Richard Rasmussen's Market Watch - November 2013

3 December 2013

Richard Rasmussen, director of Ascent Partners, keeps track of market movements and activities from mergers and acquisitions, to closures and affiliations, as well as the latest running on any major equipment that has been sold or installed around the region this month.

There was continued market movement from both suppliers and print related manufacturers during the month, whilst sales and installations of major equipment slowed.

Market movements:

  1. a.     Printers

NSW featured most with three liquidation meetings for Print Portal, D&D Print Group and Variable Data Print, whilst in QLD, Snap announced they would close their print hub.

There were four sale / acquisitions reported during the month – APN sold its magazine titles to Bauer, in NSW the failed Print National was purchased by Bright Print Group, Self Adhesive Markings was bought by QLM Label Makers and Detmold Flexibles was purchased by Amcor for $50 million.

Amidst these movements we saw the foundation of a Print Management Business in NSW, Inside Out Print.

  1. b.     Suppliers

Heavyweight print manufacturers formed alliances - Heidelberg with Fujifilm on Inkjet, and Komori with Landa.

Locally we saw three new premises opened, Mimaki and GMC Software Technology both opened Australian offices in NSW, whilst Lanier opened a new technology centre, also in NSW.

There were five sale / acquisitions:

  • Atex Adbase sold to News Cycle Solutions

  • Plas Image and Qualsign were purchased by Spandex Asia Pacific

  • Russell Carr Paper sold to BJ Ball

  • Lector Computersysteme sold to EFI

  • Escentric sold to CCI

Major Machinery – Sales and Installations.

The Laminating Company made some significant investments in VIC – a Memjet Astrojet M1 envelope printer, a HP Scitex FB 500 flatbed and Latex 280, a Kala Atlantic laminator, Multicam CNC cutter and router, Celmac digital label press and finally an Epson Stylus Pro 9800 wide format machine.

Also in VIC, Print Media Group purchased a new HP Indigo 7600 press, while over in NSW Rawson Graphics picked up an Autobond Mini 76 TH laminator and Impress purchased a Presstek Dimension Excel 435 CtP device.

Businesses for Sale

Ascent Partners have seven businesses on the market with two more likely to come in December - see www.ascentpartners.com.au

Market Watch

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