A “Most Unforgettable Character” in the life of millions of Americans, mine included, the Reader’s Digest, filed to reorganize in Chapter 11 bankruptcy; its second trip to the bankruptcy court in less than four years. The news brought back memories of reading the pint-sized magazine, ostensibly written for the grownups in the house, but eagerly consumed by all who could read. I was encouraged monthly to learn new words since “It Pays to Increase Your Word Power,” and felt better since “Laughter is the Best Medicine." I was entertained with some really "Amazing Anecdotes", and got a glimpse of what it meant to be American from "Humor in Uniform" and "Life in these United States." Like millions of other former readers, I have not read (or have even seen) a copy of the Reader’s Digest in years, however the impact remains. As the delivery of content via print continues to decline and moves ever more to phones, pads, surfaces and tablets, I suspect that this former cultural icon will continue to struggle for survival.
Xerox purchased Impika, the French maker of aqueous inkjet printing technology, signaling the continued development of and investment in robust high speed inkjet technologies, raising the question, “Is inkjet the next disruptive technology to rock the printing industry?”
Office Depot and Office Max agreed to merge, creating an $18 billion company that will compete with Staples. Although printing is not central to either Office Depot/Max or Staples, each has built formidable competitive positions in the copy, short run digital print and low end wide format sectors. Our deal log is littered with Chapter 7 liquidations of small print and copy shops, fighting and losing in the battle to compete with these giants. Not to be outdone, two large franchisors of copy shop businesses, Allegra Holdings and Sign and Graphics Holdings agreed to merge into one holding company, re-aligning their operations along two lines – copy shop printing and wide format signage.
Packaging continues to be a bright sector in the industry, with deals announced that are synergistic, global and strategically positive, as opposed to the distressed deals that characterize the commercial print business. Amcor, based in Australia, purchased the tobacco and specialty folding carton business from AGI-Shorewood. Constantia Flexibles, based in Austria, acquired the Spear Group, printer of beverage labels. New York City based private equity firm First Atlantic Capital acquired C-P Flexible Packaging in York, Pennsylvania.
Wausau paper continued its exit from the printing paper business, announcing the closure of its mill in Brainerd, Minnesota, with plans to focus on the tissue paper sector. Clearly, as the printing of content continues to be in the dumper, there are certain uses of paper that simply cannot be transitioned to electronic delivery. Hackman Capital Partners purchased certain assets from bankrupt Catalyst Paper, including a closed mill, as well as the Apache Railway. Hackman has indicated that it will continue to operate the railway; however there was no mention of re-opening the paper mill.
Rationalization of newsprint capacity continued in February as two newspaper publishers each closed their own printing facilities and outsourced the printing to other publishers in nearby regions. The Colorado Springs Gazette will now be printed in Denver, while American Consolidated Media will move its four newspapers and shopper to Forum Communications’ printing facility in Duluth, Minnesota. AFL Quality in New Jersey filed for Chapter 7 liquidation, following the closure of its plant, as reported in the December Target Report. Vertis announced the closing of four printing facilities which were left out of the deal when Quad acquired most of the Vertis assets.
2013 February - Mergers and Acquisitions in the Printing, Packaging, Paper & Related Industries | |||||||||||||
Deal Party #1 (Surviving Entity) |
Pre-Deal Revenues ($Mil ) |
Party #1 Address |
Deal Party #2 |
Pre-Deal Revenues ($Mil ) |
Party #2 Address |
Date Deal Public |
Deal Value ($Mil) |
Deal Structure (Intermediary) |
Notes |
Press Releases |
|||
Fort Dearborn | No Data | Elk Grove Village, IL | FetterGroup (Label business unit) |
No Data | Louisville, KY | 2/28/13 | No Data | Divestiture | Sale of label business | Link | |||
Xerox | $23,000 | Norwalk, CT | Impika | No Data | Aubagne, France | 2/26/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Aqueous inkjet presses | Link | |||
Hackman Capital Partners | No Data | Las Angeles, CA | Catalyst Paper | No Data | Snowflake, AZ | 2/25/13 | $13.5 | Asset
purchase (Perella Weinberg) |
