our product being in that box are very high.
Q: Have there been any times that those solutions you create for other companies, you’ve produced for the market?
A: We do a lot of research and development into creating and inventing products. We’ve invented a product for the property management markets. It is an on-demand parking permit that they can run through their own laser printer. We’re the only ones that create that product, and companies nationwide use it. We are not limited to the local area.
Q: It might be surprising to the local population how many Pilot Point companies do serve the entire nation and even places around the world.
A: You’re going to see that more and more. They’re coming. Labor is not as competitive up here as it is down in Coppell and Grapevine. More companies are coming here for a better labor pool. It’s very easy access around Denton. You can easily get to Fort Worth and Dallas.
Q: How have you seen the business grow?
We’ve grown with business relationships. While we utilize technology a lot, we use the things that our customers look for: we are a solutions provider. When they have a problem, they come in and we work with their personal sales reps to provide their solutions for them. That’s how we have grown. We don’t do things on bid, we aren’t a down-and-dirty cheap printer. We’re the one who is going to solve your problems, be there if your line goes down, and go above and beyond.
Q: What’s next for Anchor Graphics?
A: We are in the process of working with the City to build another 8,000-square-foot building. That will increase our capacity and some of the things that I’m having to send out, like the finishing, we will be able to bring all of that back in-house.
Anchor Graphics
224 W Division St | 940-422-4300| anchorgraphics.com | Anchor Graphics Facebook
This is our monthly series of videos covering the local businesses that make Pilot Point special. Follow us on YouTube for the latest!