About Thomas Reprographics

A Family Tradition

In 1956, B.J. Thomas founded Thomas Blueprint in Dallas. The company started out with one small location on Greenville Avenue and functioned as a traditional blueprint company. In 1958 at the age of 13, B.J.’s son, Bill, began working for the company during his summer breaks. In 1967, Bill graduated from Southern Methodist University with a Masters degree and performed duties from store manager to sales. In 1973, B.J. acquired Rapid Blueprint in Houston. At that time, Bill moved to Houston to take over as District Manager. He remained there for one year until B.J. decided to retire in 1974 and Bill moved back to Dallas to take over as President.

In 1974, the company name was changed to Thomas Reprographics to better represent the changing industry. Throughout the next decade, Thomas Reprographics strived to advance with technology. They focused on large document copying, color copying, as well as traditional blueprinting as a means to expand business. Bill Thomas continued to expand the company through more acquisitions in Dallas, Phoenix, and a color lab in San Francisco.

In 1994, Bill’s son, Bryan, who had been working various jobs within the company during summers since he was 13 years old, joined the management team. He was also a graduate of SMU with a Masters degree. He spent two years running the color lab in San Francisco and two years as Vice President in Dallas. In 1998, he was named President and Bill became Chief Executive Officer of the company. As president, Bryan has focused on continued expansion into new markets through acquisitions and investment of new equipment. The Thomas family is very proud to be one of the few companies that has successfully been managed by three generations.

In 1997, Bill’s daughter, Brianna, joined the staff as Marketing Director. She had recently graduated from the University of Arizona with a degree in Marketing. She has spent her time with the company coordinating direct mail campaigns, customer promotions, and store remodels. The company has updated their logo to maintain a technologically advanced image as well as a new image for their delivery fleet. The company began with trucks and bicycle deliveries in the ‘60s, then changed to Volkswagen Beetles in the ‘70s, and the newest fleet vehicles are bright, colorful Ford Focuses and Chevy Aveos that can’t be missed.

When Bryan left the color lab in San Francisco, Kent Long, an Assistant Manager in Dallas was sent to run the lab. Kent remained in San Francisco until 1998 when he moved back to Dallas to take the position of District Manager. He now oversees all the Dallas operations and sales staff. In October of 1999 Kent and Brianna were married. The Thomas family is very proud to have Kent as a part of the family business.

Thomas Reprographics was one of the first to revamp the image of the traditional blueprint shop. Starting in the ‘70s, they began upgrading all their locations through remodeling and new equipment. In 1996, Thomas Reprographics opened their first Superstore in Phoenix and in 1998, the Dallas Uptown store was completed. The Superstore concept pools all the digital and technical knowledge into one place. All the smaller locations handle digital bond printing, plain paper copying and small-format color, but the special jobs are all funneled to the Superstore where work on the Cruse Scanner, digital 4-color printers, Durst Lambda photo printer, and Xerox DocuColor color copier is performed by trained technicians. The Superstores all run multiple shifts in the specialized departments to meet the demands of our customers and their deadlines.

By emphasizing customer service, Thomas Reprographics has been successful in catering to the digital customer as well as the traditional reprographics client. Thomas Reprographics was one of the first to isolate Diazo equipment from the main area of their shops so the customer is not burdened with the smell of ammonia. On the graphics side, Thomas Reprographics has strived to become a one-stop shop. It doesn’t matter if a customer wants large or small graphics, in color or in black and white; Thomas Reprographics can output it for the customer and usually offer several options in terms of price, quality and speed.

In the mid ‘90s, Thomas Reprographics began heavily investing in facility management services as another means to expand its business. Facilities management can range from a single piece of equipment in a client’s office to a full service in-house shop run by Thomas Reprographics employees. By using Thomas’ project tracking software, the client even has an opportunity to turn their reprographic costs into a profit center.

Since 1956, Thomas Reprographics has expanded to include locations in Dallas, Fort Worth, Austin, Houston, San Antonio, Phoenix, Tucson, Minneapolis, and South Florida. The Thomas family takes pride in being a family business in these times of consolidation and rapid change in our industry.

2006 marked Thomas Reprographics’ 50th anniversary. The Thomas family hopes to maintain the level of service they have offered over the past 50 years by keeping abreast of the growing and multi-faceted graphic industry and continued expansion into the new millennium.