Valley Publishing Co Inc

Headquartered in Carlstadt, N.J., Pantone is a developer of colors and color communication tools for design professionals and the graphic arts community. It has been operational for more than 40 years and offers a wide range of products and services. It sells its products to various licensees in more than 100 countries and serves the graphic arts, fashion, home, interior, plastics, architectural, paint, industrial design and consumer markets. It offers color consulting services, including devise and revise product colors, packaging and corporate color identities for small and medium-sized companies and major corporations in a variety of industries. The company provides various products, including publications, equipment, designer accessories, hexachrome printing systems, color selectors for plastics and textiles, software and graphics. It provides the Pantone Matching System, which is a book of standardized colors in a fan format.

When one owns a business that has been open for 78 years, survived a great depression, two floods, a world war, and three generations of family, it tends to have quite an extensive history. Ever Ready Press was founded in 1929 by George Halpin and was located in downtown Ansonia. Due to the Depression, the business experienced a rough beginning. George did have some help through these tough times though ; his brother Joseph was the business's typesetter. The business experienced another set back when it had to close for three years during World War II while George and Joseph went out to serve their country ; George was with the Army Engineers in England, France, and Germany and Joe in Navy in the South Pacific. The closing did put a dent in business but by reopening time the old customers were glad to be back and new ones followed. Ever Ready Press was forced to relocate due to being completely washed out by the 1955 flooding of the Naugatuck River. Two floods occurred that year, one in August that dumped 7 feet of water and another in October with an additional 5 feet. These floods destroyed practically everything and forced George and Joe to relocate and start again. The business relocated to 78 Clifton Avenue in Ansonia. Back then printing was long, tedious and time consuming. The type for the jobs needed to be placed individually into a frame and then paper was hand fed into the machine which stamped the image onto the paper. This was the process performed everyday, for every job. In the early 1970s George's son Frank became affiliated with the business. In 1974 George retired, leaving the business to his son Frank. Joseph retired in 1977 and Ever Ready Press was now under the sole ownership of Frank Halpin who currently remains the owner. With new ownership came new and more efficient equipment. The letterpress was overcome by the new and improved high speed offset press. With the addition of the offset press, the business could now mass produce orders faster and better than ever ; with the old letterpress only running about 700-1000 sheets an hour, the new offset can now produce 6000-8000 an hour. The business currently operates four one color offset presses and two, two color presses. With today's technology Ever Ready Press can now provide its customers with graphic designing and multi-colored jobs. We continue to develop and are always experimenting with new ideas and better ways to accommodate our customers. Ever Ready Press proudly celebrated its 75th anniversary on March 4, 2004. Frank's son Andrew currently works as an apprentice for his father. Andrew attends the University of New Haven and is majoring in business management with hopes to take over the family owned business after graduation. Ever Ready Press continues to run strong with hopes of one day becoming a century old printing business.