Paragon, formerly Paragon Customer Communications, has taken on more than 400 people working at Canon France Business Services (CFBS), which it described as a market leader in the sector, which is akin to business process outsourcing.

CEO Jeremy Walters said the buy would consolidate Paragon’s position in the space.

“CFBS have a strong reputation for providing excellent customer service and innovative solutions to their clients. Their solutions complement our business perfectly, and will help us continue our growth journey,” he said.

Key expertise at CFBS includes IT security, and process optimisation technologies incorporating AI solutions. It has clients in defence, the nuclear industry, health insurance and banking sectors. 

Its chairman Claude Espinas is now also head of Paragon Western Europe's Business Processing Outsourcing (BPO) operations.

He said: "I am delighted that this deal has been concluded and that the CFBS business is now part of Paragon. The complementary nature of our expertise and the possible synergies with Paragon’s other activities, such as customer communications and document logistics, open up real development prospects for us. This is a perfect illustration of the winning combination of Paragon's business know-how and CFBS's expertise in data security and IT infrastructure.” 

Guilhem Boucon, CEO of Paragon Western Europe, described the deal as a fantastic opportunity for all parties, including clients and their customers.

“Through this acquisition, Paragon has also increased its resilience and added extra layers of contingency for our customers, enabling us to fall back or share the load between several Paragon sites.” 

The terms of the deal were not disclosed.

It’s Paragon’s second continental buy in just over two months, following July’s acquisition of Dutch logistics and fulfilment specialist MINC.