In 1898, a 20-year-old printer for a Gastonia, NC, newspaper gave his boss the news: He was quitting his job to go into business for himself.

In most cases, the young printer’s decision would be a footnote in family history. But this case is different. The firm that the printer joined and later owned is now Loftin & Company Printers, a Charlotte-based firm specializing in high-quality, sheet-fed commercial printing and Charlotte’s oldest printing company.

At 20 years old, Charles Ivey Loftin Sr. was out of school and working as a printer for the Gastonia Gazette (forerunner to today’s Gaston Gazette). While preparing type in the Gazette’s “back shop,” he got to know George Glenn, a machinist who repaired equipment. Eventually, Glenn asked Loftin to leave the paper and become a partner in his printing firm.

The company, Glenn & Loftin, earned a steady income from the start. It endured until 1903, when Glenn left to enter the plumbing business. With $500 from a silent partner, Loftin bought Glenn’s interest and renamed the firm Loftin & Company (the “& Company” reflected the silent partner, as business law then required).

Young Loftin had a head for business, and the links he forged with Gaston County companies — including the area’s many textile mills — paid off. By 1923, Loftin & Company was prosperous enough to invest $23,000 in a new office building/printing plant in Gastonia.

The stock market crash of 1929 and the Depression that followed posed challenges for Loftin & Company. Charles Loftin Sr. borrowed against his life insurance firm to keep the company afloat, and the firm’s net income was attributable in part to cash discounts on paper purchases. However, Loftin & Company made it through the 1930s without missing a payroll or declaring bankruptcy, and the firm survived the shortages of World War II without problem.

Charles Ivey Loftin Sr. died in 1943 at age 65, just a few months before his company made the final payment on the facility he had built two decades earlier. Loftin’s son, Charles Ivey Loftin Jr., took over management.

Charles Jr., who had joined the family firm in 1930, was a talented salesman. But the decline of Gaston County’s textile industry and Charles Jr.’s increasingly poor health took a toll on the company. When Charles Jr. died in 1966, the company was riddled with debts, saddled with outdated equipment and hobbled by lack of customers.

The task of running Loftin & Company fell to William E. “Bill” Loftin Sr., the youngest member of the Loftin clan. Bill Sr. had been with the company for several years. However, his true love was not commercial printing, but hot-metal type and letterpress printing, which he pursued through Heritage Printers Inc., the book-manufacturing firm he co-founded in 1956.

Still, Bill Sr. felt an obligation to Loftin’s customers and employees and to his father’s legacy. He set about rebuilding the company while juggling responsibilities at Heritage. He was later joined by Walter Hobbs, Bill Sr.’s son-in-law, who joined the firm in 1975, and by Bill Loftin Jr., who joined the company in 1981. The two split major responsibilities, with Walter focusing on outside sales and public relations and Bill Jr. handling administration and order management.

During the 1980s and 1990s, Loftin & Company expanded slowly but steadily and began updating equipment. In 1993, the company constructed a new, 20,000-square-foot headquarters and printing plant near the I-85/Billy Graham Parkway interchange in Charlotte. Additional investments brought Loftin & Company’s total to five presses and gave the firm full-color capability and small, half-size and 40-inch formats. The company also developed an electronic prepress department and installed a computerized shop floor data collection system. To support the growth, Loftin & Company’s staff grew and includes more than 25 employees today.

Could Charles Ivey Loftin Sr. have predicted that the small printing firm he joined in 1898 would reach beyond its 100th anniversary? Perhaps not. But he would be proud to know that the company continues the high standards he set. Loftin & Company remains dedicated to excellence in service, quality and working relationship with employees, suppliers, customers and the community. At the same time, the company is planning wisely for continued growth and seeks to capitalize on new opportunities that result from long-term strategies and the booming Charlotte economy.