Cimpress, the parent company of Vistaprint, has been active on the acquisition trail in Europe over the past two years.
It acquired Italy’s Pixartprinting last year and has made further major acquisitions in 2015, buying a majority stake in France’s Exaprint, and then taking over Austria’s Druck und Handelsgesellschaft, French firm FL Print and Dundee-based Tradeprint.
Cimpress said the latest acquisition complements its other similar investments and supports its strategy to build a mass customisation platform that it brings to market via focused brands.
WirMachenDruck, which will continue to operate under its existing brand name, serves small and medium businesses, graphic arts professionals and local printers via an e-commerce “upload and print” model.
“We expect this acquisition to strengthen Cimpress’ mass customisation platform and our ability to serve German customers,” said Cimpress president and chief executive Robert Keane.
“WirMachenDruck has impressive internet-based capabilities that aggregate and route large numbers of small orders to a network of specialised production partners.
“Their outsourced supply chain model allows them to be highly competitive across a vast selection of product types, formats, sizes, finishing options and delivery choices. In the future, we plan to leverage those capabilities well beyond the WirMachenDruck brand by integrating them into our mass customisation platform.”
Cimpress has invested more than €300m (£220m) on the acquisition of “upload and print” companies, excluding this transaction.
In its first fiscal quarter of 2016, revenue for Cimpress’ Upload and Print Business Unit segment was $76.5m (£51.4m), and adjusted net operating profit was $10.9m.
The business said its planned investment in WirMachenDruck is consistent with its prior transactions in terms of strategic fit and financial valuation.
Under the terms of the agreement, Cimpress will acquire 100% of WirMachenDruck’s shares for a purchase price of approximately €140m net of any cash acquired, with a potential earn-out of up to €40m payable in early 2018, subject to the achievement of financial performance targets for calendar years 2016 and 2017.
Consideration at closing for the transaction will consist of €132m in cash and €8m in Cimpress shares.
Subject to satisfaction of various conditions, Cimpress expects the transaction to close during its third fiscal quarter of 2016, which ends on 31 March 2016.
WirMachenDruck’s staff number and turnover was not disclosed but Cimpress said there would be “little change” for the firm’s leadership and its employees.
Cimpress corporate communications vice president Paul McKinlay told PrintWeek: “The acquisition was a mutual decision that we hope will benefit both companies.
“WirMachenDruck is one of our largest investments to-date and we hope to learn a lot from their unique business model.”
He added: “WirMachenDruck outsources most of its printing, which is what makes it such an exciting company. Their business model is built on providing the most competitive solutions for products that are not commonly ordered and that require specialised production lines.
“Cimpress offers WirMachenDruck the scale and technology made possible by our mass customisation platform so they can deliver even more product choices to German consumers and continue to grow their brand and business successfully.”
Cimpress, which has more than 6,800 staff worldwide, reported a 2015 turnover of $1.5bn. The business produces more than 46 million uniquely designed items a year.
