image description
Beck's has been operating out of the city-owned Windsor Mill for the 25 years with John Haskins owning it for 18.

Beck's Printing Owner Celebrating 18th Year

By Andy McKeeveriBerkshires Staff
Print Story | Email Story

Haskins traces his interest in printing back to his days at Drury High School.

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — While the Windsor Mill has seen its share of businesses move in and out, one owner is quietly celebrating his 18th year that included doubling the size of the shop and employment just a year ago.

Feb. 1 will mark 18 years since John Haskins purchased Beck's Printing. Haskins has been the man behind the press providing everything from envelopes to business cards to posters to architectural plans for nearly every city business.

"You'd be hard pressed to find a business in the area that we're not doing business with in some capacity," Haskins said. "Any ink on paper that you can think of, we can do. We don't job anything out; we do it all here on site."

Haskins traces his interest in printing back to Drury High School, where he took graphic design classes. From there he went on to work for a competing shop and about eight years into it he found himself running the entire business. He then bought Beck's.

"The opportunity presented itself and it was time to make a move," Haskins said on Tuesday.

He retained the customers Beck's had before his arrival and has slowly grown. Mostly through word of mouth, he has become a go-to person for local businesses and beyond.

"We've had our ups and downs with the economy but business has always grown consistently," he said. "Business definitely increased from year to year."


When Staples closed, taking its printing division with them, Haskins saw an increase in business. Shortly after, with the Kolok Gallery having moved out of the space next door, he expanded. He leased out that space, which doubles his square-footage, and brought on two to three more employees — an increase from just him and his son during the toughest economic times. He then invested more than $150,000 to create a digital print division.

Last year, Beck's added a second division to its operations, which doubled the number of employees and square footage.

"We had a very strong second half of 2012 once everything was up and running and that has continued so far in 2013. It allowed us to diversify what we offer," Haskins said. "It brought in a lot of new customers and we were able to offer more to our existing ones."

When asked what the key to his success is, Haskins said it is all about being a "working owner."

"I still run the press. I still make a lot of the deliveries," Haskins said.

And the biggest challenge is keeping up with technology. When Haskins first started he was printing items as simple as resumes for customers but since those are now done at home, his work has become much more complicated. Additionally, the printing equipment constantly improves requiring even more investment.

"We're competing with the Internet and winning every day," Haskins said.

Offering such services as an on-site graphic designer to follow the project from beginning to end is what keeps customers coming back.

With one expansion in the books, Haskins said he doesn't have another expansion in the works yet. But, he is "far from calling it quits" and always on the lookout for growth opportunities.


Tags: printing,   small business,   

If you would like to contribute information on this article, contact us at info@iberkshires.com.

Main & Mill: A Vibrant New Restaurant on Main Street

By Breanna SteeleiBerkshires Staff

NORTH ADAMS, Mass. — You can now enjoy another eatery on Main Street by well-known restaurant siblings Colleen and Sean Taylor.

Their restaurant Main & Mill opened for the first time Tuesday, bringing their vision of creating something vibrant and new to downtown North Adams.

"We have created Main & Mill to be part of our day. It's very seasonal ingredients, thoughtful cooking, beauty, beautiful presentation and dishes. And we really wanted to be part of the community, the downtown area, and start a vibrant area on this end, which has been shuttered for a while," said Colleen.

The building is owned by Ginko on Main Street LLC, which has granted 20 years exclusive possession of the property to Latent Builds as the developer. Jack and Suzy Wadsworth, behind Ginko, are development partners with Karla Rothstein and Salvatore Perry of Latent.

The bank closed in early 2021 and was purchased by Ginko late that year. Plans for the property unveiled three years ago envisioned a restaurant, retail, a park and rooftop bar. 

Colleen saw potential and said she initially wanted the building when it first went up for sale. Being good friends with Rothstein and Perry, she helped them design the kitchen and the bar before learning in March that she could lease it as a restaurant space, something she told them would be a great idea.

She said one of the most important things about the restaurant was the collaboration between Rothstein, Perry, and the Wadsworths, who put a lot of time and energy into the building.

"If Sean and I had done it, we would not be able to do what the collaboration supported. The collaboration of the three of us being able to really have that kind of money to put in down here. The design that the architecture firm that Carla and Sal own is stunning," she said. "The time and effort, everyone came together to do this in a really trusting manner."

The two wanted the restaurant to be an all-day venture, so people could eat at any point throughout the day, all week long.

"We wanted it to be open for coffee and socialization in the morning where people can meet, have their cup of coffee, have a quiche, a vegetarian quiche, or croissant or yogurt. Something intentional with their coffee," she said. "Then move into a lunchtime for the downtown business or anybody, and then go into supper, dinner, with drinks later into the evening. So have it really be open all day long, so that there wasn't a void on any particular day."

They also wanted to do something different than the other restaurants they owned.

"We didn't want to mimic any other restaurant in town. We wanted to bring something that was inspiring, something that had some familiar things that people would see, and other things that we would bring to them for them to experience," she said.

As a woman business owner, Colleen said she wanted to bring a female chef into the kitchen. 

Colleen brought on Chef Anna DeRose, who she said puts twists on a lot of her dishes.

"So we have a creme brulee, but our creme brulee is topped with marshmallow," she said. "Our creme brulee is like almost two desserts in one. It's a s'mores creme brulee. So you could have a s'mores, and you could have a creme brulee - but when you put both of them together, fireworks go off."

View Full Story

More North Adams Stories