Sticky Discipline for the Label Business – May 2016 M&A Activity
At the other end of the strategic spectrum from commercial printing companies that have successfully added packaging to their services, are companies such as Strata in Plymouth Meeting, Pennsylvania that provides diverse marketing services. Strata acquired additional printing and direct mail capacity with the acquisition of Movad Corporation.
Integ, located in Waco, Texas, has used acquisition as a primary driver of its growth and evolution into a diversified marketing services provider, acquiring several mailing and printing companies along the way. It’s latest acquisition, Davis Brothers, brings with it significant sheetfed printing capacity as well as newsprint web offset presses.
Premier Press, a multi-faceted provider of high quality marketing materials located in Portland, Oregon, announced the acquisition of Ad-Mail, bringing direct mail data management and production expertise to Premier. The combined entities operate in a recently renovated 350,000 square foot facility in the Swan Island section of the city.
In yet another approach to differentiation, Rayacom Print & Design, headquartered in Edmonton, Alberta, continued its geographic diversification and acquired the assets of Generation Printing in Vancouver, British Columbia. Rayacom now has eleven locations, mostly spread across central and western Canada, with one location in Toronto to the east.
Kappa Media added to its portfolio of printing companies with another acquisition following its recent purchase last month of Vanguard Printing in Ithaca, New York (see The Target Report – April 2016 for more about Kappa and its founder). The latest addition for Kappa was the purchase of Times Printing in Random Lakes, Wisconsin. Both Vanguard and Times Printing specialize in publication printing services.
Paper
The churning goes on in the paper making industry. A group of PE funds that comprise the principal shareholders of Catalyst Paper teamed up with Kejriwal Group International, a paper and pulp processing company based in Mumbai, India, in a bid to take Catalyst Paper private. Catalyst currently owns and operates five mills in North America, producing printing papers ranging from uncoated newsprint up to the finer grade coated sheets.
