Australia’s largest printing company will emerge from the marriage between the printing operations of the Hannan and Selig family businesses. The two companies with facilities all along the east coast are set to merge by the end of May.
According to Geoff Selig, managing director of Blue Star, the merger will see a new company owned 50/50 between the two groups. “There’s been a lot of sector consolidation and structural change in recent times and at various levels. We feel the combination of IPMG and Blue Star ticks the boxes at all levels. They are very strong family businesses that are highly complementary. The new business will have a diversity of offering unparralled in the industry.”
The combined business will retain a place for the leadership of both companies, if they want to remain. However according to Selig, there is a lot of hard work to be done in working out how the businesses will operate.
- "The combination… ticks the boxes at all levels," Geoff Selig, CEO Blue star
"It is a powerful combination. We have a very strong balance sheet and a very strong culture that will enable us to invest in new equipment and buy well. It's good for our clients who will have a strong reliable partner that is not going to go away. This will give them a lot of comfort," he said.
Both Blue Star and IPMG are financially strong companies with minimal debt, according to Michael Hannan, Chief Exec IPMG. "The Hannan family is genuinely excited to be affiliating its printing operations with Blue Star to lead meaningful industry consolidation which will benefit both the industry in general and our customers” said Hannan.
The merger comes hot on the heels of IPMG moving out of its Alexandria factory into the new Warwick Farm plant and while it is early days with the merger yet to complete, there is little doubt the new business will be looking for efficiencies from its various facilities across Sydney and Melbourne. According to Selig, it is business as usual for the two companies with no decisions yet but he emphasized the operations are complementary rather than competitive.
"It's going to take us a while to get our heads around it all but I can assure you we will keep our customers, staff and the industry informed at the appropriate time about the changes," he said.
The creation of the new company will see PMP retired to second largest printing company in the region with considerably less diversity in its market offerings. Blue Star and IPMG both have a solid mix of sheetfed and web presses with facilities from Brisbane to Melbourne. There is undoubted duplication of presses and capacity in some locations but between them the two have perhaps the most diverse range of equipment in the industry.
Although IPMG is notionally the larger of the two partners, the decision to split the new business evenly between the two organizations will ensure stability in management and staffing i.e. it is a true merger not a disguised takeover.