Our History
1958
Carl McKinley establishes Mainline Printing on Jackson Street in Downtown Topeka near the mainline of the Atchison, Topeka, and Santa Fe railroad. McKinley began with little money, a few pieces of pre-press equipment and no customers - but his entrepreneurial spirit was unbowed.
1959
McKinley lands a major client in Adams Business Forms. The company grows.
1960
Bill Moore comes aboard as a partner. With McKinley overseeing pre-press and operations, Moore takes on plant and production management duties. The business purchases a small duplicating press.
1967
Bill Kukuk joins the partnership and assumes the presidency. A salesman extraordinaire, he helps grow the company to new heights as Mainline adds employees and capabilities.
1977
Thanks to Kukuk’s typically charismatic pitch, Mainline signs one of it’s biggest clients yet, Hill’s Pet Products, and begins producing it’s canned-food labels.
1981
The company invests in an HCM442 Champion press, which enabled Mainline to offer clients four-color process in one pass. With a top speed of 5,000 sheets per hour, the press ushers in a new era for Mainline- one that establishes the company as a serious printer, capable of delivering projects on a much larger scale.
1986
McKinley, Moore, and Kukuk sell in December to George Parker and Jay Battenberg. Kukuk stays on as a key adviser and salesman, a role he would keep for more than another decade.
1989
In December, George Parker and his son John buy out Battenberg, establishing the family ownership that continues today.
1995
Mainline adds a six-color, 26-inch Kamori press. The company increases options for clients and continues to build its decades-long reputation for first-rate customer service, consistency, and color control.
1995
The company begins investing in Optimation Holographics, a startup founded in nearby Lawrence by two professors in the mechanical engineering department at the University of Kansas.
“In the printing business, it’s important to carve out specialities to raise your reputation. If all you’re doing is ink on paper, there’s a lot of folks doing that.”
John Parker, Sr.
1998
Mainline purchases Optimation Holographics and moved the now-subsidy’s production from Lawrence to Topeka. The key design engineer, Stan Unruh, stays on as principal adviser and designer of the proprietary lab and embossing equipment. “We believe in looking forward,” John Sr. says. “We may not be the first to pick up a new process, but we’ve always been in the mix.”
1999
Bill Kukuk dies in April. “He had - and really continues to have - as much to do with our success as anyone, because our work culture really grew from his personal philosophy,” John Parker, Sr. says. “He was a great mentor to me. We both believed that all the best things come from taking care of the customer, doing what’s right by them. So much of his personality is still infused in the Mainline culture.”
2004
Mainline expands its capacity, moving operations to a renovated space that occupies a large portion of the former White Lakes Shopping Mall on Southwest Topeka Boulevard. The 190,000 square foot location is the fifth in the company’s history.
2011
Company president John Parker, Sr.’s oldest son, John Parker, Jr., joins the company. He will be joined by brothers Matt (2014) and Daniel (2017) to form the third generation of Parker family leadership at Mainline.
2011
Dean Norton purchases a wide-format printer and starts More Than Banners, a printing company from his garage.
2014
Due to rising demand, Dean expands his equipment to include a 44” 12-color Canon printer.
2017
Nearing it’s 60th year in business, the company continues to build diverse, 21st century printing solutions for a growing client base. By year’s end, Mainline will have added it’s second and third state-of-the-art holographic presses to an equipment roster that includes the 2016 addition of a new Komori GL640 printing press.
2017
Advisors Excel purchases More Than Banners and hires Dean to manage the Wide-Format department of their printing company, Go Modern. Dean expands the business into high-end interior branding and graphics.
2018
Celebrating 60 years in business.
2020
Advisors Excel sells the print arm of Go Modern to Mainline Printing. Dean becomes Director of the Wide-Format Division at Mainline Printing.
2021
Mainline Signs is born. Mainline Printing hires additional staff for the wide-format division and implements a new brand identity. They also add a flatbed printer and cutter to their equipment arsenal.
