Hunt Valley

The printing operations of United Litho located in Ashburn, VA, will be consolidated into Dartmouth Printing’s facility in Hanover, NH. According to the Washington Business Journal, 80 jobs will be eliminated as a result. Sales and customer service staff will continue to operate in the Dulles/Ashburn, VA area.

PARAMUS, NJ—9/30/2008—Joan B. Davidson, group president of The Sheridan Group, headquartered in Hunt Valley, Md., has been named the 48th Walter E. Soderstrom Award recipient. Davidson will receive the award, one of the graphic communications industry’s most prestigious honors, at the annual NAPL Soderstrom Society Dinner on Monday, Oct. 27, 2008, at the Mid-America Club in Chicago. NAPL (www.napl.org), the industry’s association for excellence in the printing and graphic communications industry, will also induct 13 industry leaders into the Walter E. Soderstrom Society at the event.

How important are process automation and e-commerce capabilities to a printer’s success in working with today’s emerging “demand specifiers?” Doug Traxler is executive vice president of Webb/Mason, based in Hunt Valley, MD. Webb/ Mason is an $85 million company specializing in online brand management, creative and print services. The company works with nearly 200 “preferred partners” nationwide, matching their services to the needs of more than 400 active customers. Traxler was part of a “Demand Specifiers Panel” at the recent NPES Industry Summit in Chicago. We followed up with him afterward. At first glance, the Webb/Mason model is reminiscent of the e-commerce “bid and

HUNT VALLEY, MD—The Sheridan Group has reached an agreement to acquire the business of The Dingley Press, a $90 million specialty catalog printer based in Lisbon, ME. Financial terms of the deal, which was slated to close last month, were not announced. Completion is contingent upon The Sheridan Group obtaining financing and other conditions. "We are delighted to have The Dingley Press join The Sheridan Group. Dingley is a well-run company in a market with similar characteristics to our existing businesses," states John A. Saxton, president and CEO of The Sheridan Group. Under terms of the deal, Dingley's business will be acquired by a wholly owned

NEW YORK—Private equity groups Bruckmann, Rosser, Sherrill & Co. and Jefferies Capital Partners have agreed to acquire the Sheridan Group from BancBoston Ventures and other shareholders in a deal valued at $142 million. The private equity firms will invest $44 million for a common and preferred equity stake in the Hunt Valley, MD-based company, according to a report from Moody's Investors Service. To finance the acquisition, Sheridan will issue $100 million of senior secured notes, which will be used in part to refinance $66 million of existing debt as of June. It will also receive a new $20 million working capital credit facility. Once the