Commentary: Robert G. Burton Sr., 86, Leaves a Mixed Legacy

Robert "Bob" G. Burton Sr.

Robert "Bob" G. Burton Sr., a former titan of the printing industry, died on March 21, 2025, at his home in Greenwich, Connecticut. As someone who chronicled his career for more than four decades, I view the albeit large footprints he left behind as an enigma. His business tenacity was undeniable — he led multiple large industry conglomerates, sometimes with an iron fist, and generously supported student athletes throughout his career. But, at the same time, Burton received excessive executive compensation, even when leading to corporate Chapter 11 bankruptcy filings that resulted in mass worker downsizings, multiple plant closings, and invoices that became write-offs for unsecured creditors, including numerous industry suppliers and trade shops.

Bob Burton was a self-made man who carried the same tenacity he displayed on the gridiron into the boardrooms of several large publishing and printing powerhouses. Rising from humble beginnings in the coal mining town of West Frankfort, Illinois, Burton was a standout high school athlete, leading to an athletic scholarship to play football at Murray State University in Kentucky.

Graduating in 1962 with a degree in business administration, Burton was drafted by both the San Francisco 49ers of the NFL and the Buffalo Bills of the AFL. However, after an injury cut short his athletic career, Burton continued his educational pursuits and received a master's degree from Tennessee Technological University.

His love for football led to a lifelong pursuit by him and his wife to provide financial assistance to student athletes as well as to numerous educational and charitable initiatives, reportedly amounting to more than $30 million during their 52-year marriage.

According to his obituary, Burton started his business career in Chicago at Science Research Associates, IBM's publishing division. He then held a series of senior executive positions at Capital Cities/ABC, including president of ABC Publishing.

In 1991, he was recruited by Kohlberg Kravis Roberts & Co. (KKR) to lead World Color Press. Under his watch, World Color Press made multiple acquisitions, including such venerable establishments as George Rice & Sons in 1991, Alden Press in 1993, Ringier America in 1996, and Rand McNally’s Book Services Group in 1997.

A New ‘World Order’

In 1999, World Color merged with Quebecor Printing in a $2.7 billion deal to create Quebecor World. Burdened with debt, Quebecor World filed Chapter 11 bankruptcy in 2008 and, after changing its name back to Worldcolor, was ultimately acquired by Quad/Graphics in 2010 for $1.3 billion.

In late 2000, Burton also partnered with the late Ted Ammon to assume the leadership of Toronto-based Moore Corp., which was facing financial troubles and eventually merged it with Wallace Computer Services. RR Donnelley eventually acquired Moore Wallace in a $2.8 billion stock transaction three years later.

The Rise and Fall of Cenveo

In 2005, Burton led a hostile takeover of Mail-Well, an amalgamation of several acquisitions. Renamed Cenveo, he served as chairman and CEO of the Stamford, Connecticut-based roll-up until his retirement in 2018. Early that same year, Cenveo filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, citing liabilities of more than $1.4 billion.

Several plants were shuttered or sold before and after its Chapter 11 period, reducing the company’s debt to less than $400 million. (Cenveo, which shifted from being a buyer to becoming a seller, is still led by his sons Robert “Rob” Burton Jr. and Michael Burton.)

Claims of Insider Dealings, Lack of Governance

Following the Chapter 11 filing in 2018, Cenveo’s largest second-lien creditor, Brigade Capital Management, filed a legal motion claiming “insider dealing-making” by the controlling Cenveo officers and directors.

At the time, as I reported back in July 2018, Brigade Capital’s petition chastised what it described as exorbitant benefits for controlling Burton family members, such as enabling management to own a 12% stake in Cenveo following the pre-packaged Chapter 11 restructuring, a lack of truly independent Cenveo board members. A restructuring deal forged between Cenveo and its first-lien lenders that reportedly provided virtually no financial recovery to second-lien note holders like Brigade or its unsecured creditors.

Brigade Capital also pointed out the close ties between the Burtons and Cenveo board of director members — such as with then-University of Connecticut President Susan Herbst, whose football program (his son Michael was a former captain of the team) received more than $7 million in donations from Burton and his family to boost the Division I program, including a $2.5 million gift to construct the Burton Family Football Complex.

According to the Brigade investigation conducted at the time, Burton and his two sons reportedly received approximately $80 million of disclosed compensation between its inception in 2005 and 2016 alone.

Industry analyst Thad McIlroy also reported how Cenveo’s board approved a new executive compensation plan and retention bonuses prior to the February 2018 bankruptcy filing. “Covering the three Burton family members and three other Cenveo executives, the plan includes up to 125% in bonuses for reaching certain (unspecified) sales targets, plus a nifty 40-60% immediate cash payment based on their current annual base salary,” McIlroy wrote back in 2018.

He calculated that the Cenveo board awarded the Burton family $2.8 million at the same time they were reportedly contemplating a Chapter 11 filing.

Some Final Thoughts

Bob Burton Sr.’s lengthy business career illustrated the good and bad sides of the printing industry consolidation, which led to massive organizations becoming unwieldy. With too many cylinders competing for relatively slim-margin print jobs and the necessity to increase revenue streams, industry consolidation driven by mergers & acquisitions became inevitable.

But, at the same time, publicly held industry behemoths like Quebecor World and Cenveo took on too much debt via M&A deals to remain sustainable entities. They struggled to integrate all the acquired companies after buying them. The result: excessive senior executive payouts despite poor financial performance, leading to worker layoffs, closures or divestitures of establishments and, ultimately, Chapter 11 filings that virtually cleaned up their balance sheets.

No large industry roll-ups — except for a handful of exceptions, such as Chris Kurtzman of CJK Group and Glen Taylor of Taylor Corp., as examples — have been able to duplicate the winning M&A formula that the late Joe Davis of Consolidated Graphics was able to master.