Target Report: 2025 M&A Activity Annual Review

Uncertainty Rules the Day

Over the past 14 years, we have chronicled, logged, and commented on the merger and acquisition activity in several print-centric business segments, with a special focus on commercial printing, packaging (including labels, folding cartons, and flexible packaging), wide-format, and direct mail companies. At the end of August each year, rather than focusing on the prior month’s deal activity, we take a look back at the past 12 months. If past is prologue, and to a reasonable extent we believe it is, then we hope to provide a high-level macro perspective on what the deal activity tells us about where the industry is headed. Which segments have experienced more or less deal activity? What are the trends in the buyers’ rationale to complete these acquisitions? Are acquirers adding facilities to their networks, or opportunistically folding acquisitions into their existing facilities? What does all this tell us about the potential future transactional activity within each print segment?

In purely numeric M&A terms, deal activity during the past 12 months was essentially the same as in the prior TTM period, with a 1.1% increase. However, this is still 12.4% off the peak number we logged in the 2022 post-Covid boom year. We identified 191 transactions of interest during the past twelve months, close to the lowest number we have tracked in any period since we began publishing our annual reviews in the autumn of 2016.

Last year at this time, it appeared that the economy, and therefore by extension the printing and packaging segments, might navigate the turbulence and nail the elusive soft landing. As it played out, the U.S. economy managed to do so incredibly well, with moderately higher interest rates, in historical terms, slowly dampening the stimulus-induced inflation. As we headed into autumn 2024, we noted some bumps on the landing runway, indicating that not all was well. With autumn approaching, the economic plane has landed, and troubling signs appear in the M&A data from the last 12 months. The economy appears to be grounded, and business owners are not sure which runway will lead to a smooth takeoff.

The data noted below about bankruptcy filings and non-bankruptcy plant closings indicate that the ride has been increasingly bumpy, at least for some. (We dig into this more deeply below and point out the particularly hard-hit segments.) At Graphic Arts Advisors (GAA), we hear from many owners on a regular basis, and while inferences from these conversations are anecdotal, we hear that there is a softening of demand across many graphic segments. At GAA, in our special situations practice, which assists owners of financially challenged companies, from moderately to highly distressed, inquiries have increased significantly in the past several months.

We are often asked what time of the year the best time is to go to market, and when buyers are likely to close on deals. Historically, deal activity tends to drop off every year as we head into the summer months. This year was no exception. Although deal activity was steady overall on a year-to-date basis, the three-month trailing analysis of the number of deal announcements by month shows that transactions have steadily declined from a peak in January, reaching their low in July and August.

Deal Activity by Segment

The printing industry is not monolithic, and to better understand the market, we have categorized all deals logged by the segment in which the acquired company primarily operates for each of the past 14 years. We then dig deeper into the packaging, commercial printing, direct mail, and wide-format printing businesses, seeking to understand the rationale behind each deal, and gestalt the results by segment. We also analyze bankruptcy filings and non-bankruptcy plant closings to determine which segments face the most pronounced business challenges.

The following chart breaks down M&A transactions over the past three years into the segments tracked in The Target Report. (Additional segmentation is presented in the discussion below about M&A in the wide-format and packaging markets.)

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Commercial Printing

Our annual deep dive into the rationale behind the transactions in the commercial printing segment indicates that the number of deals in the commercial printing business has been reasonably stable. However, upon closer examination, there are troubling signs in the general commercial printing industry. Companies that rely on a steady stream of new jobs won via the grind of a daily estimate-and-bid process feel the impact of a slowing economy quickly and deeply. The impact of this shows up clearly in the following chart.

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The percentage of deals that were structured as tuck-ins spiked back up to 42% of the announced deals in commercial printing, in contrast to 31.3% in 2023 and an all-time low in 2024 of 26.5%. In these tuck-in transactions, the customers of the acquired company are transitioned to the buyer’s production facility. Buyers will often leave the disposition of the plant and equipment to the seller or the seller’s agent, thereby avoiding responsibility for trade and other debts, and possibly cherry-picking specific equipment that is needed or desirable for the smooth continued servicing of the acquired customers. In our opinion, proven out over time, a higher percentage of tuck-ins is indicative of overcapacity and financial stress, with the consequential result that fewer buyers were willing to acquire an operating company within that segment of the industry, or even more likely, the seller was showing an operating loss for a year or more.

Another indication of increased stress in the commercial printing segment was the decline in the percentage and number of deals in which the buyer stated that they were acquiring the target company with the intention of keeping the facility operating, as opposed to a tuck-in transaction. Over the past year, there were 18 acquisitions in the commercial printing segment where the acquired facility was important to the buyer and will remain in operation, as-is-where-is. Eleven of these buyers acquired the target company to add a location, with the stated goal of keeping the plant operational, which is the opposite of the tuck-in strategy. The other seven target companies were sold to “new-entry” owners who were not previously invested in the commercial printing industry. Notably, six of the seven buyers entering the printing business acquired small franchise operations. The seventh new entry acquired a business that was a combination of commercial printing and reprographic operations. In other words, if we excluded the very smallest storefront-type operations, there were no new investors in the commercial printing business.

