IPLS, which will now operate as Astron Media Services, employs 14 staff and has been in business for two-and-a-half years. Astron chief executive David Mitchell hoped it would achieve sales of £10.2m (EUR16m) this year.
“We’ve created a new market for print management,” he said.
The new contracts Astron has won in Ireland have forced it to become euro-compliant, and Mitchell said the group could be “opportunistic” if other potential acquisitions abroad came its way.
IPLS has been using Astron’s Astroweb online print management system, so there should be no issues in merging the firms’ systems together, added Mitchell.
IPLS managing director Trevor O’Reilly and directors Brian Reilly and Cormac O’Donnchu will remain with the firm.
“The market in Ireland is very much behind the UK,” said O’Reilly. “There’s no dominant company like Astron.”
He said the firms had already proven that the merger could work “with the contracts we’ve won, and with the combination of our local knowledge and the scale and the experience that Astron brings to market.”
IPLS’ other clients include telecoms group ESAT and Gresham Hotels.
Astron merged with fellow print management group Tactica Solutions nearly two years ago to create a company with sales of around £100m.
Story by Gordon Carson
Picture: Astron - new market
