About Us

Mercurio Brothers Printing started as a 2-man operation by my father Tony and my Uncle Jack back in 1946. My father had recently returned from serving in the military during World War II and was looking for ideas for starting a business. Back in those days, you could take printing classes in junior high and Berkeley High school, which Dad and Uncle Jack both did. So after borrowing some money from my Grandpa and Grandma, Mercurio Brothers Printing was born.


Jack and Tony on Tony's 90th Birthday at Spengers

Letterpress printing was the main method of printing during those times, so that’s what they started doing. Its kind of ironic that when you did letterpress printing back then, the idea was to just “kiss” the paper gently, so you couldn’t see an indentation into the back of the paper. When my brother and I first started working here, sometimes we would hit the type into the paper more than we should have. When seeing this, my dad would say something like, “If you hit the type that hard back in the 50′s, you wouldn’t last a day in a printing business!” Nowadays, with thick, soft, cotton cover stocks, a nice impression is the whole beauty of letterpress.

Although Uncle Jack and Tony are no longer with us, the knowledge and wisdom they instilled in us, not only on how to produce quality printing, but how to conduct yourself in an ethical manner, live on with us every day.

We are still your basic “mom and pop” print shop today. We still do a tremendous amount of old-fashioned letterpress printing, traditional offset printing, and now digital state-of-the-art printing for short runs with quick turnaround. My dad used to describe us as “a small printer with big equipment.” We’ve had customers call us “the best kept secret in the printing business”. I always loved that slogan as a marketing line, but then I wonder, “How good is my marketing if we’re still such a secret???”
 
Any print shop that is still in business in this age cannot get by with less than superb quality. It was much easier competing with the other print companies when craftsmanship held a higher status and being a printer meant more than just pushing a button.  Although we’ve been printing since the Truman Administration (OK, it was my father and uncle back then), I can’t disagree that many printing companies have narrowed the gap to our quality and are making printing more and more a commodity. Besides our exceptional customer service and consistent value, it’s getting harder and harder to get attention in the crowded online printing marketplace. We hope you consider all factors when choosing your printer.
 
Whether you need 500 business cards, or 5000 catalogs, we have the equipment and knowledgeable staff to get the job done, from traditional
full-color offset and letterpress printing to modern digital on-demand printing.
 
By the way, when you phone us during business hours, you’ll get an actual person to answer the phone. If your files are all jacked-up (lets just say, less than print-ready!) we can usually fix the issue without holding up your job requesting new files. How does your faceless mega-online print shop handle that issue?
 
You can email quote requests to info@mercuriobrothers.com or call us at (510) 845-2600. Fax requests can be sent to (510) 845-1630. I welcome you to check our reviews on yelp.com and weddingwire.com.