The Crowley Company Celebrates 30 Years

As 2010 winds down, the owners of The Crowley Company are pausing to take a quick breath and celebrate the fact that they’re still in business. “One day you’re 20 and working for your Dad and the next minute you look up and 30 years have gone by,” laughs company president Christopher Crowley. Adds brother and company vice president Pat Crowley, “To the best of my knowledge, we’re one of the few original micrographics companies that have successfully stood the tests of changing technologies, industry consolidation and a rollercoaster economy.” The firm has experienced positive growth in each of its 30 years and when the brothers contemplate the firm’s leadership role in the analog and digital imaging world, they are proud of how Crowley has weathered the years.

One Company; Three Transitions

“Our Dad, Jerry, was a salesman for Itek Graphic Systems and Extek Microsystems in the 60’s and 70’s,” reminisces Pat. “In 1980, he decided to go solo and leased a showroom in Gaithersburg, Maryland under the name J.F. Crowley, Inc.” As the business expanded, the “boys” – two of four Crowley siblings – spent summer vacations and college breaks working with their father representing manufacturers in the photographic, graphic arts and micrographics industries doing everything from sales to equipment repairs.
In 1986, to combat the downtime the demo equipment spent on the floor, Jerry changed the company name to Crowley Micrographics and began offering conversion services in addition to hardware and software sales. The new division quickly went from scanning engineering drawings and small-volume projects to large volume and rare/sensitive media, taking advantage of the company’s location near the nation’s capital and the vast amounts of records and historical documents that needed (and continue to need) digitizing.

In October of 1996, following their father’s passing, Crowley’s ownership and leadership was assumed by Chris and Pat, holding the titles that remain today. As client interest in digital technologies increased, Crowley Micrographics continued to expand its product and services offerings with one more name change to better reflect the firm’s diversity: The Crowley Company.

Full Circle

In an ironic twist, one of Crowley’s “grand moves” as Chris calls the firm’s key growing points, was Crowley’s 2003 purchase of equipment manufacturers Extek Microsystems, HF Processors and Mekel Technology. The company that launched Jerome Crowley’s career was again a Crowley launching point. “Having manufacturing capabilities added balance and gave us an edge,” notes Chris. “We already had strong partnerships in the States and abroad as a re-seller and our service bureau was growing in both the volume and type of scanning. To be able to incorporate such well-known industry names and to gain the ability to create duplicating, processing and scanning technology – versus following it – was a significant turning point. It not only gave us development and engineering capabilities, it opened the door for us to become a leader internationally.”

Today, The Crowley Company is headquartered in Frederick, Maryland with a manufacturing facility in San Dimas, California and a second imaging facility in Saline, Michigan. With approximately 150 employees, the firm is generally considered a world leader in archival preservation and imaging systems and serves every vertical market that produces or protects any type of media or records. The firm’s bureau has scanned hundreds of millions of images from government institutions/agencies, universities, publishers, corporations, private collections and others. Notable clients have included The Smithsonian Institution, Getty Images, Time Inc., ProQuest and Harvard University.

What the Future Holds

When considering what the next 30 years might hold, Chris answers. “I think our future will be a melding of our past with whatever the ‘next big thing’ is. In terms of the past, one of the aspects that differentiate us from many others is that we have maintained the micrographics (film) end of the business rather than discarding it. On the equipment side, there is still a need in countries that are just beginning to preserve their archives. We’re also seeing resurgence in inquiries from the U.S. and the more developed countries for both micrographic equipment and services as the legal requirements to archive digital-born media for permanent storage continue to grow.”

And “the next big thing”? “It’s different for everyone,” says Chris. “For us, it will be further development of in-house technology to keep us at the forefront. I personally see distribution – the complete workflow from born record to archive to access – as our next big area of growth.”

When asked about challenges, Pat and Chris agree on at least one. “Scanning equipment is now so easily accessible and affordable that an increasing number of unqualified folks are jumping into the market and defining themselves as an imaging company,” states Chris. “It used to take a $500,000 investment in equipment to start a bureau. Now, anyone can purchase a decent scanner for $5,000. The problems arrive after the scanning is done and when the client receives a subpar image without consideration for storage and distribution.” As he sees it, the solution for Crowley and many of the more established firms in the industry lies in the education and re-education of current and potential clients. “Not all imaging equipment and services are created equal and clients should understand the importance of experience when it comes to preserving their very valuable information.”

Along those lines, the brothers also agree that clients are becoming savvier about the value of their information. Chris expounds. “Thirty years ago, this industry was solely about preservation. Today and largely because of the public access created by the internet, clients understand that their information can be an asset. They have the choice to keep it private, to make it public or to charge for it. Information can be a revenue-generator. For companies like ours, that’s good news for the next 30 years. “

About The Crowley Company

Celebrating its 30th year since incorporation, The Crowley Company is a world-leader in digital and analog film technologies. Headquartered in Frederick, Maryland with manufacturing divisions in San Dimas, California and a second conversion bureau in Ann Arbor, Michigan, The Crowley Company provides an extensive number of digital document and film conversion services to the academic, publishing, commercial, government and archive sectors and also manufactures, distributes and services high-speed microfilm, microfiche, aperture card, book and document scanners, microfilm duplicators, film processors and micrographics equipment.

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