Digging a little deeper, we looked for instances in which buyers cited geographic expansion and/or the addition of new services as the rationale behind their acquisitions. We also noted whether a private equity sponsor was involved.

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Within these attributes, the addition of a new service was the most often cited reason for completing a transaction. When is commercial printing a new service? What types of companies are buying into the commercial printing business in the current environment? Examples over the past 12 months include a mailing service company moving into commercial printing via an acquisition (a classic example of printing industry convergence), a specialty magazine publisher acquiring a commercial printing company, and finally an existing commercial printing company that was acquired for its nascent folding carton business.

Many owners we speak with in the commercial printing segment have reminisced with us about how well their companies performed in 2022. The positive, sometimes stellar, performance continued right through 2023 for some. That started to change as the fourth quarter of 2023 rolled into 2024, as conditions tightened. We have been told by many owners that business to date in 2025 has been downright challenging.

With reduced demand for commercial printing services, complaints about a shortage of qualified labor have greatly diminished, but not disappeared completely, as some owners note that finding well-trained operators remains a common problem, especially for analog machines. Complaints about the paper supply are a thing of the past, and companies have worked off the excess inventory that was purchased during the paper shortage. According to owners we speak with, pricing power has in large part shifted back to the buyers.

Interest in commercial printing from private equity has waned over the past year, with no new PE-backed printing platforms being announced. We have not returned to the dark days of the post-recession, pre-Covid years, when there was scant interest in commercial printing from financial investors. However, private equity investors are clearly cautious about the printing business.

Our candidate for the most interesting transaction in the commercial printing segment during the past 12 months is Drummond’s acquisition of two printing companies in the Atlanta, Georgia, metro area. Drummond, based in Jacksonville, Florida, and one of the more prominent practitioners of the regional roll-up strategy, executed a double-header in the Atlanta metro market. The company announced the acquisition of Tucker Castleberry Printing, a long-established commercial printer in Atlanta proper, and New London Communications, located just north in Alpharetta, Georgia. This move reinforces Drummond’s sustained growth strategy across the Southeastern U.S. and adds to its presence in its key secondary metro market.

In contrast to the national roll-ups, the regional strategy relies on a patient building out of a strong market presence in the selected metro via a series of acquisitions, both of operating companies and tuck-ins. (For more, see The Target Report: Is M&A Activity in Commercial Print Poised for a Comeback? – May 2025).

Packaging

For the fifth consecutive year, the packaging business remains the most active among the segments we track. However, consistent with the trend over the past two years, the number of publicly announced transactions declined in the packaging segments during the past year. Activity in the previously red-hot market for label printing companies has continued, albeit at a cooler pace. Over the past 12 months, we identified only 16 transactions involving label printing companies, in contrast to 29 and 41 deals in 2021 and 2022, respectively, when private equity was fueling the market. In contrast to the steady year-over-year results for label companies, the number of acquisitions of corrugated and folding carton manufacturers declined from last year.

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Owners and investors in the packaging industry, when they talk about their rationale for completing an acquisition, tell a very different story than those in commercial printing. Of the 37 transactions we recorded over the past 12 months in the packaging segment, only one was reported to be a tuck-in acquisition. This was the consolidation of an older folding carton plant into a nearby existing operation, which gained capacity following the divestment of its non-packaging business. (The same company, Meyers, the buyer, acquired a folding carton company last year in a comparable tuck-in transaction.)

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Similar to all prior years, the majority of the buyers noted that the acquisition of an additional production facility was the critically important reason for completing the deal. Furthermore, the expansion of the company’s geographic footprint was mentioned as very important to the buyer.

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Private equity was involved in 19 of the 37 total transactions in packaging, accounting for 51% of the total, which is the same ratio as the prior year. Seven new players entered the packaging business, three of which established brand new investment platforms in packaging.

In six instances, geographic expansion or diversity of the acquired locations was noted as a key element in the buyer’s logic for completing an acquisition; however, as a percentage of announced deals, geographic expansion appears to be less important than in the past.

Our candidate for the most interesting transaction in the packaging segment over the past 12 months is not a single transaction; rather, we view the impact of International Paper’s acquisition of DS Smith as hugely impactful. The deal for DS Smith was initially fraught with cross-border intrigue, as International Paper (IP) intervened in a deal that was already in place between UK-based companies Mondi and DS Smith. After International Paper pushed Mondi out of the way, the European Commission required IP to sell five European plants to the Palm Group, based in Germany. IP subsequently announced the closure of an additional 18 facilities in the U.S. as the company rationalized its new global position in the packaging substrate market. The majority of closures announced over the past year were facilities that produce products also made by DS Smith, including containerboard, corrugated sheet, and corrugated cartons. (For more, see The Target Report: Paper Industry Transformation Moves Forward – October 2024).

