The Loo Family
Orin and Miriam Loo started Looart Press, a greeting card and stationery company, in 1947. An artist and lithographer, Orin worked at Hallmark Cards in Kansas City for 10 years before moving his family to Colorado Springs. After a year as art director at a local stationery firm, Orin gathered his savings and borrowed money from his father-in-law to start his own company. He designed 10 Christmas cards, which he displayed in a simple black photo album from Woolworth's and presented for sale to card shop owners in Colorado Springs. His second year in business, Orin expanded the line to 17 card designs.
The Loos operated the business from their home with a printing press in the garage. Orin used the family sunroom for an art studio and office and Miriam filled orders at the dining room table. In 1950, Orin sold a 40 percent interest in the business to Danforth Killips, an investment banker in Evanston, Ill.
Miriam started the mail-order side of the business in 1950 while trying to find a market for Orin's boxed note paper, called Post-a-Notes. She decided to try promoting card and stationery sales as a fundraising activity for nonprofit organizations by offering the products at a low wholesale rate. Miriam added decorated recipe cards and designs to the note paper, eventually developing four designs each. She used an outside printer and boxed the orders at home. The Loo children delivered the orders to the post office after school.
The stationery and direct mail-order end of the business grew and, by 1960, the Loos regained complete ownership of the company. The two operations continued to operate from the Loo home until 1960, when they relocated for the first time. The Loos' two sons, Dusty and Gary, joined the company in 1962 and 1964, respectively, and started to run the daily operations of the company.
In 1967, the two companies merged and the mail-order business took the name Current Inc. Looart Press became a holding company for the Current brand and mail-order business, forming two divisions, Looart Retail Products Division and Current Direct Mail Order Products. Eventually, the company dropped Looart and used only the Current name.
When Miriam retired in 1970, her children persuaded her to write a cookbook for the company's mail-order catalog. Using her own family recipes, she wrote Miriam B. Loo's Family Favorites. The cookbook sold more than 600,000 copies, prompting Miriam to write another cookbook. She rented a test kitchen from a local cooking teacher whom she hired to test recipes. After a visit to the test kitchens of Betty Crocker and Sunset magazine, Miriam employed five home economists and ran four test kitchens where new recipes were created for more than 30 cookbooks over the next decade.
The company grew dramatically in the early 1980s. Hoping to broaden its customer base beyond women 30 and older with children, Current doubled its product offering in the 1984 Christmas catalog to more than 800 items, most of them produced by Current. In 1986, Current began a successful new enterprise, selling checks to consumers by direct mail. With more than 1,500 employees, and one million square feet of plant and office space, Current filled more than three million orders per year, most just before Christmas when the company employed about 2,000 workers. With annual sales at $115 million, Current had become the largest direct mail marketer of greeting cards, stationery, gifts and related products.
The company continued its successful growth during its first years under new ownership after selling Current to American Can in late 1986. After the sale, Dusty and Gary formed High Valley Group Inc., which invests in real estate and other business ventures. In 1995, they financed development of the stalled - but now prospering - Briargate subdivision on Colorado Springs' north side; a $1.5 million loan helped build Sky Sox Stadium on the east side of Colorado Springs in 1988; and they invested in the Union Medical Campus. The family also had a sizeable investment in the Izze Beverage Company of Boulder, Colo., which was sold to PepsiCo in 2006.
Dusty and Gary Loo were committed to giving back to their community and both served on many boards including the Pikes Peak YMCA, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Board, the Myron Stratton Home, The Springs Chamber of Commerce and United Way.
Orin, Miriam and Dusty have passed away, while Gary continues to be the Chairman of High Valley Group Inc.
The Loos operated the business from their home with a printing press in the garage. Orin used the family sunroom for an art studio and office and Miriam filled orders at the dining room table. In 1950, Orin sold a 40 percent interest in the business to Danforth Killips, an investment banker in Evanston, Ill.
Miriam started the mail-order side of the business in 1950 while trying to find a market for Orin's boxed note paper, called Post-a-Notes. She decided to try promoting card and stationery sales as a fundraising activity for nonprofit organizations by offering the products at a low wholesale rate. Miriam added decorated recipe cards and designs to the note paper, eventually developing four designs each. She used an outside printer and boxed the orders at home. The Loo children delivered the orders to the post office after school.
The stationery and direct mail-order end of the business grew and, by 1960, the Loos regained complete ownership of the company. The two operations continued to operate from the Loo home until 1960, when they relocated for the first time. The Loos' two sons, Dusty and Gary, joined the company in 1962 and 1964, respectively, and started to run the daily operations of the company.
In 1967, the two companies merged and the mail-order business took the name Current Inc. Looart Press became a holding company for the Current brand and mail-order business, forming two divisions, Looart Retail Products Division and Current Direct Mail Order Products. Eventually, the company dropped Looart and used only the Current name.
When Miriam retired in 1970, her children persuaded her to write a cookbook for the company's mail-order catalog. Using her own family recipes, she wrote Miriam B. Loo's Family Favorites. The cookbook sold more than 600,000 copies, prompting Miriam to write another cookbook. She rented a test kitchen from a local cooking teacher whom she hired to test recipes. After a visit to the test kitchens of Betty Crocker and Sunset magazine, Miriam employed five home economists and ran four test kitchens where new recipes were created for more than 30 cookbooks over the next decade.
The company grew dramatically in the early 1980s. Hoping to broaden its customer base beyond women 30 and older with children, Current doubled its product offering in the 1984 Christmas catalog to more than 800 items, most of them produced by Current. In 1986, Current began a successful new enterprise, selling checks to consumers by direct mail. With more than 1,500 employees, and one million square feet of plant and office space, Current filled more than three million orders per year, most just before Christmas when the company employed about 2,000 workers. With annual sales at $115 million, Current had become the largest direct mail marketer of greeting cards, stationery, gifts and related products.
The company continued its successful growth during its first years under new ownership after selling Current to American Can in late 1986. After the sale, Dusty and Gary formed High Valley Group Inc., which invests in real estate and other business ventures. In 1995, they financed development of the stalled - but now prospering - Briargate subdivision on Colorado Springs' north side; a $1.5 million loan helped build Sky Sox Stadium on the east side of Colorado Springs in 1988; and they invested in the Union Medical Campus. The family also had a sizeable investment in the Izze Beverage Company of Boulder, Colo., which was sold to PepsiCo in 2006.
Dusty and Gary Loo were committed to giving back to their community and both served on many boards including the Pikes Peak YMCA, the Colorado Springs Fine Arts Center Board, the Myron Stratton Home, The Springs Chamber of Commerce and United Way.
Orin, Miriam and Dusty have passed away, while Gary continues to be the Chairman of High Valley Group Inc.
