Farewell to Henry Armstrong's Instant Printing after 50+ years

 © 2021, Christian Cassidy

Later this week, the last branch of a once iconic Winnipeg business will disappear after more than fifty years.

Those of a certain age will remember that Henry Armstrong was the "man who runs things in this town". He went from a used offset press in the basement of his father-in-law's home in the mid-1950s to an instant printing empire that boasted as many as 18 locations in the 1990s.

The final Henry Armstrong's, located at 897 Corydon Avenue, is set to close June 23, 2021.

Here's a look back at Henry Armstrong, the man and the business. (This is taken mainly from old newspaper and magazine profiles. I reached out to the Armstrong family but received no response.)

June 13, 1978, Winnipeg Tribune

Henry Armstrong was born in Elmwood. His father was a labourer and his mother a Salvation Army officer. Though the family didn't have much, he remembers kids from poorer families regularly coming to the Armstrong house for dinner.

Armstrong told the Winnipeg Free Press in a 1978 interview, "I was a real dingbat .... I was the world's worst student" and he quit school at the age of 17 still in grade six. His first job was as an errand boy in a printing shop, then at a bowling alley. By 1954 he worked the night shift at a factory. 

In July 1954, Armstrong married Lucille (Toots) Vieville. She was raised in Richer, Manitoba where her family ran a store. They relocated to St. Boniface when Lucille was six.

Months after the two married, Armstrong found himself unemployed again. He told the Free Press in 1978 that, "I was young and cocky, but I was also backwards and scared and getting nowhere. I began to hang out and drink a lot because it made me seem less confused.” 

In 1955, Armstrong purchased an old Gordon jobber hand-fed press with financial help from father-in-law and set it up in the man's basement. He brought in the odd print job but found that he wasn't good at drumming up sales. He then went into business with some other printers operating a commercial coin-operated Xerox copier in a cubicle in the McIntyre building.

August 6, 1974, Winnipeg Tribune

By the 1960s, Armstrong owned the photocopier, press, and some other printing equipment and opened his own print shop in 1968 at 284 Fort Street. He became interested in an emerging aspect of the printing business called "instant printing". 

At the time, companies either owned their own small presses and did their work in-house, or farmed it out to large commercial printers. It was a very expensive proposition not suited to smaller companies or individuals who wanted to run small quantities.

Armstrong went to Minneapolis to find out more about instant printing and found the key piece of equipment he was missing was a plate-making machine. He purchased one in 1971.

June 25, 1974, Winnipeg Free Press

Next came the advertising campaign.

Armstrong told a reporter in 1978, "Some young guys, designers at The Awarehouse, came up with an Al Capone identity for me, sort of 'tough enough for any job.' I bought the pinstripe suit, rented the bowler, spats and cane. The session went fine and suddenly we had a working logo."

The logo and catchphrase, "The man who runs thing in this town", became very familiar to Winnipeggers. The company had fun with the campaign, constantly changing it up to reflect events like local elections, royal visits, and sports championships.

Henry Armstrong's Instant Printing set itself up similar to a how the dry cleaning business worked with several small storefronts offering photocopy service and advice, and an order counter that took in jobs and sent them on to a central printing plant.

By 1975, the main plant was at 250 Main Street with storefronts at 284 Fort, 1859 Portage, 1603 Pembina, and the newly opened Convention Centre.

October 5, 1983, Winnipeg Free Press

The Armstrongs are a deeply religious family.

In 1974, Henry and Lucille happened across a beach-side religious service while on holiday in Hawaii. Armstrong told a reporter that it was at that service that he decided to turn his life around. He gave up drinking and began concentrating more on family and business.

Armstrong's faith was also reflected in his business. The company sponsored many Salvation Army musical events and in 1983 he opened his first Inspirational Corner bookstore on Henderson Highway. That was soon followed by a second Winnipeg location and one in Selkirk and Steinbach.

By 1986 there were eleven Henry Armstrong Instant Printing locations, all of them corporately owned.

April 23, 1982, Winnipeg Free Press

Henry Armstrong's was a family business. Lucille managed the Convention Centre location for years and his son, Greg, worked in many of the outlets.

In 1982, Greg became vice president and the company underwent a period of great growth. A franchise program was created in 1986. The first outlet to open under this scheme was in Portage la Prairie later that year. The company also got into the postal outlet business in 1990.

By this time, Henry Armstrong was spending more time in Palm Springs and Greg was the general manager of the company. Henry retired in 1991.

There were 18 Henry Armstrong locations by April 1998.

September 19, 2003, Winnipeg Free Press

With the rise of desktop publishing and advances in home printer technology, the printing industry as a whole shrank through the 1990s.

Around 2001, with business dropping off, debts mounting, and recovering from a heart attack, Greg began looking for a buyer for the chain. A couple of deals fell through.

On September 19, 2003, ten corporate stores and its commercial printing plant in St. James, closed. So did the four Inspirational Corner bookstores. Armstrong later told the Free Press, "I'm out of money. I'm out of patience. I'm exhausted." He added that his intention was to have sold the chain so that he could concentrate full time on ministry.

After bankruptcy, four locations were bought by Mailboxes Etc.. An existing printer bought the central printing plant in St. James.

A store on Corydon Avenue, which originally opened in the mid-1990s, was resurrected. It will close on June 23, 2021.