New Postal Route bigger, better than ever

A booming small business in Fort Mill is ramping up for its busy season – the first since it moved across town and underwent a huge expansion.

The Postal Route is a full service postal unit that offers shipping, printing and even has a gift shop. Its owners moved locations in April from S.C. 160 West in the shopping center behind Dunkin’ Donuts near Tega Cay to a new building on Pleasant Road next to the QT gas station.

This upcoming holiday season will be the first busy season since the big move, and it makes co-owner Dave Celec grateful. He said the old location was a bit chaotic.

“Once of the things that was a big concern for me was we got so busy we were becoming dysfunctional because we had no room,” Celec said.

“We didn’t have the departments separated so we were having to climb over boxes to do printing.”

Since the move, the business has doubled more than twice its size and now has a more functional parking lot.

“We were really dying there because we didn’t have the space,” Celec said.

The business added seven cash registers so that customer wait times are shorter and overall, the flow of the business is designed to be more efficient.

Celec, whose background is in hospital administration, and his business partner Alan Church bought The Postal Route in 2008.

“It was really kind of an accident that we bought it,” Celec said.

The business had been around since the mid-1980s and was started as a secretarial service. It’s evolved significantly since then. Carol Liechti is one of two longtime employees who has been around since the early days when the business was less about shipping and more about letter typing.

“I originally just came in here to do anything that needed to be done,” she said. “It’s a whole lot more complicated today.”

Together, Celec and Church have transformed the business into a success. They have added a print shop that rivals the big box stores and produces anything from brochures and business cards to stationery and wedding invitations. There is also a gift shop that boasts everything from the traditional to the unique. Wedding and baby gifts line shelves next to collegiate gift baskets. It seems there is a little something for everyone.

“When we bought this place it’s annual gross sales were about $340,000 and now we’re doing a little under $5 million,” Celec said, “We’ve grown quite a bit.”

This story was originally published October 4, 2015 at 10:50 AM with the headline "New Postal Route bigger, better than ever."