Completed on 14 November, the deal will see C3 continue to operate under its own branding, retain all 11 employees and hire several more as Footprint expands its influence into Wiltshire and the Cotswolds.
A 20-year-old business with local and national connections, C3 presented real opportunity for synergy with Footprint’s existing commercial print and marketing capabilities.
“They do a lot of signage, and operate with a high degree of creative input into their projects,” explained Darren Jacobs, managing director of Footprint.
He told Printweek: “Traditionally a marketing and print signage business, they have some national contracts and deal quite heavily in the finance space. There are capabilities that C3 has that Footprint doesn’t: for example, all of our [Footprint’s] signage business currently goes out the door to a third party.”
The company’s equipment consists of Roland DG wide-format printing kit, including two Soljet Pro 4s, an Easymount wide-format laminator, and a Summa plotter.
Jacobs added: “We can now retain all that margin in-house, which is brilliant. There’s a lot of synergy between the two businesses, and we’re looking forward to building value across both of the companies by integrating the best components of what each of us does.”
C3’s acquisition plays part of Jacobs’ strategy to scale Footprint, which kicked off in late 2023 with a rebrand of Footprint South and merger with sister company FPS Digital to create Footprint.
First to join the rebranded firm was a local advertising business, Forget Me Not Publications, a Hampshire print advertising specialist reaching over 200,000 residents of the South of England.
“The customers of that business were the same type of customers that we would want to sell print marketing to,” Jacobs said.
“Equally, there is a segment of Footprint’s customer base, local businesses, that we could package up advertising slots to – so there was a lot of synergy. It wasn’t necessarily what we were looking for [at the time], but it just came across the desk and made total sense.
“We’ve now scaled that business – having taken over in March [2024] it’s grown by 26%.”
Footprint has moved the Forget Me Not team into its own building, and has been busy working on integrating the teams, while refreshing the brand.
“We’ve just launched a brand-new website, and we’re on the verge of launching new territories [in the South] so they will distribute even further afield going into the new year.”
The results of both acquisitions have helped Footprint grow substantially, with headcount jumping from 11 in 2023 to its current total of 33.
Revenue has jumped threefold to £3.2m, and the firm has more than quadrupled its profits since Jacobs bought the business in June 2023.