Paper mill assets | Link | |||
Office Depot | $10,700 | Boca Raton, FL | Office Max | $6,920 | Naperville, IL | 2/20/13 | $1,170 | All-stock merger | Copy & wide format offerings | Link | |||
Allegra
Holdings (Alliance Franchise Brands) |
No Data | Plymouth, MI | Sign and Graphics Holdings | No Data | Columbia, MD | 2/19/13 | No Data | Merger | Print
& copy shop franchisors ($380Mil combined revenue) |
Link | |||
Constantia Flexibles | No Data | Vienna, Austria | Spear Group | $195.0 | Mason, Ohio | 2/18/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Beverage labels | Link | |||
Amcor | $12,193(AUS) | Victoria Australia | AGI-Shorewood (US, Asia & Latin America) |
$126.0 | Stamford, CT | 2/15/13 | $114.8 | Asset purchase | Tobacco & specialty cartons | Link | |||
First Atlantic Capital | No Data | New York, NY | C-P Flexible Packaging | No Data | York, PA | 2/13/13 | No Data | Acquisition (Mesirow Financial) |
Flexible packaging | Link | |||
EPS-Doublet | No Data | Denver, CO | Think BIG Solutions | No Data | Denver, NJ | 2/12/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Event graphics, digital print | Link | |||
Intellectual
Ventures & RPX Corporation |
No Data | Bellevue,
WA San Francisco, CA |
Kodak | $7,200 | Rochester, NY | 2/1/13 | $527.0 | Asset sale in Ch.11 | Sale & licensing of digital imaging patents | Link | |||
2013 February - Bankruptcy Filings in the Printing, Packaging, Paper & Related Industries | ||||||||||||
Filing Party |
Date Case Filed |
Pre-Petition Revenues ($Mil ) |
Case # |
Filing Party Address |
Circuit |
Region & City |
Judge |
Attorney for Debtor |
Notes |
|||
Chapter 11 Filings: | ||||||||||||
Mountain View Printing, Inc. | 2/26/13 | No Data | 13-51068 | Mountain View, CA | 9th | Northern
CA San Jose |
Arthur S. Weissbrodt | Charles B. Greene | Commercial printing | |||
Rose Business Forms Company | 2/25/13 | No Data | 13-30605 | Fowlerville, MI | 6th | Eastern
MI Flint |
Daniel S. Opperman-Flint | Donald C. Darnell | Business forms | |||
Topline Printing & Graphics, Inc. | 2/21/13 | No Data | 13-13909 | Riviera Beach, FL | 11th | Southern
FL West Palm Beach |
Erik P. Kimball | Julianne R. Frank | Commercial printing | |||
Digital Printworks, LLC | 2/21/13 | No Data | 13-20451 | Merrillville, IN | 7th | Northern
IN Hammond |
J. Philip Klingeberger | Richard M. Davis | Commercial print, wide format | |||
RDA Holding Co. | 2/17/13 | No Data | 13-22233 | White Plains, NY | 2nd | Southern
NY White Plains |
Robert D. Drain | Joseph H. Smolinsky | Parent of Reader's Digest & others. | |||
Clearview Printing Co., Inc. | 2/5/13 | No Data | 13-10990 | Perkasie, PA | 3rd | Eastern
PA Philadelphia |
Bruce I. Fox | Jon M. Adelstein | Continuous forms | |||
Chapter 7 Filings: | ||||||||||||
AFL Quality, Inc. | 2/15/13 | No Data | 13-12921 | Voorhees, NJ | 3rd | New
Jersey Newark, NJ |
Novalyn L. Winfield | Pro Se | Newsprint and publication printer | |||
Insta-Print, Inc. | 2/6/13 | No Data | 13-01490 | Fort Myers, FL | 11th | Middle
FL Tampa |
Caryl E. Delano | David Lampley | Printing & copying | |||
2013 February - Non-Bankruptcy Closures in the Printing, Packaging, Paper & Related Industries | |||||||||||
Closed Company / Facility |
Date of Closure |
Pre-Closure Revenues ($Mil ) |
Closing Address |
Related Party | Related Party Address |
Date Closure Public | Notes |
Press Releases |
|||
Smith's Printing | Apr-13 | No Data | Cambridge, MD | None | N/A | 2/22/13 | Stationary & commercial printing | Link | |||
Wausau Paper Mill | May-13 | No Data | Brainerd, MN | Wausau Paper | Mosinee, WI | 2/22/13 | Closing technical specialty paper mill | Link | |||
American Consolidated Media | 4/1/13 | No Data | Hibbing, MN | Forum Communications | Duluth, MN | 2/15/13 | Transferring newsprint operations | Link | |||
Colorado Springs Gazette | 4/5/13 | No Data | Colorado Springs, CO | The Denver Post | Denver, CO | 2/15/13 | Transferring newsprint operations | Link | |||
Vertis Ohio Printing Facility | 5/1/13 | No Data | Medina, OH | Vertis Communications | Baltimore, MD | 2/12/13 | Formerly American Color Graphics plant | Link | |||
Vertis New Jersey Printing Facility | Apr-13 | No Data | North Brunswick, NJ | Vertis Communications | Baltimore, MD | 2/12/13 | Formerly Webcraft plant | Link | |||
Vertis Texas Printing Facility | 4/1/13 | No Data | Dallas, TX | Vertis Communications | Baltimore, MD | 1/22/13 | Plant not included in Quad Graphics deal | Link | |||
Vertis Canadian Printing Facility | 1/19/13 | No Data | Fort Erie, ON | Vertis Communications | Baltimore, MD | 1/19/13 | Plant not included in Quad Graphics deal | Link | |||