BUSINESS MEMO: PRINT COMPANY CLOSES

SPARTA, Ill. -- After years of effort to keep the presses rolling, SIPCO Spartan International Printing Co. has closed.

At its peak, Spartan Printing was the largest employer in Sparta, with 1,200 workers in a town of 4,800. When the doors closed last week, the company had only 44 employees.

Spartan Printing was founded in 1904 in St. Louis and was originally called World's Fair Color Press Co. After the 1904 World Fair, the firm printed mainly newspaper comics.

In the 1930s, Spartan primarily printed comic books and magazines. The firm moved to Sparta in 1948.

Employees purchased the 600,000-square-foot printing plant in 1992. They cut jobs and took pay cuts to keep the business operating. But losses continued to mount, and Spartan filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy in October 1995. A temporary reprieve came in May 1996 when Grupo Serla S.A. de C.V. of Mexico purchased Spartan in federal bankruptcy court for $1 million.