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Photo: Members of the Andrepont and Carriere families stand in front of Bodemuller The Printer Inc. on South Main Street after they announced the company’s financial acquisition by Andrepont Printing.

Photo by FREDDIE HERPIN, Photographer

BOBBY ARDOIN
Contributing Writer

Two historic family-owned Opelousas printing businesses have begun combining their retail customer services as Andrepont Printing announced on Friday the acquisition of Bodemuller The Printer, Inc.

Andre Andrepont said he will now oversee the office supply, copier and printing business as chief operating officer at Bodemuller The Printer, located at 123 South Main Street, as part of the Andrepont Printing ownership transaction.

Details of the purchase of Bodemuller The Printer by Andrepont Printing were not immediately revealed, but Andre Andrepont told St. Landry Now during an interview that members of the Carriere family which has owned Bodemuller The Printer business for since 1966, indicated recently that they were seeking to sell their business to a local company.

“We have been having conversations about this ownership transition by Andrepont for about the last six months. From the discussions that we have had between the partners in the two businesses, it became obvious that the Carriere family did not want to sell the business to just whomever and then go away and move on,” Andre Andrepont said during the interview.

The Carriere family participation at Bodemuller The Printer, which has included Ronald, Murphy and Stephen Carriere, is scheduled to continue indefinitely as the two companies begin to decide on how the two businesses will combine and align their operations, said Andre Andrepont.

“All the aspects of what will be actually done eventually at the two locations are up in the air right now. Bodemuller’s operation has a solid identity in the community and they have earned a respect for integrity and honesty. I want to keep intact that identity that Bodemuller’s has earned,” Andre Andrepont added. 

Andre Andrepont said the prospect of having two businesses with physical printing plants will help each operation increase production potential and efficiency.

“I think with the enhanced space and resources that we will now have, that we can expand our markets and provide more products. Over the next couple of months we will be looking at what we will do at each of the locations to better serve our customers and offer products,” Andre Andrepont said.

Philip Andrepont, owner of Andrepont Printing, said during the next several months that Andrepont Printing will begin a cost effectiveness determination about how to best proceed at each location.

At this point Philip Andrepont said both Andrepont Printing and Bodemuller The Printer will operate under their current business names.

Philip Andrepont said during an interview, Andrepont Printing began operation when his father, Lawrence Andrepont, started the business in 1952 in his garage at the corner of East Grolee and Cane streets.

For over 40 years starting in 1954, Andrepont Printing operated a business inside the McBride building next to the railroad track on North Main Street, Hartley’s research says.

The current property and building formerly used by Schlumberger on the Interstate 49 south service road was purchased for Andrepont Printing in 1985, Philip Andrepont said. The printing business began operation in the building several years later, Andrepont added.

Herman Bodemuller started an 1891 printing business in Opelousas. The business operated on the corner of Court and Bellevue streets and was named Bodemuller The Printer, according to historical research provided by Carola Ann Hartley.

The Bodemuller operation was moved to another location on Court and Bellevue in 1905, according to Carola Hartley’s research shows and a new building for the business was built adjacent to the current location in 1930 and served as the printer’s center of operations until the business was moved to its current site by the Carriere family at the old Heymann Building in 1988.

Murphy Carriere, father of Ronald, Murphy and Stephen Carriere, was hired as a printer for Bodemuller the Printer in 1946 before buying the business in 1966, Hartley’s research indicates.

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