Melbourne print and design company Print Supply Management has acquired former competitor Core Print and will integrate both businesses and their staff under one roof at Thomastown.
“We’re very happy with how things are progressing and excited about the future,” said Print Supply co-owner Tony Hale. “We took over just last week and we’ve moved the two plants into one building at our headquarters in Thomastown. It’s still baby steps at the moment but everything’s going very nicely. All ten staff from Core Print, including owner Rob Maloney, have joined us here at Print Supply, which has boosted our total staff numbers to 26. We’re very similar businesses doing much the same kind of work with the same machines so it’s just a matter of integrating the two businesses into one.”
Hale says Print Supply remains on the lookout for further expansion opportunities. “We’re always looking but there’s nothing in place at the moment. We’re on a growth phase now after reducing a lot of debt over the past few years. We’ll be looking to move further into wide format and mailing house services and we’re aiming to do all of our finishing in-house. We want to offer clients a broader range of services and media, from digital to offset.”
Print Supply Management currently offers printing and design services including business stationery, marketing material, large format printing (posters, banners), laminating, colour and black & white digital copying, catalogues and books, computer forms and cheques, presentation folders and point of sale material, including packaging.
Hale says the deal came about after he spotted a For Sale ad that the Port Melbourne-based Core Print had placed at the Print21 website. “We put in an offer through Richard Rasmussen of Ascent Partners, who was acting on behalf of Core, and we were lucky enough to be the successful bidders.” Print Supply Management is co-owned by Hale and John Emerson.
