According to much of the buzz, many folks in the industry, myself included, view this deal as a marriage of strange bedfellows. The buyer is the undisputed printing industry behemoth that serves large corporate accounts through its integrated network of high volume facilities, sophisticated data management, and well-oiled corporate structure; the seller a collection of mid-market commercial printing shops mostly purchased from owner-operators during the 1990’s rollup craze in the printing industry.
Industry consultant and pundit Wayne Peterson wrote a cogent and somewhat compelling argument that Donnelley knows exactly what it’s doing, and that it will use the Consolidated Graphics network to deliver product locally to large corporate accounts that have signed onto its comprehensive “we do it all” print management solution. Printers that compete with Donnelley and Consolidated, most notably Dustin LeFebvre of Specialty Print Communications, have blown the battle bugle and urged independent printers to get into the ring and fight. The prize is the sales reps and customers that may feel that their “local” Consolidated printer is now just another cog in the giant Donnelley wheel. We have seen numerous comments that simply note the writer’s belief that Donnelley will consolidate Consolidated, closing plants once it absorbs as much of the top-line revenue as fits its own strategy. As readers of The Target Report know from our post reviewing August ’13 transactions, Donnelley is not sentimental about closing formerly very successful printing plants, having already closed five this year. Whichever way this plays out, I suspect that the independent mid-size commercial printer will be watching closely.
The Mittera Group acquired Wisconsin Web Offset. The company now has a portfolio of printing companies with combined sales of $95 million and operates eight facilities in the Midwest. In addition to this latest acquisition, the company markets its services under various brand identities including Rock Communications, Colorfx, Sundog Studios, and Catchfire Media. Colorfx has itself been listed on our deal log on three separate occasions during the past two years, having acquired Capital City Graphics, Acme Printing, and Demco Printing, all three in Iowa. The Mittera Group clearly is executing a strategy of growth through serial acquisitions within its current geographic range. Are we witnessing the beginning stages of another printing industry rollup now that Consolidated Graphics is disappearing as an independent company?
Publishers of regional newspapers and publications were active in October. Consistent with a current trend in the newspaper industry, which we noted earlier in the year, The Salt Lake Tribune is selling off its printing plant assets to concentrate on its editorial products and delivery of that content through digital media. The buyer of The Tribune’s interest in the printing plant, the Deseret News, will now print and distribute The Tribune’s print edition as well as its own. Freedom Communications, in Santa Ana, California, is back on our deal log. In May ’12, Freedom sold four Midwest newspapers to Versa Capital Management. This time they are the buyer of the Press-Enterprise newspaper in Riverside, California - the purchase included the printing facility as well as the publishing assets. In Lancaster, Pennsylvania, Engle Printing & Publishing purchased Lancaster Magazine from Brookshire Printing. Brookshire also sold off its commercial printing operation to a different buyer and announced plans to cease operations after the sales are completed.
Sandy Alexander in Clifton, New Jersey, having just completed the management buyback of the company from its private equity backers in August ’13, announced the acquisition of SALT Studios, a high-end retouching and computer graphics studio in New York City. This brings the web, sheetfed, and wide-format printer upstream into the creative realm, one of the three paths to diversification we have observed as commercial printers strive to become “marketing service providers” (MSP’s).
For the first time in the two and half years that we have been researching transactions in the printing, packaging, paper, publishing, and related industries, we did not find any Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings, and there were no reported plant closings. We found only two Chapter 7 liquidations of small printing companies that focused on selling promotional items. Following the reduced number of bankruptcy filings in September, it appears that failures, at least those requiring protection of the bankruptcy court, have subsided, while M&A transactions continue at a brisk pace.
