Target Report: A New Consolidator Emerges

The print and packaging industries have long been shaped by cycles of technical reinvention, growth, maturation, and consolidation. Over time, consolidators emerge within the various print and packaging segments. Some maintain a disciplined strategic acquisition strategy, carefully putting the pieces in place to build a solid, durable business, while others move quickly from one deal to the next. Eventually, some become overextended, and the structure begins to wobble.

Newly ascendant consolidators emerge, complete multiple transactions, and another cycle begins. As the new platform company constructs its network, it slowly becomes apparent which type of structure the consolidator is building: disciplined and durable, or overextended and unraveling.

A New Platform Takes Shape

RoyerComm Prism has emerged with surprising momentum as the newest consolidator in the commercial printing industry, with one foot in folding carton production. Beginning less than a year ago, the South Jersey commercial printing company, already a half-century in business, embarked on a parade of acquisitions that strikes an aggressive tone for the future, with three acquisitions announced within the first eleven months of 2025.

The transaction that established the RoyerComm Prism platform was announced just this past January as a merger between RoyerComm and Prism Color. According to the press release announcing the deal, in addition to commercial printing services, RoyerComm brought promotional products and fulfillment services to the combined entity. The foundation of the new platform was strengthened by Prism’s expertise in folding carton production.

In August, the newly established RoyerComm Prism announced it had acquired Victor Printing, a Cherry Hill, New Jersey-based Company.  The company's messaging around the acquisition was clear: the deal was a step forward in its mission and long-term vision to expand capacity and grow its team.

In November, RoyerComm Prism announced the acquisition of Brilliant Printing. Based on the other side of the Delaware River, in Exton, Pennsylvania, Brilliant Printing is a high-quality, premium commercial printing company that also produces collector edition books of photography, art, and fashion.

It is worth noting that while there is some directional confusion here (the mix of commercial printing, folding carton production, and premium picture book manufacturing suggests a platform still defining the precise contours of its long-term strategy), a rational geographic focus emanates from the core platform company’s home base. We will keep an eye on this latest consolidator, working to make sense of the contraction that is endemic to our industry. Whether this becomes a disciplined regional platform or a more diffuse roll-up remains a storyline to watch.

Disciplined Consolidators Stay on Course

Modern Litho, headquartered in Jefferson City, Missouri, continued its measured expansion with the acquisition of Mpress in Kansas City. This latest acquisition by Modern Litho enhances the company’s central Midwestern footprint and adds capacity in the Kansas City market, where the company already has a meaningful presence.

Modern has executed a consistent strategy that has built a multi-pronged presence in the major central Midwest Missouri cities of Kansas City and St. Louis, both relatively equidistant from the original headquarters in Jefferson City, a short distance from the exact geographic center of the state. In 2023, the company added a facility in Columbia, Missouri, just 30 miles north of Jefferson City, along the Missouri River, positioned almost exactly midway between Kansas City and St. Louis on Interstate Route 70. Modern Litho truly has Missouri covered, from end to end.

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The company has historically focused on publication and catalog printing for niche markets and has used strategic acquisitions to expand not only geographically but also to add other services, including marketing, direct mail, wide-format graphics, and custom packaging. Lest there be any doubt about the company’s intent to maintain its central Midwest presence, its website extols its growth-oriented strategy, expanding its “hub and spoke” manufacturing model.

The regional consolidation play appears to offer endurance and steady growth for those with the discipline to stay the course. The company reported revenue of $67 million in the 2025 industry listings of top companies, a dramatic increase from the $32 million reported in 2018, right before the latest run of acquisitions.

Another disciplined consolidator that has stayed focused geographically is Drummond Printing, headquartered in Jacksonville, Florida, executing a clear strategy to build out the company’s presence in the Atlanta, Georgia, market. The company recently acknowledged how important Atlanta has become in its plans. It announced that it is consolidating all its print manufacturing into two of its Atlanta facilities, while retaining the headquarters and warehousing in Jacksonville. The company reported revenue of $74 million in the 2025 listing, a strong showing from the $34 million in 2017. (See The Target Report: Is M&A Activity in Commercial Print Poised for a Comeback? – May 2025.)

Modern Litho and Drummond demonstrate the enduring power of regionally anchored strategies: focused footprints, coherent service mixes, and deliberate expansion within reach of the defined home base.

Is This Diverse National Roll-Up Unraveling?

Marketing.com may very well illustrate the risks inherent in the roll-up model when executed at high velocity across diverse verticals. With backing from private equity firm JAL Equity, the company has been one of the most active acquirers in the printing and related marketing production service industries. It has been an amazing story, with so many acquisitions, many unannounced, that it has been challenging to keep up and record them all. It has been a head-scratcher to figure out if there has been a coherent strategy underlying this national consolidator, or if this is simply an opportunistic run.

