About
Today Kaye-Smith is a marketing-execution and supply-chain company. The name comes from a 1958 media partnership. The plant work traces to a 1908 Seattle shop.
In production
Kaye-Smith sits between a company's marketing or operations desk and the communications that reach customers. You send the file, the spec, and the date. We run production, inventory, and release.
Statement cycles, direct mail, commercial print, promotional kits, and warehouse work live on one briefing — not a stack of local vendors.
Kaye-Smith did not originally start as the printing and communications company it later became. The organization formed around Lester “Les” Smith and entertainer Danny Kaye. Company-connected sources describe Kaye-Smith Enterprises as founded in 1958 as a joint venture between Les Smith and Danny Kaye. BBB records give an incorporation / business-start date of August 26, 1964. The 1958 date refers to the broader partnership. 1964 is the corporation date documented by BBB.
Les Smith had previously become involved in broadcasting. He acquired an interest in Seattle radio station KJR in 1954 and later became involved with radio stations in Portland and Spokane. Danny Kaye and Frank Sinatra subsequently invested in the stations. Sinatra later sold his interest. Kaye and Smith continued together.
By the early 1970s, Kaye-Smith was a diversified entertainment and media business. It included approximately 10 radio stations, the Concerts West concert-promotion business, a recording studio, film-production operations under Kaye-Smith Productions, a radio-syndication business known as Broadcast Programming, and other interests.
Les Smith was also one of the investors involved in establishing the Seattle Mariners Major League Baseball franchise in 1976. The ownership group later sold the team in 1981.
The historical Kaye-Smith was much closer to a media and entertainment conglomerate than to today's printing company.
Over time the broadcasting, entertainment, and other businesses were sold. Les Smith then moved heavily into business communications and printing.
There is an additional corporate lineage going back further. Seattle Sales Book began operating in 1908. It was acquired by Lothrop Business Forms in 1917, and Les Smith later acquired Lothrop in 1987. That operation became an important part of the later Kaye-Smith printing and communications business. This is why company materials sometimes describe Kaye-Smith's “roots” as extending back to 1908 even though Kaye-Smith itself originated decades later.
During the following years, the company expanded beyond ordinary printing into document outsourcing, financial communications, direct marketing, promotional merchandise, and sophisticated statement-processing operations.
Kaye-Smith also acquired businesses including Portland-based KORE Group, associated with promotional products, and POD4Print, associated with digital and direct-mail capabilities.
Les Smith remained closely associated with the business until later in his life. He died in 2012 at age 93. His son Alexander “Alex” Smith subsequently led the company. Acquisition materials say Alex had been CEO since 2004 and owned Kaye-Smith before its sale to Smart Source. BBB records also identify Alexander Smith as president of Kaye-Smith Enterprises.
Kaye-Smith is no longer an independent company in the same sense it was previously. On September 3, 2024, Smart Source LLC announced that it had acquired certain assets of Kaye-Smith. Smart Source is a larger print, promotional-products, packaging, fulfillment, and marketing-execution company headquartered in Florida, with operations around the United States.
The acquisition was intended to strengthen Smart Source's presence in Washington, Oregon, and the broader Pacific Northwest. The announcement stated that the Kaye-Smith name would continue after closing, identified as “a Smart Source Company.”
Smart Source said the transaction would bring its combined forward-looking annual sales to approximately $250 million. That figure refers to Smart Source after the acquisition. It should not be interpreted as Kaye-Smith's standalone annual revenue.
Read the PR Newswire release or visit Smart Source. The family announcement also sits on the home page.
Current capabilities include commercial printing, high-volume transactional communications, direct mail, promotional products, packaging, signage, retail displays, warehousing, inventory management, kitting, fulfillment, and enterprise procurement technology. Critical-communications operations support statements, invoices, and regulatory documents, including physical print/mail and electronic delivery.
Kaye-Smith historically operated heavily around Seattle / Renton / Bellevue, Washington, and Portland, Oregon. The 2024 acquisition announcement described it as Bellevue-based and specifically mentioned its statement-processing facility in Renton, Washington. This site lists the operating address at 720 Lind Ave SW, Renton, WA 98057-2305. See Locations.
Lineage
Shop opens. Acquired by Lothrop Business Forms in 1917. Les Smith acquired Lothrop in 1987.
Joint venture between Les Smith and Danny Kaye. BBB records an August 26, 1964 corporation date.
Radio, Concerts West, recording, film. Broadcasting sold. The company concentrated on communications and printing.
Asset acquisition announced September 3, 2024. Kaye-Smith continues as a Smart Source company.
Security and compliance
Smart Source describes security and compliance capabilities including SOC 2 Type II, HIPAA-related operations, and PCI-related controls for relevant operations. Which report applies to your program is a briefing question.
Independent control report used by enterprises that send us production data.
Healthcare communications handled under applicable program controls.
Applied where payment-adjacent document work requires them.
Ask for the report, BAA, or questionnaire that matches your file types. Do not send production data through this website.
Send customer data, document specs, inventory, or a branding kit. Kaye-Smith runs the operational work that turns those inputs into print, mail, digital delivery, merchandise, and fulfillment.
Talk with the team Review capabilities