The story
Twenty years of a printing house that started in a rented shop and now runs presses shipped from the factory in Germany. Told by Sonia Flores, who founded it.
Sonia Flores
Sonia runs IMAG and looks after the business herself. She is an auditor, holds a master's in business administration and grew up in a family of nine. She hires more women than men, on purpose, and is often invited to talk about how she built the company.
The start
A thesis that turned into a company
For her master's in business administration, Sonia presented the plan for a printing company. Real numbers, and the real gaps in what Sucre had. When she finished, she decided to build it.
The early years
A rented shop on plazuela Sudáñez
She started with her brother Roberto. He ran the machines, she ran the business, and between them they did everything else. The first years were prepress work, making films. The printing house came later.
The house
A twenty-year loan, paid off in three and a half
Three years in, the landlady offered to sell them the building. It is the house of Bernardo Monteagudo, one block from the main square. Sonia spent a full night working out by hand the sales forecast she needed to convince the bank. They gave her twenty years to pay it back. She paid it in three and a half.
The press
A new Heidelberg, straight from the factory
The second leap cost twice what the house had. A press like this is not on a shelf: it is built to the specification you order and takes months. It came from Germany by sea and reached Sucre on three trailers. It needed a building of its own, because the historic house could not take the floor the machine required.
The building
A hostel bought in order to tear it down
For years the work was split across three workshops. One night, driving back from the farthest one, Sonia fell asleep at the wheel. The next day she decided to bring everything together. She bought a hostel four blocks from the square, tore it down and built the building where IMAG works today.
I love my Sucre. I am going to build a company in Sucre. And Sucre deserves the good things.
Sonia Flores
Today
IMAG has twenty years as a graphic services company and fifteen as a printing house. It works for the regional government, the city council, the schools and the universities of Sucre, and prints the Fancesa calendars every year. It has never advertised. Everything has come by word of mouth.
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