United Lithographers Inc., of Spokane Valley, has closed its doors.

Brandy Donough, who assumed ownership of the 30-year-old business two years ago following the sudden death that year of her father, Ray Tyson-Flyn, says the shop shut down about a month ago.

She says she has taken a sales and marketing position with Ross Printing Co., of Spokane, and is looking forward to helping that company grow its business. Most of United Lithographers' former customers have migrated over to Ross Printing, she says.

Alan Ross, president and general manager of Ross Printing, says he's excited Donough has joined that 94-year-old business, located at 1611 E. Sprague.

"Her breadth and depth in the industry will be a distinct asset for our company," Ross says. He says Donough will be tasked with developing some emerging products in the supplement and pharmaceutical space and flexible packaging products.

Ross Printing, founded in 1917 by Alan Ross' grandfather, George Ross, originally was a letterpress shop, but moved into lithography in the 1950s and flexography in the 1970s. Flexography is used mostly for printing pressure-sensitive labels and, more recently at Ross, for printing flexible packaging such as sleeves and wraps for energy bars and sample packs. That has enabled the Spokane company to garner more work in the dietary-supplement and pharmaceutical industries, Ross says.

Tyson-Flyn had founded United Lithographers in 1981 and it offered mostly sheet-fed offset printing services until expanding in the early 1990s into the then-emerging field of digital information-transfer services.

It grew to a peak of 26 employees and moved into a newly constructed $1 million, 17,000-square-foot facility at 2622 N. Dartmouth Lane in the mid-1990s, but Donough says it later lost a couple of major customers that had accounted for a large chunk of its revenue.

Donough had worked for United Lithographers as a janitor, receptionist, bookkeeper, and customer service representative before graduating from East Valley High School. She studied the printing business in college, then worked in the industry in England.

She was living in Alaska when called home after the death of her father to run the business, which had shrunk to seven full-time employees and one part-time worker when she took it over.

In a letter dated April 15 announcing that the business would shut down, she said, "My staff and I have overcome many significant challenges to keep my father's dream alive," but "circumstances out of our control" forced the closure.

Donough says the United Lithographers facility is listed for sale with Mark Lucas, of Kiemle & Hagood Co.