Store-front shop Hemlock now largest sheet fed printers in region

CEO Dick Kouwenhoven nominated for Award

BURNABY, British Columbia - Hemlock Printers Ltd. is the only employer Dutch immigrant Dick Kouwenhoven has had in his nearly forty years in Canada. The journeyman typographer who in 1962 graduated from the Rotterdam Graphic Arts College was the Kingsway store-front printer’s first and only employee before becoming its owner a short while later in 1968. Just recently, the Delft-born CEO was nominated for the Entrepreneur of the Year Award for the Pacific Region in Canada, and specifically for the Manufacturing category. 

Although Kouwenhoven personally has been recognized before by his peers, far more frequent in his company’s history are the numerous product awards, prizes and trophies it wins every year in local, regional, national and international print competitions. The 2002 Premier Print Awards competition is a case in point. Hemlock Printers Ltd. took one Best of Category Award, a ‘Benny’ statue, the Oscar of the printing industry, along with 30 other awards. Hemlock was recognized for the production excellence of a stunning limited-edition book, Antarctica, a volume of the Explorer Series.

The Premier Print Awards are the industry’s largest and most prestigious prizes in a worldwide competition, hosted annually by the Printing Industries of America (PIA), North America’s largest graphic arts association. This year, the competition attracted more than 4800 entries from 725 printing and graphic arts firms representing 15 countries.

Hemlock Printers Ltd. with 240 employees is one of the largest commercial sheet fed printers in the Pacific Northwest and all of Western Canada. The company offers a complete printing service including in-house colour separation, electronic pre-press, printing, bindery, finishing, and distribution service. Hemlock’s state-of-the-art printing plant, and Hemlock Express – a small press division - are located in Burnaby. The company has auxiliary sales offices in Victoria, Seattle and San Francisco. Hemlock can be contacted via its website at www.hemlock.com.