Fighting through the pandemic, fifth in a series

(Editor’s note: This is the fifth in a series of how people have coped through the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic.)

Barry Smail 

Novato Historical Guild

Zenith Instant Printing, founded in 1975 by Ben and Frances Borok, has long been seen as one of Novato’s indispensable businesses.  In 1976, San Marin High School student Bill Vespa was hired on a part-time basis.  After graduation the following year, the Boroks offered him a full-time job.  Tracy Rempe joined the operation in 1985.  In 1996, when Ben and Frances retired, Bill purchased the shop.  Bill married Tracy’s sister Michele in 1997.  Since then, the three have carried on the Ben and Frances’ business model of providing high quality, reliable, customer-friendly service.  As a result, Zenith continued to prosper — until COVID-19 hit.    

The virus first caught Bill, Michele and Tracy’s attention in late January of 2020. 

 “My wife and sister-in-law began to feel uncomfortable about the direction things were going.  I wasn’t sure what to make of it yet,” Bill recalls.  Michele said “I was watching the news closely and saw what was going on in Europe, Italy, Spain then New York.  I began to realize this disease was going to come our way.  My husband thought I was watching too much news and getting unnecessarily agitated.  Even so, I was still shocked when it arrived here.”  

The Vespas had a special reason to be concerned:  Tony, their only child, was born with a heart defect.  “He is now living a normal life, but is more at risk,” Michele says.  “We are so thankful that Tony is healthy and that we’re all healthy.  Health is everything.”  Tony is a freshman at San Marin High and is attending the school’s Virtual Learning Academy.  Tony’s career goal is to go to UC Davis and become a veterinarian, but he also has an interest in the family business.  

“When the shutdown order came, my sister and I were freaked out,” Michele recalls.  “We didn’t think we qualified as ‘essential’ business, so thought we would have to completely close.  But we found out about a regulation allowing businesses which supported essential businesses to stay open.”  Police departments and physicians were among Zenith’s customers.

“If our client was not an essential business, we were rigorous about not doing business with them.  “We’re rule followers here,” Michele declared.  Most clients who reached out knew they were essential.  When regulations began to ease, Zenith sent an email notice to all of their customers, saying “We are open and operating with curbside pickup or third-party shipping only. We are not allowing walk-in clients at this time.” 

“While our business volume took a big hit, from a functionality standpoint, COVID-19 did not affect us,” Bill says.  “We could do almost everything we could do before, and have an electronically sophisticated setup to do email marketing campaigns.”  But Michele wonders what the future holds.  “So many of our customers who would normally have direct mail campaigns, or in-person fundraisers–that’s not happening.  We do a lot of work for the schools, but with virtual learning, we’re not getting those printing jobs.  Have people permanently changed their method of business?  Marketing through traditional print media may not come all the way back.”  

Bill has tried to remain philosophical amid the tumult.  “Many times, things look awful on the surface, but there are always opportunities for growth and change.  I think there are ways we can expand the business.  We’re getting involved helping people more with email campaigns now.  This will hopefully pick up some of the slack.  We’re not at a point where we think we need to lock up and go home; it’s worth continuing to try.”

Michele tells the story of a New Jersey-based designer who discovered Zenith online and called to do a big print job for a Novato client they were not aware of.  “They were so pleased a human answered our phone,” Michele said.  “After 45 years of being in business, it’s surprising how people continue to find Zenith Printing.”