Blue Star Group, a division of ASX listed IVE Group Ltd, has acquired Sydney-based digital printer and retail display business Display Bay – the fifth major deal by Blue Star this year.
“Display Bay is well-known and highly respected in the event and retail display sectors. They are an excellent addition to the Group and we are excited about the benefits this acquisition will deliver for our customers,” says Blue Star CEO Cliff Brigstocke.
“We’ve seen a growing demand for high quality printed fabric solutions, and we are delighted to be able to include this innovative approach as part of our overall retail customer offering. We look forward to welcoming the Display Bay team into Blue Star and working together to deliver the broader product range to our customers.”
Display Bay, based at St Leonards in North Sydney, is a privately-owned digital point-of-sale business servicing the retail display, office signage and event sectors. Its in-house production utilises large format digital printers, with an expanding range of display products. Specialties include retail window displays and signage, event signage and pop ups, and business and office signage. In addition to its core wide format digital manufacturing capability, the company also specialises in the supply and installation of fabric point-of-sale supported by a strong local and offshore supply chain.
Display Bay will be integrated into the Blue Star Display facility at South Granville under the leadership of Blue Star Display GM Guy Watson.
Display Bay MD Neville Sundel welcomed the move.
“The integration with Blue Star is a perfect fit and we’re very happy with the outcome,” says Sundel, who will move across to Blue Star Display along with most of his staff. “We’ll keep going strong here in St Leonards until Christmas and then the plan is to move all of the machines and most of the stock across to Blue Star at South Granville in January. We wanted to align with an innovative and reputable company that also had a strong client-focused culture. We are delighted our customers will be able to leverage the broader end-to-end solution offered through this acquisition.”
It’s the fifth major deal by Blue Star Group this year, following the takeovers of direct mail and digital communications company The Mailing House, Frost Merchandising, Fineline Printing and direct communications service provider LCS Connect.
Just last week, parent group IVE revealed a $116 million takeover of large format web offset companies Franklin Web and AIW.