Berry Business Procedures Co. began operations in 1956 in Westfield, New Jersey by three partners, Lawrie Montgomery,
Chester Cheek and Jack Meyer. Mr. Meyer quickly exited the partnership, leaving Mr. Montgomery and Mr. Cheek until 1971.
We will come back to that date a little later.
Berry's primary customer base was end users
of Burroughs, NCR and Philips accounting machines, printing journals, ledger cards, accounts receivable statements, accounts
payable and payroll checks. The company worked closely with the machine salesman and end users to provide a smooth transition
from hand bookkeeping to "automated" accounting. Remember, computers were a laboratory experiment back
then, and mechanical accounting machines where a quantum leap in productivity over hand bookkeeping.
As
in any new business, funds were scarce. Many of the functions were subcontracted until the necessary equipment could
be purchased. Business in the 60's grew to the point where a new and larger facility was needed to fulfill the demands
of the growing customer base. Consequently, a building was purchased in Cranford on 6 Park Street. Before long,
a warehouse was added, nearly doubling the size of the existing structure.
As personal computers
became more affordable, the demise of the accounting machine was inevitable. Since Berry did not have the financial
resources to convert from sheet fed to rotary or continuous forms equipment, which are required to manufacture computer forms,
it became necessary to find a new customer base that would benefit from the many years of experience in sheet fed forms and
printed products. Consequently, a gradual transition from a direct sales printer, to a trade manufacturer of printed
and die cut products sold through forms/print brokers or distributors was undertaken. Special attention was paid to
the forms "others can't, wotn't or don't produce" or what we like to call "Weirdo Forms and Printing."
Getting
back to the year 1971, Lawrie Montgomery decided to leave the company leaving Chester Cheek to buy out his share and become
the sole owner; well almost. Mr. Cheek made a coll to his son Ronald, who was working in Ohio in an unrelated field,
and asked if he would be interested in "coming into the business." Ron's response was an enthusiastic
"Yes!" and packed up his family and moved east. At the same time Mr. Cheek's youngest son David, was already
working part time performing many tasks from shipping clerk, deliveries, to operating various printing presses during holidays
and summer breaks from college. After the passing of Chester in 1976, Ron and David continued as partners until 1997,
when Ronald decided to leave to pursue other interests.
As sole owner, David has undertake the
largest capital investment in the history of the company, upgrading both plant and equipment to meet the demands of full color
commercial printing. We are now capable of offering all the value added features, from our sheet fed forms experience,
to 4 color process printing. A step that has been very successful in providing printing brokers and distributors with
product meeting the most demanding needs of their customers.