| 2013 October - 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 |
|||
| The Mittera Group | No Data | Des Moines, IA | Wisconsin Web Offset | No Data | Brookfield, WI | 10/31/13 | No Data | Acquisition (Eisen Fox & Company) |
Catalog & publication printing | Link | |||
| RR Donnelley | $10,280 | Chicago, IL | Consolidated Graphics | $1,050 | Houston, TX | 10/24/13 | $620.0 | Acquisition | Commercial printing | Link | |||
| Preferred Packaging Partners | No Data | Providence, RI | Matlet Group | No Data | Pawtucket, RI | 10/23/13 | $8.5 | Recapitalization | Commercial print & packaging | Link | |||
| Progressive Printers | No Data | Dayton, OH | Thomas Graphics | No Data | Dayton, OH | 10/23/13 | No Data | Merger | Commercial printing | Link | |||
| Cooley Group | No Data | Rochester, NY | Proforma I.F. Printing Services | No Data | Rochester, NY | 10/22/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Promotional items & printing | Link | |||
| Mail
Print (NextPage) |
No Data | Kansas City, MO | Graphic Services Printing | No Data | Kansas City, MO | 10/21/13 | No Data | Merger | Commercial printing | Link | |||
| Mail
Print (NextPage) |
No Data | Kansas City, MO | L&L Manufacturing | No Data | Independence, MO | 10/21/13 | No Data | Merger | Commercial printing | Link | |||
| Deseret News | No Data | Salt Lake City, UT | Salt
Lake City Tribune (Interest in Printing Plant) |
No Data | West Valley City, UT | 10/21/13 | No Data | Asset acquisition | Newspaper printing plant | Link | |||
| Electronics for Imaging (EFI) | $652.1 | Foster City, CA | Metrix Software | No Data | Edmonds, WA | 10/17/13 | No Data | Acquisition | MIS systems for printing | Link | |||
| Christopher Pierce | No Data | Lisbon, ME | The
Dingley Press (Division of The Sheridan Group) |
No Data | Lisbon, ME | 10/10/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Catalog printing | Link | |||
| Freedom Communications Holdings | No Data | Santa Ana, CA | The Press Enterprise | No Data | Riverside, CA | 10/10/13 | $27.3 | Asset purchase | Newspaper publishing | Link | |||
| Engle Printing & Publishing | No Data | Mount Joy, PA | Lancaster
County Magazine (Division of Brookshire Printing) |
No Data | Lancaster, PA | 10/9/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Local publishing | Link | |||
| Spectrum Printing | No Data | East Petersburg, PA | Brookshire
Printing (Commercial Printing Division) |
No Data | Lancaster, PA | 10/9/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Commercial printing | Link | |||
| Boxwood
Capital (Div now "Outdoor Image") |
No Data | Richmond, VA | Formetco (Grand Format Division) |
No Data | Duluth, GA | 10/8/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Grand format printing | Link | |||
| EM Printing | No Data | Bartlett, TN | Jaco-Bryant Printers | No Data | Memphis, TN | 10/8/13 | No Data | Merger | Commercial
printing (combined $7.7Mil revenue) |
Link | |||
| Cobe Capital | No Data | New York, NY | Staples
Printing Systems Division (European division) |
No Data | Amsterdam, Netherlands | 10/7/13 | No Data | Acquisition | Printing Equipment Distributor | Link | |||
| Sandy Alexander | No Data | Clifton, NJ | SALT Studios | No Data | New York, NY | 10/1/13 | No Data | Acquisition | High-end retouching | Link | |||
| 2013 October - Bankruptcy Filings in the Printing, Packaging, Paper & Related Industries | ||||||||||||
Filing Party |
Date Case Filed |
Pre-Petition Revenues ($Mil ) |
Case # |
Filing Party Address |
Circuit |
Region & City |
Judge |
Attorney for Debtor |
Notes |
|||
| Chapter 11 Filings: | ||||||||||||
| No Chapter 11 Filings Found this Month | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |||
| Chapter 7 Filings: | ||||||||||||
| Uni-Print Products | 10/10/13 | No Data | 13-58051 | Mount Sterling, OH | 6th | Southern
OH Columbus |
C. Kathryn Preston | Michael T Gunner | Printing , copying & promotional items | |||
| Washington Promotions & Printing | 10/8/13 | No Data | 13-27070 | Bethesda, MD | 4th | Maryland Greenbelt |
Thomas J. Catliota | Jeffrey M. Sherman | Printing , copying & promotional items | |||
| 2013 October - 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 |
|||
| No Plant Closures Found this Month | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | |||
