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Canadian trade printer SinaLite turns 21

Markham, Ont.-based wholesale printer SinaLite celebrated 21 years in business in January – and it’s come a long way in the incredibly competitive Canadian printing industry, having evolved from a small family-operated company into one of Canada’s leading trade printers that has now partnered with over 10,000 businesses.

The company was founded in 1999 by husband-and-wife team Oscar and Fara Meshkati, with a small single-colour offset press and a 1,200-square-foot print shop. The couple worked hard printing flyers, pamphlets, NCR forms, and other products that their clients needed while promoting their business through trade shows, word of mouth, print advertising, and direct mail. Eighteen months later, they were able to purchase a two-colour A.B. Dick, followed by a four-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster. The referrals began to come in – slowly at first and then by the dozens – and the business took off.

A large part of the firm’s success in those earlier years came from adapting to changes in the industry. As the print business began to stagnate as it went digital in the mid-2000s, for example, SinaLite began the process of growing across Canada and the U.S as an e-commerce wholesale trade printer.

Today, despite being one of the largest trade-only printers serving all of North America, SinaLite is still a family-owned Canadian print business. The Meshkati’s son Michael, who had been involved in the company in various capacities in the past, joined the firm full-time in 2001, followed by second son Brian in 2011. Currently, Michael serves as company president and Brian is the vice president.

SinaLite now prints at its 100,000 square-foot facility using over $20 million worth of state-of-the-art technology. They provide more than 1,000 product options to print shops, print brokers, graphic designers, sign shops, and more. Since the beginning, Michael Meshkati said, they have never compromised on their three core values: quality, service, and meeting deadlines.

This year SinaLite is adding another chapter to its story, with plans to launch a new apparel printing lineup, improved roll label printing capabilities, and more.