Mail Metrics completed its full acquisition of Edinburgh-headquartered Forth Communication last Wednesday (18 August), a month after it completed its majority share purchase of Dublin-based security printer Persona.
The company said the two strategic acquisitions will rapidly accelerate its growth, adding £10.5m in annual recurring revenue.
Forth delivers communications for financial services, utilities, health, and government providers in the UK, and Mail Metrics said the acquisition provides it with a solid platform for expansion in the UK market.
Current Forth managing director Richard Bolton will depart the business after a handover period to pursue other opportunities.
He said: “Having grown our business steadily over many years, the team at Forth is really excited to be bringing the offer of digital migration to our loyal clients. The Mail Metrics platform as a single source for digital communications, added to the print and mail stream, is exactly what our clients and prospects are looking for.
“We look forward to rolling out the service to our chosen sectors across GB and Ireland.”
All 25 Forth staff, including director Andrew O'Driscoll, will remain with the business, and O'Driscoll will join the Mail Metrics senior leadership team.
Forth also has an operation in Bangor, Northern Ireland, and both this and its main Edinburgh site will be retained.
With its prior acquisition last month of 30-staff Persona, a long-term commercial partner, taking its overall headcount to 100, Mail Metrics said it is now actively seeking to add to the personnel in both firms as it manages the growth in demand for its services.
Persona specialises in mailroom outsourcing for financial services companies. With Central Bank approval, these companies outsource the printing and posting of their regulatory and customer correspondence to Persona.
Mail Metrics told Printweek it is anticipated that both acquired companies will rebrand to Mail Metrics and drop their current names.
Following the acquisitions, the Mail Metrics group will be led by founder Nick Keegan as Group CEO.
He said: “We believe that there is significant potential in the UK market for our technology platform. Revenues have increased steadily for the past number of years with the business experiencing average growth rates of approximately 40% year-on-year.
“In taking this step, we have created a blended offering which delivers both digital communications and print/mail communications in one seamless solution.”
Mail Metrics typically works with firms in regulated industries including financial services and healthcare. It specialises in helping companies to digitally transform their customer correspondence, assisting them in going paperless.
While Mail Metrics itself operates no print equipment, Forth runs Canon toner machines and Persona operates Canon VarioPrint i300 inkjet presses.
The wider Mail Metrics group has now purchased a further two Canon VarioPrint i300s, one to be put into Forth and the other into Persona, to help them manage the increasing volume that becoming part of the group will bring to them.
“This acquisition of Forth and Persona further strengthens our position as the partner of choice for secure customer communication solutions in Ireland and the UK,” said Keegan.
“Forth and Persona’s secure facilities and the ‘physical’ document management services perfectly compliment the Mail Metrics cloud platform. Together, we provide an unrivalled solution for all customer communication requirements, whether through digital or postal channels, across the UK and Ireland.
“As Mail Metrics continues to scale, we felt that it was time for us to control the end-to-end service offering with these acquisitions making perfect strategic sense.”
