Tully Wihr and GKM have long history of success

Though many Colfax residents consider them one business, Tully-Wihr and GKM are two distinct enterprises. While both are involved with business forms and supplies, Tully-Wihr is a distributor and reseller of these products and GKM is a wholesale manufacturer.In fact, Tully-Wihr is just one of many on GKM's client list spanning Northern California and Nevada.In Colfax, Tully-Wihr and GKM Corporation employ 120 employees, 85 in Colfax alone. John Tully founded Tully's, Inc. in San Francisco in 1906. The company changed hands several times over the years and redefined its product line until its primary focus became business forms and commercial printing. Tully's contracted with the Wihr Printing Company for much of its printing work, and upon the death of George Wihr, Tully's and Wihr merged to form Tully-Wihr.In the early 1970s, two of the company's salesmen, Don Knoll and Charles Miller purchased Tully-Wihr and subsequently launched GKM along with business partner Gene Gallagher. The name GKM represents the founding partners Gallagher, Knoll and Miller. Gerald Knoll, son of co-founder Don Knoll, is now president of Tully-Wihr. He started with the company in the bindery division running sheet-fed presses. His father gave him a chance to venture into sales, where he remained until the early 1990s.Eventually he worked his way to the executive offices, and moved to the foothills with his wife Sharon when administrative operations were moved from Union City to Colfax. GKM's original home was in Auburn, but in October of 1984, the company relocated to Colfax. "It was a great place to live and work and raise a family," said Doug Dunn, Tully-Wihr chief operating officer. "In fact, all of the Dunn kids have attended local schools."GKM and Tully-Wihr are now located together in the same industrial complex on Whitcomb Avenue. According to Dunn, everyone who moves into management must start at an entry level with the company. More than half of the company's employees have been on board for at least 10 years."We have a great atmosphere here," Dunn said. "We all do whatever job needs to be done."Dunn said that the company has many opportunities for advancement and in-house training. Many Tully-Wihr and GKM employees are Colfax High School graduates. The company's controller Lisa Panelli is a graduate of Colfax High School and began working for the company in 1991. She also started in the bindery and worked her way up to running a web press while attending college. "They have been a great company to work for - all around a great, fair company," Panelli said. "And my commute is two minutes!"Tully-Wihr primarily serves the medical industry hospitals, clinics and doctors' offices. The company supplies forms to the Sacramento Sutter Group, which includes Sutter Auburn Faith Hospital in addition to the Sutter Hospitals in Roseville, Davis, Sutter General and Sutter Memorial. GKM manufacturers printed products, including letterhead, envelopes, forms, business requisitions, hospital forms and order forms. While multi-part forms are becoming less common due to computer storage, GKM is moving from large format printing presses to digital printers. This reduces the set-up and plating costs. Tully-Wihr and GKM offer assistance to many Colfax groups. The high school has always been a favorite group for the companies' philanthropic efforts. "When we started the Colfax High School Hall of Fame, I knew that printing the program would be a huge expense," said Jane Arp, event chairwoman. "We felt that the local businesses were already overburdened trying to support things for the high school. We didn't want the CHS Hall of Fame to be one more 'thing' for businesses to be asked to fund. We were so pleasantly surprised to learn that GKM offered to print the program at no charge. We still marvel at how much GKM does for Colfax High."