CJ Graphics: Making a Name For Itself in Wide-Format

When Jay Mandarino founded CJ Graphics in Mississauga, Ontario in 1981, it was originally a print brokerage firm. The company didn’t start operating its first press until 1985 — and it built its reputation on business cards.

Jay Mandarino, president and CEO of CJ Graphics: “We’re definitely out-of-the-box thinkers.”

Today, CJ Graphics is made up of 33 companies and 135 employees all operating under one roof, located on eight acres of property. Its current list of in-house services includes lithography, screen printing, digital printing, wide-format printing, traditional letterpress, prepress, a complete bindery, 3D printing, direct mail services, prototyping, a printing museum, digital laser diecutting, digital UV and foil, a magazine division, interactive solutions, and more.

Even though CJ Graphics has historically been known for its business cards, it has seen significant growth in the wide-format segment. In fact, its large-format sales grew by 61% between 2022-2023, totaling $7.5 million, and making up 29% of the company’s total sales, which were $25 million.

Mandarino attributes this growth to acquisitions, and to growing from within to offer more work. And, would you guess from the numbers that some people don’t realize CJ Graphics offers wide-format work?

“Some people didn’t even realize we did large-format, which is sort of funny. Yeah, CJ always had the challenge that we were known for business cards,” Mandarino says. “But now we’re doing all sorts of art installations and working with office spaces, and I think the one thing that makes us unique is we are using large-format for display and signage, and coming up with solutions that people don’t normally think of.”

Mandarino says CJ Graphics is also doing a lot of work with braille, and he notes that because the company “does a lot of the projects other people don’t want to do,” it has helped it break out of its business card-focused identity.

“Some of the stuff we do really is unique, but sometimes it’s also very time consuming — it’s a labor of love. But doing projects like that sort of creates this waterfall effect. Other people see the work we do and the care we put into it, and it sort of just gets the ball rolling from there,” he says.

And the ball is indeed rolling. Aside from ADA signage, CJ Graphics has done wide-format projects for wine festivals, the Netflix head office, and even a famous basketball player’s 30,000-sq.-ft. home gym.
Mandarino attributes this success in the wide-format segment to his staff and the creativity they hold — and having it all under one roof.

“I’m blessed that we have amazing people. And every time we do an acquisition, we get some great people. We really think outside of the box, and we have great creative people that come up with amazing solutions for things," he says. "We’re definitely out of out-of-the-box thinkers. When you’re working with more creative people and more direct projects, time is of an essence. So, we can respond pretty quickly and do everything under one roof virtually.”

As for where he sees the company three to five years from now, Mandarino says he sees CJ Graphics joined with someone else.

“You’re seeing more and more consolidation everywhere, not just in us as manufacturers, but the actual people manufacturing equipment. There’s just too much out there, so I think you’re going to see more mergers and more partnerships in the future,” Mandarino says.