WINTHROP — The white sign with green lettering still announces the former D.L. Fleury’s building on U.S. Route 202 is home to Highlands Indoor Golf, but the business has been gone for more than a year. The sign serves as a reminder of yet another in a string of ultimately failed ventures that have inhabited the building since David Fleury sold his sporting goods store 20 years ago.

But the building’s newest occupant comes with a long history of success and a hope that the large building will be just what is needed for the business to build upon that success.

“It was a good move for us,” said Peter McCarthy, president of the Copy Center. “We couldn’t expand in the other place. We were bursting at the seams.”

The Copy Center, which offers design, printing and direct-mail services, in October moved from its location at 243 Western Ave. in Augusta to the former Fleury’s building at 1921 Route 202. In the process it nearly tripled its space from 9,000 square feet to about 25,000.

“It’s a big space,” McCarthy said. “We have a lot of room to grow.”

In the meantime the extra room has allowed the company to better situate its equipment and work stations to improve the work flow.

“We haven’t bought any new equipment,” McCarthy said. “We’re just able to lay it out a lot better.”

HOST OF BUSINESSES

The building rests on a main route that carries thousands of cars a day east toward Augusta or west toward Lewiston, but the traffic volume has not been enough to give long-term stability to a host of businesses that have occupied the building since David Fleury sold his successful store in 1995.

Fleury still struggles to pinpoint what doomed the other businesses that have used the building. He suggested poor management or businesses not suited to the area are possibilities.

“I don’t think it’s the place,” he said. “That’s one of the best places on the highway. That’s why I chose to live there.”

Fleury started his business out of his home and built the original section of the store, which was about 5,000 square feet, in 1976. He added a two-story addition in 1984 and another two-story addition in 1993. He said his store needed every bit of that space to keep up with customers’ demands. At the time, Fleury’s was second only to Kittery Trading Post for the largest sporting goods store in New England.

He sold Fleury’s in 1995, the same year he earned the chamber of commerce’s award for outstanding businesses.

The two men who purchased the business from Fleury opened Points North Outfitters, which went out of business in 1999. Another sporting goods store, Joe Jones Great Outdoors, moved in after that, but closed in 2007 after seven years in business. A flea market used the building for a time until the indoor golf business opened in 2011 and held on for just a couple of years.

“Anybody that moved in here never made it,” McCarthy said. “I don’t know why.”

McCarthy’s brother, Kevin McCarthy, purchased the bank-owned building in April for $210,000. The building underwent substantial renovations over the next several months, including the addition of walls to create office and equipment space on the open first floor and electrical upgrades to handle the printing equipment.

Outside work, including a new sign, are set for the spring.

“Right now nobody knows we are here,” Peter McCarthy said.

That has not proven to be a problem for a business that does the bulk of its work for commercial clients, including the state Legislature.

“We’re on call with them 24 hours a day,” McCarthy said.

The Copy Center maintains a presence in Augusta with an office at 98 Western Ave. near the Augusta House of Pancakes. The former building at 243 Western Ave. is being overhauled for a new AutoZone.

Sarah Fuller, chairwoman of the Winthrop town council, runs a marketing company that has sent a lot of business to the Copy Center over the years. She said the last successful business to make a home in the building was Joe Jones.

“We’ve been looking for a solid tenant there since that time,” Fuller said. “I’m thrilled they’re moving their operations here.”

FAMILY OPERATION

The Copy Center brings with it a long history of growth and stability. J.S. McCarthy printers opened the business in 1977 to print its black and white copies. Peter McCarthy, a grandson to J.S. McCarthy, said the company needed equipment that would print and collate. Up until then, copies run on the press had to be collated by hand.

Charles McCarthy sold J.S. McCarthy in 2000 and at that point the Copy Center went out on its own as a separate business.

Peter McCarthy, 61, said J.S. McCarthy typically handles large-scale jobs with runs of 100,000 copies or more. The Copy Center works on jobs between a single copy and 10,000.

The Copy Center has 10 employees, several of whom are family members. In addition to Peter and Kevin McCarthy, there are two brothers, two nephews and a son who work for the business.

The company typically takes in a few dozen new orders every day and prints 10,000 mailers a week, Peter McCarthy said. Most of its customers are in Maine.

“We do a lot of paperback books,” McCarthy said.

The company works with a number of print brokers, salespeople who offer print jobs to customers and then subcontract the Copy Center to do the work.

The company has one of only two Xerox iGen 4 digital printers in the state. The printer will copy designs on any number of formats, including magnets.

The Copy Center has endured a number of moves to accommodate its growing list of customers since 1977. The business has had two locations on Water Street, the J.S. McCarthy building on Winthrop Street, Western Avenue and now Route 202 in Winthrop.

“This is the fifth spot and hopefully the last one,” McCarthy said.

Fuller predicted the Copy Center will find the building is an ideal location. More importantly, a new business joining the community helps support existing businesses which in turn can attract more families.

“Success breeds success,” Fuller said. “It’s a right space and right place for them, and for us it’s fantastic to have a long-standing, successful business come to town.”

Craig Crosby — 621-5642

ccrosby@centralmaine.com

Twitter: @CraigCrosby4

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