Throughout history,
monks have been linked to ink, penning beautiful calligraphy in books
and illuminating manuscripts. The Benedictine monks at St. Andrew's Abbey in Valyermo, located in California's Mojave Desert 90 minutes north of Los Angeles, have updated the ink connection for today's digital age with their new venture, MonksInk, an online ink and toner business.
Since it launched in 2011, MonksInk.com, an online store offering brand name and remanufactured ink and toner cartridges, has tripled the number of its customers, who hail from corporations, dioceses and schools nationwide.
This year, it has more than tripled its sales revenue, with sales doubling in just the last six months.
Benedictine Father Joseph Brennan, prior of St. Andrew's Abbey, credited the surge to recently targeted marketing efforts to Catholic dioceses and schools as well as customer interest in ordering ink and toner cartridges from a monastery instead of an impersonal big box office supply store.
"People are intrigued when they hear about it," said Father Brennan told The Tidings, newspaper of the Los Angeles Archdiocese. "They want to support the abbey and the monastery. So many people across the country have been educated by Benedictines."