Hadleigh, Ipswich-based Richard Ching, whose premises are around 20 miles away from Denny’s Bury St Edmunds headquarters, mainly manufactures waymarkers, along with labels for signs and machine-marking.  According to Denny strategic director Andrew Denny, these represent new services for the £10m-turnover group.

Talks began around August after former Richard Ching owner Sheila Harrington decided she wanted to retire and set about finding a potential purchaser. Harrington knew of Denny from when it made its first acquisition, Suffolk-based Willowbridge Labels, in 2005.

The deal, for an undisclosed sum, completed on 2 December.

Denny said: “It’s been very good. This is a good company, with a really good offering and a good team, but [it has] a lot more potential as well, so there are certainly a lot of things we can do to help build the business and broaden the offering.

“This kind of closes the loop for us because we’re involved in both printing and engineering and this is a combination of both of those disciplines.”

Denny added that the two businesses had very few customers in common.

“It’s a strength if anything because it means that if a customer comes with any sort of label, nameplate, signage, and so on, we can steer them towards the most appropriate part of the business,” added Denny.  

With the addition of Richard Ching’s 13 staff, Denny now employs around 120 across all of its businesses. Richard Ching will retain its identity and branding and general manager Ivan Kistruck remains in his role.

Kistruck said news of the acquisition had been extremely well-received and that it has provided job security and the possibility of moving into new markets.

Denny employs a “soft acquisition strategy”, currently making around one a year, its last before Richard Ching being one of Ching’s former clients, Colchester-based Condor Tool & Die, in late 2015.

Founded more than 70 years ago, Denny markets itself as the inventor of the world’s first multi-page label, the Fix-a-Form.