Richard Rasmussen Market Watch – March 2014
Who did what? Who bought who? And who bought what? Richard Rasmussen, director of Ascent Partners, industry consultants, peers into the past month as part of his ongoing watch over mergers, acquisitions, sales and closures, as well as the latest news on major machinery sales and installations. He also provides a link to his latest Businesses for Sale.
Takeovers, Mergers and Movements
The 3rd quarter of the current financial year finished off in sensational fashion with the news of the proposed merger between IPMG and Blue Star, which will become one of, if not the largest industry merger ever seen in our region. It will also create the largest printing group in the industry.
In other takeover news packaging giant Amcor was cleared by the ACCC in its bid to take over South Australia packaging company, Detmold. The target is a manufacturer of paper, board and film-based packaging products founded in 1948 in Adelaide, South Australia by Colin Detmold whose family were still in control.
In NSW we saw general commercial printer, Rostone Print, fall into liquidation, with Oxford Printing later purchasing the client list and some assets. Most of the Rostone staff were let go. Robmar Signs, which is a signs maintenance and service company, is also going through the liquidation process. Imagination Graphics purchased Amazing Paper while printers, Tony Wolf and Sons, moved premises to Unit 3, 49 Anderson Road, Smeaton Grange 2567.
In Victoria, Naresh Gulati’s OCA purchased Printbound and then merged it with his BPO Print in one of the more significant movements in the finishing sector. Web printing giant and formerly the largest printer in the region, PMP, undertook a sale and lease back of a significant parcel of land. Trade Envelopes opened a new site close to Geelong near Avalon Airport. Two Kwik Kopy stores in Melbourne, St.Kilda Rd and Fitzroy, run by the Lindley family, fell into liquidation, only to be taken over by Kwik Kopy Corporate for refurbishment and onsale.
Major machinery sales and installations.
NSW: Coastline Printing in Unanderra installed a Konica Minolta Biz Hub C6000 and a Halm envelope printer. Hero Print installed a new Polar N115 AT Guillotine line at its Alexandria plant, while Granville-based Access Print Solutions a new Baumann Basa jogging and cutting line supplied by Ferrostaal.
Victoria: Labelhouse install a SMAG digital Galaxie converting line at its Reservoir Plant supplied by Gulmen Enghineering. Sumo Visual Group installed a HP Scitex FP 10000 at its Port Melbourne plant. Newly acquired Printbound purchased a new Heidelberg SM 74-5 plus coater. Trade Envelopes purchase two Winkler and Dunnebier envelope machines to fill out its new plant, while Nulab purchased a Memjet Docuwide C842 from Fuji Xerox.
Western Australia: Format Printing installed a Horizon SPF 200L booklet maker and second tower.
There was plenty of movement in the plate sector with Kodak and Heidelberg falling out over their plate distribution agreement. Kodak says it cancelled the arrangement, which led Heidelberg taking off to supply Fujifilm plates to its customers. Fujifilm also did a $30 million three year CtP deal with Fairfax.
Businesses on the Market
Ascent Partners has five print related businesses on the market around Australia