Alcom Printing Grows Footprint With Great Atlantic Graphics Acquisition

Alcom Printing Group COO Doug Yeager now also serves as president of Great Atlantic Graphics.

Alcom Printing Group, a Harleysville, Pa., commercial printer that has remained a fixture in the Delaware Valley for more than 70 years, has acquired the assets of Great Atlantic Graphics LLC. The 48-employee Great Atlantic Graphics will continue to operate out of the 65,000-sq.-ft. facility it moved into about two years ago in Lansdale, Pa., and will now be called Great Atlantic Graphics, a Div. of Alcom Printing Group.

According to Alcom Printing COO Doug Yeager, who now also serves as president of Great Atlantic Graphics, the debtor-in-possession acquisition provides a synergistic fit from a product, vertical market and cross-selling standpoint, and enables Alcom to "layer on revenue to its portfolio," which combined will now be $30 million annually.

Operating two six-color Heidelberg XL sheetfed offset presses with tower coaters and extended deliveries, and a Xerox iGen 4 digital press, Great Atlantic Graphics primarily serves the pharmaceutical, manufacturing, health care and educational markets. There was very little overlap of clientele between the two organizations, according to Yeager.

He also points to Great Atlantic Graphics' industry reputation for high-quality printing and stringent color reproduction, as evidenced by its ISO 9001:2015 Quality Management System certification. "Alcom gains invaluable processes and techniques in the development of quality management and color integrity, which is the pinnacle of print quality in our industry," says Yeager.

Alcom Printing Maintains Diverse Capabilities

On the flip side, Great Atlantic Graphics and its client base will benefit from the additional production capabilities, software development and value-added services that Alcom offers. Among them are Alcom's coldset web offset printing and wide-format digital printing capabilities, its Web-to-print digital storefront and branded promotional products offerings, and its sophisticated inventory management and fulfillment capabilities.

Operating out of a 130,000-sq.-ft. facility with 110 employees, Alcom houses a six-color Heidelberg XL 105 with aqueous coater, a five-color Heidelberg Speedmaster SM 102 perfector with aqueous coater, three nonheatset web offset presses, two Kodak NexPress digital presses, three Canon Océ black-and-white digital printers, a 98˝ HP Scitex FB 700 wide-format printer, and a wide range of binding, finishing and mailing equipment.

It primarily caters to the general commercial, financial, manufacturing, educational and pharmaceutical insert markets. The digital storefronts it creates for clients are driving a lot of revenue, Yeager reveals, and as a result Alcom is also doing a lot of pick-and-pack work to fulfill the online orders.

Biggest Asset: Great Atlantic Graphics' Employees

Yeager also points to the employee base of Great Atlantic Graphics as the biggest asset this latest acquisition brings to Alcom. "They have great people working there. To still hang in, with all that they have gone through [financial difficulties and downsizings that ultimately led to a Chapter 11 filing], shows their strong desire and commitment to help the company succeed," he notes.

Don Eichman, president and CEO of Alcom, is similarly impressed with the fortitude displayed by Great Atlantic Graphics' workforce and the industry suppliers that remained supportive during its bankruptcy proceedings. "It takes an incredible amount of good credit, undaunting character of our employees and credibility in our industry to accomplish a successful transaction like this," he points out. “We appreciate the many vendors of Great Atlantic Graphics who have stood by our side through this strategic acquisition; without them it would have been difficult, to say the least.”