Fort Smith Firm To Print London 2012 Olympic Tickets

Fort Smith-based Weldon, Williams & Lick (WWL) has won the contract to print about 8.8 million tickets for the London 2012 Olympics, according to several European news agencies.

“Weldon, Williams & Lick Inc, a specialist printing firm based in the historic Wild West frontier town of Fort Smith, Arkansas, will produce and package the tickets before they are flown across the Atlantic for distribution,” noted this Reuters report.

Jim Walcott, WWL president, declined to comment on the news reports or provide any details about the company’s clients.

Most reports of the ticket deal focused on anger among British businesses and politicians about the printing work not remaining in country.

“This is a kick in the guts to British firms who would have been desperate to secure such a lucrative contract but it looks like they did not even get the opportunity to bid,” Lawrence Webb, a London mayoral candidate, said in this story from The Telegraph.

The Telegraph report also placed the number of tickets to be printed at 11 million.

London 2012 officials say the contract to print tickets was awarded after a “thorough, competitive” review.

“The company which won the bid has worked on several previous Games, met all of our criteria around security, budget and scale and has specialist systems in place to personalise, print and package tickets on the scale we require,” according to the London 2012 statement.

WWL has been in business since 1898. The company, based in downtown Fort Smith, is known for being tight-lipped — other than info on the company website — about its products and clients.

According to WWL info, the company prints tickets, badges and other materials for major sporting events, parks, museums, rodeos, festivals, colleges, building security, and state and local governments.

In May 2010, the company was one of four winners in the Arkansas Governor’s Excellence in Global Trade program. Award info released by the Arkansas Economic Development Commission noted that the company sold products in 66 countries.

Working with high-profile clients began in the company’s early years when it produced about 95% of the tickets for the Ringling Brothers Circus.

“In the 1920’s the firm secured the St. Louis Cardinals account,” according to the WWL website. “We printed tickets for all their games at the old Sportsman’s Park in St. Louis plus many World Series competitions. This led to our long-standing relationship with many major league baseball teams.”

The most recent data about the company also comes from the company. It noted in 2001 that it employed 330 and had 2001 sales of $38 million.

The growth of the company has been evident in the additions to the buildings themselves. After thirteen additions to the building complex, WW&L now occupies 190,000 square feet of floor space, employs 330 people, each with an average 15 years of service and in 2001 we had over $38 million in total sales.

WWL has only had four presidents in its 114-year history, C.A. Lick, 1898-1948; his son, Cap Lick, 1948-1961; his grandson, Bud Jackson, 1961-1985; and his great grandson, Jim Walcott, 1985-present.

Michael Tilley with our content partner, The City Wire, is the author of this report. He can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].