Graytor has built a national reputation for intricate, complex small-run printing and Dolce executives said they will maintain the Graytor brand and keep it as a separate division while physically merging the two companies into their Maywood facility.

"They produce a lot of short-runs kit that have a lot of stamps, a lot of die-cutting and they did a lot of assembly - their business was built around that," Dolce managing partner Nick Stillo told PrintWeek.

Many Graytor workers from the sales, production, customer service and estimating departments have already moved into Dolce's offices and Stillo said Dolce executives have spent part of this week at Graytor's plant looking at what equipment they will bring over to Maywood. "We are definitely moving some equipment, including a 52in six-color LX UV press over to our facility," he said.

Because of their close proximity, Stillo suggested the acquisition won't lead to a major geographic expansion for Dolce, though he added, "Part of the appeal of this deal is we'll now be able to offer our services to their existing accounts. Dolce has been focused on the tri-state area (New York, New Jersey and Connecticut) but we also have some European clients. We have a five-year growth plan in place and we expect to meet those goals."

Stillo noted that while Dolce has expanded into digital printing, "We do a lot of direct marketing, including a lot of sheetfed work. We also have some assignments to do some large format and grand format printing." In addition, Stillo said the company's proximity to New York City had enabled them to work directly with national and international ad agencies on some jobs.