Wide-Format and Related Digital Products

For our purpose in forming a picture of the various market segments that comprise the overall print-centric industries, we separate companies that produce mostly wide-format and related products from the more generalized commercial printing segment. Companies that primarily produce trade show exhibits are included in the retail display category. Companies that focus on event graphics, architecture graphics, and experiential graphics are included in the grand format category. Companies that operate primarily in the transportation business, as well as wide-format printing companies with a core focus on vehicle wraps, are grouped together in the fleet graphics category. The banners and boards category is a catch-all designation that captures the companies that provide what are now generic wide-format printing services.

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Differentiation in the wide-format business has moved from those that had first-mover advantage to companies that have perfected more complex online direct-to-customer systems, robust planning and installation capabilities, or value-added services such as printing on canvas for use as home or office decor (and even these attributes are no longer sufficient to provide unique differentiation). Notably, a new category — experiential graphics — has been emerging that rests on a robust foundational ability to produce quality wide-format graphics, and moreover, the capacity to take those graphics to the next level, adding structural elements, sound systems, and lighting, among other added features that create a comprehensive and immersive brand or entertainment experience.

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The wide-format business has matured into a segment with steady transactional activity. We noted last year that tuck-ins became a feature of the wide-format deal space for the first time, surely a result of the stress experienced by wide-format businesses in the aftermath of the Covid shutdown. Events and retail traffic have rebounded, and as the data indicates, graphic companies have responded. The number of tuck-ins is down, and buyers are acquiring companies that increase capacity, keeping the acquired facilities in operation.

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We noted a total of 21 publicly reported transactions in the wide-format segment during the past 12 months, exactly the same number we found last year. Private equity is even more active in the wide-format segment; however, no new PE-backed platforms were created in the wide-format segment over the past year. Nonetheless, we expect that deal activity will remain robust over the next several years as the undifferentiated players experience an increasingly competitive market, and the leaders in event, retail, architectural, and experiential graphics create compelling businesses that attract financial investors.

There were numerous interesting transactions in the wide-format space, making it difficult to decide which one stands out above the rest. The January ’24 purchase of Vomela by The Riverside Company is certainly a candidate, as is Wasserman’s acquisition in March ’24 of Bluemedia, the Arizona-based firm that transforms environments via large-format printing, installation, and branding. However, the one company that possibly best represents the transition to experiential graphics is the purchase by Moss of UK-based Rocket Graphics in February ’24. Moss, a wide-format fabric printing company based in Franklin, Illinois, has grown to exceed $100 million in revenue by staying focused almost exclusively on the unique niche application of graphic tensioned fabric installations. That growth has come via the serial execution of acquisitions, each expanding its geographic range and breadth of applications, but remaining laser-focused on the use of printed fabrics held in tension. (For more, see The Target Report: Think Outside the Rectilinear – February 2025).

Direct Mail

In our lexicon and analysis, high-volume direct mail printing companies are in a class by themselves, apart from the more generalized undifferentiated “job-shop” commercial printing companies that may offer some mailing capabilities. Many direct mail shops also manage, manipulate, store, and utilize data to drive improved results for their customers. Some have expanded into full-service marketing support companies, blending digital communication channels with mail campaigns.

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Transactional activity in the direct mail printing segment perked up this past year, after several years of very tepid activity. The mix was about one-third structured as tuck-ins, with the balance justified by the addition of an operating facility. We also note that five direct mail companies filed for bankruptcy in the past year, and four other companies announced the closure of direct mail facilities.

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An expanded geographic footprint grew in importance to direct mail company buyers, driven, as we have noted over the past several years, by the need to mitigate the impact of slower mail delivery standards. Multi-location disaster recovery planning also plays a part in the direct mail M&A activity, especially for the larger mailers serving enterprise-level customers with mission-critical document processing. Private equity has increasingly been a factor in the direct mail business, driving growth via acquisitions.

Our candidate for the most interesting transaction in the direct mail segment during the past 12 months is the bankruptcy filing of Publishers Clearing House. The company was reportedly the highest-volume mailer in the United States at one time, second only to the IRS during tax season. During the heyday of its mail-order and online retail merchandise business, prior to the domination of online retail by Amazon and Walmart, PCH was generating approximately $1 billion in revenue per year. With revenue down to only $38 million in 2025, the company announced its complete and total exit from the print and mail mediums. Going forward, the company will market its services only via digital channels.  (For more, see The Target Report: The Prize Patrol Goes Digital – April 2025).

