Design and Premedia Firm Diadeis Acquires Creative Production Agency Graphic Systems Group
NEW YORK—December 10, 2014—Diadeis, one of the world’s leading design and premedia agencies, is pleased to announce the acquisition of Graphic Systems Group (GSG), a creative production agency serving premier brands from around the globe. This is the latest acquisition for Diadeis, giving them a U.S.-based resource that supports the company’s mission to provide brands with superior premedia, packaging design and production expertise.
Diadeis is already a well-established leader in the international premedia industry, with offices in Europe, Asia, Africa and the Middle East. The addition of GSG helps secure its reputation as one of the sector’s major players. “This acquisition brings two innovative organizations together into a premedia and production powerhouse," states Jean-Charles Morisseau, Diadeis’s chairman. "Both Diadeis and GSG have a history of innovation that has helped each company evolve to better serve the needs of today’s brands. Together, our strong teams and industry knowledge will strengthen the geographic coverage for all our clients and optimize their campaigns no matter where they take place. We look forward to a successful partnership from our strategic location in New York City.”
Founded in 1980 as high-end retouching and fine art boutique, GSG has grown to become New York’s pre-eminent independent creative production agency, serving the world's leading brands, including L’Oréal, Novartis, Abercrombie & Fitch, Avon, and NBC. GSG’s range of services include multilingual mechanicals, premedia, digital, visual merchandising and software implementation.
“We joined Diadeis because we share a similar vision of the industry," notes Bill Hufstader, GSG’s CEO. "We provide technical skills as well expert advice, giving our clients added value and helping them to fully optimize their marketing supply chain.”
Rich Paganello, GSG’s managing partner adds, “The top advertisers want global coverage. Being a part of Diadeis helps us to offer that, and gives us a huge potential for growth.”
Process Optimization and Cost Reduction
Both Diadeis and GSG share a focus of providing marketing project optimization directly to brand owners through the process of production decoupling. This processes separates the communication media creation phase from the premedia stages, giving brand owners more control over the production process and saving them time and money. Using this model, both companies have grown to become leaders in providing production services.
“We mainly work for multinational companies who come to us to consolidate all of their marketing communication materials to speed up their time-to-market and cut costs,” notes Jan Stollerman, GSG’s managing partner.
This acquisition enhances this work, as each company also possesses specific expertise that compliments the other.
GSG has expertise in creating and managing processes and information technology. “The implementation of specific processes and IT tools is crucial to achieving this faster time to market and reduced cost," says Ken Madsen, GSG’s president says. "We were one of the first to understand the importance of technology in our industry, and we invested heavily in it. We will leverage this focus on process as we consolidate with Diadeis’s software suite that supports the creative lifecycle technologies.”
Diadeis brings an in-depth knowledge of the packaging sector that will compliment the work being done by GSG. Diadeis currently produces packaging design, mechanicals, pre-press and comps on behalf of such high-profile brand owners as Unilever, Nestlé, Mondelez and LVMH. In addition, Diadeis has over 40 years of experience working with the top printers in the world and developing comprehensive skills in color management that brings to service GSG’s client base.
The acquisition of GSG is the latest in a series of acquisitions by Diadeis. Earlier this year, the company acquired Alia, the leading premedia platform working for the Indian market. With these acquisitions complete, Diadeis now has over 600 employees worldwide and produces over 50,000 packaging projects, 7,000 marketing operations, 200 branding events, and 700,000 pages each year.
