Dataform managing director Chris Pygall said the group had been quietly going about growing our business and had always looked for suitable additions. CCS was attractive because of its size, its location (Cardiff, with a sales office in Nottingham) and the obvious synergies between the two groups.
The deal, which took three months to complete, was all fairly straightforward as the companies are so similar in what they do, added Dataform chief executive Brad Holbrook.
Dataform will rebrand CCS to fit in with the group, which also includes EconoMailer and Print Directive, both based in the Midlands. It will retain CCSs offices and its managing director, Ian Hall.
This acquisition follows a spate of consolidation in the print management sector, such as last weeks bid for Access Plus by TripleArc. Pygall predicted more such deals to come.
The big boys will get bigger, he said. If you look at the size of the contracts that are coming up, theyre all from large financial providers and retailers and youre talking 10m, 12m, 20m. Youve got to have the critical mass even to be entertained at the tendering stage.
Thomas Potts is left with two businesses, web and gravure print manager Eurographics and Fairway PSD, which specialises in fulfilment and facilities management. It moved out of manufacturing last year.
Ive got Eurographics, Ive got Fairway and Ive got cash, said Thomas Potts chief executive Mark Scanlon, who plans to spend some of it soon.
Well be doing a deal next year I have no doubt about that. I would like it to be in the same business as Fairway, he said. Fairway was a great investment and its not for sale. I want to buy more like it.