Challenged Segments

The transactional activity in an industry segment tells us that the business is changing. However, the simple counting of deals does not tell us if that activity is indicative of positive or negative change. To determine a directional indication, we track the number of bankruptcy filings and non-bankruptcy plant closures and correlate this information with the overall transactional activity. Our thesis, confirmed over several years and supported by industry statistics from other sources, is that an industry segment with a high number of transactions that is also experiencing closures and bankruptcies is, or will be, in a contraction phase. There will be opportunities for consolidation at bargain prices for those companies that defy the downward trend.

Conversely, segments in which the number of transactions is inversely correlated to closures and bankruptcies are more likely to be expanding. Therefore, consolidation opportunities will come at much higher prices. Virtually all the packaging segments are experiencing steady transactional activity, albeit fewer deals than in prior years, without the corresponding bankruptcy filings and plant closures, indicating that packaging remains a very healthy environment for sellers as the segment continues to consolidate.

The data on bankruptcy filings flashed a moderate warning sign last year, and that indicator is once again on the increase, albeit only a moderate rise. Another mitigating factor that becomes apparent when examining the data more closely is that many of the printing companies that file Chapter 7, resulting in the liquidation of the company, are very small storefront operations whose owners apparently did not realize that there are other options.

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There have not been many bankruptcy filings in our industry that survive the process, except for the very large companies, such as LSC Communications, that can bear the cost and customer concern that accompany a bankruptcy filing. The more likely, and almost certainly a better outcome, is the sale of the book of business in a tuck-in transaction and a concurrent non-bankruptcy closure.

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The commercial printing segment again takes the ignominious position as the leader in the number of bankruptcies filed.  Also notable, as mentioned previously, five of the bankruptcy filings were in the direct mail segment.

Our candidate for the most interesting bankruptcy filing during the past 12 months was the failure of Landa Digital Printing. With an installed global base of over 50 machines, each reportedly costing approximately $3.5 million, the company burned through more than $1.3 billion of investors’ money before filing for bankruptcy. What matters most to the owners of the installed machines, who placed their bet on the Landa presses to be the next wave of high-quality digital printing, is that a buyer is found to resurrect the company and provide ongoing support and supplies. A recent announcement suggests that a buyer has stepped up to rescue the company. (See The Target Report: Challenges and Opportunities: Hardware versus Software – June 2025).

We also track non-bankruptcy plant closures as a good indicator of financial challenges within each industry segment, possibly even a more prescient predictor than the number of bankruptcies. While some companies simply close up and just disappear, others find a buyer for the book of business and conduct an orderly wind-down process. It is important to note that a closure does not always mean that the company has ceased operating; a closure may simply be due to one of the larger printing or materials manufacturing firms rationalizing their production capacity. In any event, closures are indicative of change, usually resulting from downward pressure in a market segment.

The number of non-bankruptcy closures began to climb in 2023 and continued that trend in the past 12 months. In absolute terms, we found 61 publicly announced plant closures during the past 12 months, a dramatic increase over the 41 in the prior year, and the highest number since we began tracking non-bankruptcy closures in 2012 (the highest previous count was 57 non-bankruptcy closures announced in the 12 months ended Aug. 31, 2014).

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When we break down the closure numbers by segment, the picture is not as grim as the gross numbers might suggest. The main driver of the increase in announced plant closures is the ongoing restructuring within the paper industry. Mills are closing, and with them, many of the related box manufacturing plants. This has been a long-term trend, greatly accelerated over the past year due to the aforementioned rationalization of U.S.-based plants by International Paper.

Not surprisingly, plants that print newspapers and the related web offset advertising inserts closed down in greater numbers. More trade binderies closed than we have seen in the past, most likely due to decreased demand from commercial printing companies, as well as those same trade customers bringing bindery services in-house to better serve their customers and improve cost competitiveness. Not surprisingly, companies that print newspapers are closely linked to the local newspaper publishers, with almost all the closures occurring as local community newspapers cease publication.

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The slight rumblings of discontent that we heard last year are definitely a bit louder now, but are not deafening. The post-Covid demand boom is over. The money from the government largess has by now been fully absorbed, spent, or saved. Loans for new capital equipment come with higher rates. Print-buying customers are exercising price discipline. Uncertainty over trade policy continues unabated. A numbness has set in, and many of the company owners we speak with are adjusting to the new normal. If current conversations are an indication of what to expect over the next year, more sellers will come to market, and there will be more opportunities for buyers to grow through a thoughtful, strategic acquisition plan, including a likely increase in the availability of tuck-ins.

We will continue to watch and report as we enter our fifteenth year of researching M&A in the printing, packaging, and related industries, and publish the monthly issues of The Target Report. Stay tuned.

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View The Target Report online, complete with deal logs and source links for August 2025.