JAL Equity was formed in 2008 (under the name Prospect Marketing Group) as an acquisition platform and began assembling a string of small printing companies. Based in Sarasota, Florida, JAL Equity, via its various entities, has scooped up dozens of companies, including some stalwart names that were at one time considered some of the industry's best.

When JAL Equity launched the Marketing.com name in 2023, the press release claimed that the company had already completed 46 transactions. At that time, the company stated that its revenue was in excess of $500 million, it employed approximately 2,000 people and operated 34 locations. The list of acquisitions reads as a who’s who of highly-regarded company names in the industry: Knepper Press (Pittsburgh, PA), Las Vegas Color Graphics (Las Vegas, NV), Frye-Williamson Press (Springfield, IL), NPC (Tampa, FL), Brant InStore (Branford, ON), Stratis Visuals (Torrington, CT), Action Printing (Fond du Lac, WI), and many more that readers of The Target Report would likely recognize. In addition to the Marketing.com brand, which now encompasses these and many other formerly independent companies, JAL Equity owns Tshirts.com, Printing.com, and many other print, promo, mailing, and fulfillment dotcom domains.

The seminal moment when the industry stood up and took notice of this relative newcomer to the printing industry was in August 2021, when JAL Equity formed ColorArt to acquire the former Cenveo commercial printing plants in Eureka, Missouri, Amarillo, Texas, and San Antonio, Texas. The acquisition of the Cenveo plants represented a quantum leap in the size of deals JAL Equity had previously completed. From that point forward, the acquisition spree kicked into high gear, as JAL Equity hoovered up several dozen printing companies, envelope manufacturers, mailing companies, promotional product distributors, and marketing services providers. In a remarkable karmic way, the Cenveo deal kicked off a redux of the original frenzied Mail-Well/Cenveo days that eventually did not end well (See The Target Report: CJK Goes Global as Cenveo Unwinds – September 2020 and The Target Report: Cenveo Returns to its Roots – July 2022.)

November 2025 brought that narrative into sharper focus.  Two JAL-related entities filed for protection under Chapter 11 of the US Bankruptcy Code in the District of Nevada. Las Vegas Color Graphics, Inc. filed simultaneously with Color Art, LLC. The company filings reported $1 million to $10 million in assets and $10 million to $50 million in liabilities. The bankruptcy filings were preceded by a lawsuit filed by Aequum Capital in the Missouri Circuit Court, where Color Art is based, alleging a $26 million default and certain irregularities. The Judge in the Missouri case appointed a receiver to manage ColorArt; however, the federal bankruptcy filing supersedes the state court action, placing the company’s assets under the oversight of the federal bankruptcy court. The bankruptcy filing by two key assets raises questions about how other entities within the Marketing.com orbit may manage if financing or operational challenges intensify.

In December 2022, JAL Equity acquired Canadian firm Brant InStore (formerly known as Brant Screen Craft). The acquisition expanded JAL Equity's presence in Point-of-Purchase, display, and signage products. Earlier this year, a long list of printing equipment assets was sold at auction from two Brant InStore production facilities in Ontario. The Brant InStore website now redirects to Marketing.com’s Torrington, Connecticut location.

In September, Marketing.com filed a WARN Act notice in Wisconsin stating that the company was permanently closing the Action Printing facility in Fond du Lac, noting that the product line produced there was being discontinued. Action Printing had been acquired by Marketing.com just a year before, in August 2024.

While these closures and asset divestitures are not in themselves signs of possible larger issues at Marketing.com (the printing industry experiences many closures in the normal course of events as the industry consolidates). (For more on industry closures, see The Target Report Annual Review – TTM August 2025.) Nonetheless, the closure of Action Printing, the auction of the Canadian Brant InStore equipment, and the Las Vegas bankruptcy filings, taken together, are notable and warrant watching how this hyper-active national consolidator fares in the near future. The following year will reveal whether the platform stabilizes or if the roll-up model, executed at this velocity and breadth, proves unsustainable.

Focus Versus Size and Scope

In a landscape shaped by overcapacity, shifting demand patterns, and rising competitive pressure, the transactions in November provide a clear signal: the future in print does not necessarily belong to the biggest portfolio but is more likely to benefit the most focused platform. As this latest cycle unfolds, the companies that define the next era of commercial print will be those that align acquisitions with a coherent strategic identity and/or geographic rationale, not those that chase scale for its own sake.

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

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