CFO Is Fourth Generation to Run Family Printing Firm

Kandy Neyenesch comes to work each day knowing that she is carrying on the long history of Neyenesch Printers, Inc. on Kettner Boulevard.

A co-owner, along with husband Cliff and Carol Bentley, the company’s chief executive officer, Neyenesch is chief financial officer, treasurer and secretary of a company that traces its history to 1899. That’s when William Barrend Neyenesch, Cliff’s grandfather, moved his family west and started printing menus for the Hotel del Coronado. It’s among the last of the independent printers left in San Diego.

“We haven’t been willing to sell to the big corporations,” said Neyenesch. “We’re fourth generation, and the family aspect is very important to us.”

Not that it’s always easy.

“Sometimes it’s hard to be competitive, because of the buyer power of large corporations,” she said. “That’s the main disadvantage.”

“We all can print the same thing, and we have the same equipment. This is where service comes into play.”

But Neyenesch said there are advantages to being independent.

“We can make decisions quickly, because there is not a lot of red tape,” she said. “We stand behind our product. If something goes wrong, we fix it.”

Neyenesch’s clients have been a broad mix of ad agencies, the Building Industry Association of San Diego, biotech companies, Science Applications International Corp., the University of California, San Diego, and San Diego State University, and the San Diego Zoo.

Neyenesch knows all about the bottom line. She is responsible for supervising all the financial operations, including accounting, business insurance, cash management, human resources, and risk management.

Business has been good, said Neyenesch, with revenues last year totaling $13.3 million, with a 5 percent increase anticipated this year.

“We had a decrease after 9/11, because the zoo had fewer tourists,” she said, “but it’s come back up in 2004 and 2005, and we are hopeful it will again this year.”

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Name: Kandy Neyenesch.

Title: CFO/Treasurer/Secretary.

Company: Neyenesch Printers, Inc.

Revenues: $13.5 million.

Employees: 75.

Age: 45.

Residence: Mission Hills.