Holden Color Upgrades With $3-Million Press

Mark Holden, owner of Holden Color Inc. of Newbury Park, admits he’s taking a big gamble with his company’s latest purchases. But he figures the time is right.

In an effort to make the transition from a pre-press operation to a full-service printer, the 13-year-old family-run operation last week installed the German-made Heidelberg SpeedMaster, a $3-million state-of-the-art printing press.

The acquisition follows last month’s purchase of the SelectSet Avantra 44s, a $300,000 film imaging machine, as well as assorted other electronic upgrades that cost about $500,000 since the start of the year.

Holden Color currently handles pre-printing jobs--filming and proofing work--for clients in the advertising, corporate and publishing industries in Ventura and Los Angeles counties.

Holden said he expects the company’s recent acquisitions to help the business make a good first impression on potential customers.

He said he plans to hit advertising agencies in Los Angeles that prefer their pre-press operations to have printing capabilities.

“They won’t even give us a look right now,” he said.

Seeking a greater share of the Southern California market is a far cry from the company’s early days when Holden and his brother, Doug, now the company vice president, operated their modest business out of a garage in Thousand Oaks.

“I never thought it would have come this far,” said Mark Holden, whose mother, Diana Holden, is company treasurer and secretary. “My father was in the trade his whole life. I was always intrigued by it. I remember going to work with him in the summer.”

Holden said the company’s shift toward more sophisticated technology is in line with an industrywide trend.

“It was quite a craft when I was younger and all of our employees have come from that kind of trade,” he said.

“I like the new technology, but a lot of the guys who have been in the trade a while wish it would go back. But you can’t stop technology.”