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History of Helanders in Lake Forester magazine

Nice story on our family business in the Pioneer Press LAKE FORESTER

PAPER WORK

Helanders of Lake Forest is the North Shore's synonym for 'stationery'

by Wynn Koebel Foster, appeared in the Lake Forester edition of Pioneer Press Thursday, December 3, 2009.  Photo by Buzz Orr.

If you're living in Orrville, Ohio and you've just married someone named Smucker, it's a safe bet there will probably be some jam in your future.  Similarly, four generations of North Shore women have found themselves dealing with copijs quantities of stationery after marrying guys named Helander.

Today, Lake Bluff rsidents Chuck Helander and his wife of 40 years, Mary Lee, preside over the business founded in 1922 by Chuck's grandfather, Axel Helander, a Finnish immigrant.  The firm has gone through a number of incarnations and changed locations half a dozen times.  But since 1948, Helanders, Inc. has been located at 248 Market Square in Lake Forest.

THE PAST.  Axel Helander started out as a chauffeur and handyman.  In his spare time, he tinkered with radios, enabling Lake Foret's Schweppe family to listen to broadcasts with their guests after dinner parties.  Other families wanted the miraculous new invention, too, and Axel opened Lake Forest Radio.  But debt and the Depression forced him to dust off the printing press he'd taken in trade and put the printing skills he'd learned in Finland to use.  My the late 1030s - early 1940's, he expanded his printing business, selling Hallmark cards, gifts and office supplies.

Axel's son and Chuck's father, Orvo Helander, played saxophone and planned a career in music.  But one day Axel tossed him a set of keys to the business and announced, "I'm moving to Florida."  Orvo's fate was sealed.

THE PRESENT.  Mary Lee was working at Helanders when she met Chuck.  "She really loves retail and stationery," he said.  "The joke around here is that she married me for the stuff and the discounts.  Me?  I thought this (business) was the last thing I wanted to do."  Then Chuck discovered the joys of inventory control.  "I found I loved th back end of the business," he admitted.  "I've also always done the store's advertising and now I'm the Webmaster."

"People always ask us how we've managed to work together all these years.  The answer is that we don't.  I'm up front, dealing with th customers; he's in the back office," Mary Lee explained.  "Ane we decided early on that we'd not talk business at home."

Today, approximately 40 percent of Helander's business is custom and stock personal social stationery.  Businss office supplies - and their delivery though side operation Helanders Hotline - account for another 30 percent.  Greeting cards, gift wrap, party goods, gifts and all of the other things Helanders sells make up the rest.

"Our office supply wholesaler has 25,000 items in stock," Chuck said.  "If we don't have a replacemnt ink cartridge for your pen or printer on the premises today, we'll have it for you tomorrow."

When Mary Lee started at Helanders, there were few choices in wedding invitations - paneled or nonpaneled, white or ecru and such.  "Now, I tell people this is the great age of options, and the big one is color," she said.  "A wedding invitation is a form of corrrespondence.  Choose formal if you expect your guests to wear black tie.  Pick casual if you're having your wedding on the beach."

The stationery business is evolving.  Few people write long, chatty letters today.  They opt for e-mailing and texting instead.  But Helander's customers are still buying thatn-you notes and correspondence cards.  "We have a whole wall of imprintables, too," Mary Lee said.  "Chuck does a lot of in-house printing at our warehouse in Lake Bluff, especially for customers whose own equipment can't handle unusual sizes or thicknesses."

FUTURE PERFECT.  Chuck and Mary Lee have two sons:  Matthew, a glassblower in Michigan, and Casey.  Casey and his wife, Stephanie, of Lake Bluff, have become the fourth generation of Helanders to choose to work with stationery.  Already, Stephanie has hundreds of followers on Twitter for Helanders.  "We tweet about deals on holiday digital printed cards, for example," Stephanie explained.

Along with his other responsibilities, Casey takes care of the Helanders Facebook page, letting the company's internet friends about current new products and specials.

As of July 1, 2011 Helanders moved to their new location at 222 Wisconsin Avenue, just a block north of Market Square, as they are pleased to re-focus their retail efforts as a Specialty Stationery Store. 

Open Year round, Helanders' hours are 9am to 5:30pm Monday through Saturday; 11am to 4pm Sunday.

 




 
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