The group, which has recently repositioned itself as a marketing and corporate communications firm, sealed the sale of its On Demand Communications (ODC) division, which owns the Kall Kwik and Prontaprint brands, last Wednesday (7 March).

Dublin-based investment group Boundary Capital has bought the two franchise businesses along with CJ Fallon, an Irish educational publisher, which was also part of the Adare empire.

Although no value has been disclosed for the sale, it is thought the businesses had a price tag of around £45m.

Gary Verity, who has been managing director of Adare’s ODC division since September last year, will continue to lead the business following the sale.

He said: “Boundary shares our vision of the growth potential of the business... and are fully supportive of the business strategy of the firm.”

However, he gave no details of how he intended to drive growth across the businesses, which have 322 franchises in the UK and Ireland.

Adare chief executive Robert Whiteside said that advisers had been called in to sell the three businesses, which were not core to the group’s new identity, around six months ago.

He said: “This sale shows that we are very serious about our thrust to become the UK’s leading marketing and communications group. It’s not just a smoke-screen, change-the-logo rebrand, but a real change in the business.”

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Following the sale, Whiteside said Adare would not actively seek to sell any further parts of the business, but added: “If someone came along with the right offer for one of our non-core businesses, we’d consider it.”

Both Richard Adler, chairman of the Independent Kall Kwik Franchise Owner’s Association, and Prontaprint Franchise Association chair Simon Vine, said they were positive about the sale.

Financial firm Livingstone Guarantee arranged the sale.