A long-time Red Deer business has officially called it a day.
Adviser Graphics ceased operations as of the end of June after decades in business.
Dave Rideout, son of the company’s founder Les Rideout, recalls how his father wanted a change in career and moved the family to Red Deer from Edmonton back in the early 1940s.
On arrival in Red Deer, Les started an advertising sheet called the Ad-Viser.
“It was primarily advertising,” recalls Dave. Eventually, a separate family business was begun called Adviser Publications. From that a number of newpapers were launched over the years including the Sunday Express, the Central Alberta Adviser and the Ponoka Herald.
But it wasn’t long before Less was looking to further his business ventures in the community.
“Having all the equipment necessary for commercial printing, he got more involved in graphics as well,” said Dave.
Adviser Graphics was formed in the 1970s.
David came onboard in 1970 followed by his late brother Keith a few years later.
“Keith looked after the newspapers and I looked after the commercial printing.”
They sold the publication side of the operations to Great West Newspapers in the mid-1990s.
Keith passed away earlier this year, and Dave said it was shortly after that he made the decision to sell the business assets to Prolific Graphics.
“The commercial printing business is changing very rapidly and becoming more digital with more laser printing as opposed to off-set printing,” he said.
Currently, Dave is working at Prolific Graphics, helping with the transition and the move of Adviser Graphics clients to Prolific. He’ll stay onboard for a couple of months and after that he’s uncertain of what’s next.
Meanwhile, it’s been a great experience to have such an established business for decades in the community, he said. Watching the growth and evolution of the company was always fulfilling.
“When we brought our first web press in, that was a big step forward for the company. The presses were so fast and capable of producing so much,” he said. “We were able to take on printing contracts for other weekly newspapers. There’s been big changes in technology.
“Red Deer has been good to us.”
