Year in Review — Big Deals Make Comeback

Chris Colville surprised some with the announcement that he was leaving Consolidated Graphics to pursue other interests. Colville was executive vice president and CFO for CGX, but had earned a stout reputation (and later in the year, a berth in the Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame) as an expert in negotiating transactions. In recent years, Colville had handed over CGX’s M&A duties to Jim Cohen.

As the summer heated up, so did the transaction wire. One move saw EarthColor Inc. of West Orange, NJ, obtain high-end web and sheetfed commercial printer L.P. Thebault of Parsippany, NJ.

Cenveo pulled double time, picking up Los Angeles-based Color- Graphics and Commercial Envelope Manufacturing of Deer Park, NY. ColorGraphics ranked 48th on the 2006 Printing Impressions 400 with $147-plus million in annual sales. Commercial Envelope chipped in its $160 million in yearly revenues.

Some M&A deals are still in process, however, including Baltimore-based Vertis Communications and its bid to acquire American Color Graphics of Brentwood, TN. The companies signed a letter of intent, which expired, but Vertis expressed interest in continuing negotiations. At press time, neither company had ruled out completing the merger.

Despite losing out on Hopkins Printing, CGX remained undaunted in a quest to expand its geographic footprint. The company nailed down a pair of acquisitions—Pikes Peak Lithographing of Colorado Springs, CO, and Cyril Scott Co., Lancaster, OH.

Adobe took a painful hit in the public relations department with its ill-advised “send to FedEx Kinko’s” command in Acrobat 8.1. After meeting with printers, analysts and other interested parties, Adobe decided to remove it from the new version of Acrobat, but still make it an available option that was offered to FedEx Kinko’s customers.

In September, the Printing Impressions/RIT Printing Industry Hall of Fame opened its doors to four new inductees: the aforementioned Colville, Tim Poole of Dome Printing, Gary Samuels of Pictorial Offset, and David Torok of Padgett Printing. Gary Samuels’ brother, Donald, had previously been inducted into the Hall of Fame.