ANRO Inc.

ANRO History

Our Founding

ANRO Inc. began in 1953 as a secretarial and duplicating service founded by our current owners, Angelo and Rose Rossi. During the early 1950’s, Rose, who had been commuting to Philadelphia to work in a small lettershop, decided to form a business with her husband Ange out of their own home. They chose to name their fledgling company ANRO, using the first two letters of both of their names. Our humble beginnings may, in part, explain the family atmosphere that pervades our organization to this day.

With an equipment list composed of a single Remington Rand typewriter, Rose provided secretarial services for professionals and small businesses in the area. As word of mouth spread, the business rapidly grew. The company’s first press - a Multilith small rotary offset press - was purchased to print letterheads for local businesses. A salesman showed Ange the basics of running the press, and he learned the finer points on his own. Soon Ange, as well Rose’s brother, Jim Spinelli, were working full time at the venture.

The Early Days

ANRO’s success today is the ongoing result of many years of hard work and commitment. The business soon outgrew its first home as new customers led to new employees. In 1956 ANRO moved to its own building on 237 Lancaster Avenue, right beside Route 30, in Devon, PA.

"We occupied the first floor and rented out the second," Rose recalls. "I saw that many small businesses needed offices but required only part-time secretarial help. So we rented out office space and supplied telephone answering, mail and secretarial services. We were the first business in the area to offer this."

ANRO continued to thrive in the 1960’s, building a reputation for quality and service among businesses in the area. Almost all of our business, about 90% of it, came from the recommendations of satisfied customers. No need was too small to receive careful attention. This remains a cornerstone of our philosophy today.

"Sometimes people would come in with just a letter to type," Rose recalls. "I figured maybe someday they would need a letterhead or brochure. Some of them grew even faster than we did. Today we do the annual reports of some companies who used to come in with little jobs 40 years ago. We have had people walk in the door and say they are in the wrong place because they just need a little business card and I tell them that's one of the things we do."

Customers spurred the growth of the business, Ange and Rose readily concede. As requests for increasingly sophisticated printing capabilities were fielded, the necessary equipment and people were added to meet the need. New buildings were also added as the company grew, until ANRO outgrew the space altogether and moved again - just across the street to our present location of 222 Lancaster Avenue in Devon, PA.

ANRO Today

Today, more than 50 years after its founding, ANRO Inc. is one of the premier full-service commercial printers in the Philadelphia area, providing turnkey corporate printing, mail, fulfillment, and digital media services. Our comprehensive services include: one through eight-color sheetfed printing, package printing, one through six-color digital and variable data printing, sophisticated prepress, CTP, bindery, direct mail, fulfillment, Web development, and commercial hosting.

Looking back, Ange notes, "The changes are what I find really amazing. The pace of innovation in our industry - whether it’s an eight-color perfecting press or today’s advances in digital technology - is phenomenal. Fortunately, ANRO’s done a good job of staying on the cutting edge without getting nicked. That’s thanks to our many customers who’ve told us when there was a need for a new service and our managers, who do a great job of researching opportunities before advocating any one solution. Together, they’ve taken a lot of the guesswork out of our strategic decisions.”