At its mid-80s peak it sold 6.5m organisers a year,
cornering the market and delighting yuppies everywhere. Now the Filofax group has been sold to UK diarymaker Letts for 17m by American owner Day Runner.


The deal, the first since Letts management buyout led by managing director Gordon Presly and financial director Gordon Raw a year ago, will more than double the companys turnover to 55m.


The global group will grow to accommodate around 550 employees, eight international subsidiaries and distributors covering 30 countries.
Letts hopes that the acquisition will revitalise the paper-based time management market.
Theres no question
that theres space in the market for these products. Some people use digital products and some use paper products but more and more people are using
a mixture of both, said Presly.


The Filofax market has remained fairly stable, with sales of around 5m last year. Letts is now working with telecommunications group Ericsson in an attempt to update the product for the 21st century.


The two companies will continue to trade independently from their main premises; Letts from Dalkeith, near Edinburgh, and Filofax from Burgess Hill, West Sussex.
Presly and Law headed the 17m buyout of 204-year-old diary printer Charles Letts from Bemrose last August (PrintWeek, 18 August 2000).


At the time of the buyout Presly said that printed diaries would continue to be the companys core business, but that it would also expand into electronic forms.


Story by Fay Schopen