Astron chief executive David Mitchell hopes to keep the group's "small company feel" after its 92m merger with Tactica Solutions.


The deal creates a UK print management group that straddles the private and public sectors.


But Mitchell said it would have to maintain its accessibility and remain "fast on its feet" to deliver results.


The deal was backed by PPM Ventures, the private equity arm of Prudential. PPM bought Tactica for 60m in February (PrintWeek, 4 February).


Mitchell said he was "really chuffed" for Astron's management team, which bought Satellite Press, Orbital Press and Kadocourt in 1996 to form Astron.


The merged group will take the Astron name. It will have sales of over 100m and will employ around 700 staff.
Tactica chairman Bob Thian will become chairman, with Mitchell as chief executive.


Mitchell said there would be some redundancies where there was "duplication of services" - in areas like finance and IT.


Astron and Tactica had discussed merging a year ago but it didn't go much further at the time. Talks started up again in the summer.


Astron is based in Huntingdon and runs in-house print management at several firms including British Midland in Derby and Scottish Power in Glasgow.


Tactica operates from sites in Norwich, Edinburgh, London and Manchester, where it runs a 10,000m2 distribution centre.


Story by Gordon Carson