The Advertiser Printing Office was opened in Adelaide in July 1858 as a printing subsidiary of the Adelaide Advertiser. By 1880 it was housed in a two-storey premise in Waymouth Street, Adelaide, and in 1931 it acquired The Register printing plant. After 1937, when Douglas Dunstan took over as managing director, the firm developed a reputation as a prestige printer and binder, and produced some fine printing in limited editions.
In a period of rapid growth after the Second World War the firm began investing in new printing technologies, including offset lithography and die stamping, as well as adding automatic bookbinding facilities. In 1953 it acquired Adelaide's prestigious Hassell Press, and having used the symbol of a griffin since 1945, in 1954 became The Griffin Press.