Surrey-based HH made the move having renewed
its contract with Unilever last month.

ART is based in Widnes and has worked with Unilever since 1997.
"HH and ART both have excellent supplier relations within Unilever and it made sense for us to join forces," said HH managing director Robert MacMillan.

He added that the acquisition was also made because ART had a strong background in direct mail.

"It was about the quality of the company," said MacMillan. "It has an outstanding reputation. We got to know ART well by competing against it."

ART will continue to trade under its current name but MacMillan said it would eventually switch to HH.

HH Associates is based in Sutton but also has an office in Leeds. It hit the acquisition trail in Europe this year, buying two Danish print brokers. HH has supporting staff in a total of 19 countries.

MacMillan said that HH would remain on the lookout for further buys.

By Philip Chadwick