Deluxe

1900–1959

William Roy Hotchkiss founded the company in 1915 as Deluxe Check Printers.Deluxe Corporation was founded as Deluxe Check Printers in Saint Paul, Minnesota, after Hotchkiss secured a $300 loan. Hotchkiss was the creator of speed-enhancing inventions, including the Hotchkiss Imprinting Press , a two-way perforator, and the Hotchkiss Lithograph Press . He also created the first personal flat-pocket checkbook and holder. For most of its early history, Deluxe was primarily a check printing company. Business service operations were not added until later.

1960–1989

The company was privately held until 1965, during which time it began using magnetic ink character recognition check printing technology. By the 1980s, the company was facing reduced demand for its products and increasing competition. In 1988, the company incorporated and changed its name to Deluxe Corporation. In the early 1990s it expanded into customer service for businesses.

1990–present

As use of digital payment systems gained popularity, Deluxe's core business was impacted significantly. In the mid-1990s, the company announced an expansion of its transaction processing and software businesses. Deluxe began selling business forms and supplies, promotional products and branched out to offer other business services, such as payroll. In 1999, Deluxe employed 15,400 people and operated thirteen check-printing plants whereas by 2004, Deluxe employed 9,300, with eight plants. Deluxe acquired small business services provider New England Business Service in 2004. Deluxe shifted its focus from printing products to primarily business services in 2008. It launched an employee background-screening service called HireRight and expanded its service offerings through acquisitions. This included the purchase of Hostopia , Logo Mojo , PartnerUp , and the 2009 acquisition of search engine marketer MerchEngines.From 2010 onward, Deluxe expanded its offerings to include web hosting, marketing services, promotional items, payroll management tools, and other services by acquiring more than fifty companies, including online printing service PsPrint and web-based marketing firm OrangeSoda, email marketing company VerticalResponse , transaction processing company Wausau Financial Services , and logo designer LogoMix , among others. It also began offering echecks.Deluxe launched a reality television show called Small Business Revolution. The show is distributed on Hulu and Amazon Prime Video. Co-hosts have included Baron Davis, Robert Herjavec, Ty Pennington and Amanda Brinkman. In 2021, the show was nominated for a Daytime Emmy Award for Outstanding Lifestyle Series.Deluxe granted at least $750 in company stock to all of its employees in April 2019. Also in 2019, Deluxe secured a contract with Synchrony Financial. In 2020, McCarthy created a new management team, including the company's first-ever chief revenue officer, and instituted a new organizational structure. The company announced it would open its FinTech and Customer Innovation Center in Sandy Springs, Georgia, in 2021, focusing on payment and cloud services business.Deluxe acquired First American Payment Systems, a payment processing company, for $960 million in April 2021. The deal was Deluxe's largest to-date, and was aimed at growing Deluxe's digital payments business. First American provides tools for merchants to process in-store and online payments. Barron's reported that First American Payment Systems generated $300 million in revenue and the acquisition was expected to double the annual revenue of Deluxe's payments business.

Company acquisitions