Inked on 21 June, the deal saw Limetree buy Pro-S’ assets, IP and order book, and take on all of its employees, taking Limetree to a total of 11 staff and around £700,000 turnover.
Wayne Summers, managing director and co-owner of Limetree, said that the opportunity had come about when Pro-S’ directors decided to retire; being nearby, and having a good relationship with the company, the acquisition had felt like a natural choice – as well as a sound business decision.
Pro-S manufactures shadow boards – printed boards to hang tools from, with the outline of each tool printed – as well as dry erase boards, safety signage, and other industrial wide-format work.
“I’ve branched into that so we can try push the print side of our business into the internal side of the industrial sector,” Summers told Printweek.
“Take Walker’s crisps, just as an example – I would never expect to print the packets, but they will have maintenance tags and other printed material that we can produce. Just being able to offer everything under one roof [alongside Pro-S] is going to be a plus for a lot of the customers.”
Finding a niche for a small printing firm, he added, was key.
“I’m just trying to find those gaps in the market, really.
“I worked at another printers, in King’s Lynn – for 26 years, I was there – and commercial print is a very tough market. You’ve got some massive companies out there, and it’s an online world now, so the market is much tougher to be in.
“To expand in our area, you’re better off by offering new services, rather than by trying to grow [sales in] a particular area.”
Over the next month, Limetree will fit out Pro-S’ site, also in Downham, ready to combine most of the two companies’ operations under one roof, with Limetree’s Heidelberg four-colour and two-colour GTOs moving to the newly acquired site, along with the firm’s Develop digital printers; one colour, one mono.
“Moving reduces cost, helps with the carbon footprint – it ticks all the right boxes,” Summers said.
Limetree’s current site will be turned into a print hub for a long-standing client, a wallpaper manufacturer that needs mono print laid over the back of its papers.
“It’s a wonderful job,” Summers said.
“There’s no material cost – the wallpaper comes to us, we print on the back, and send it straight back, it’s just wonderful work.”
The hub will be served by two of the firm’s presses – its Heidelberg Kors, a machine with which Summers is extremely familiar, given that he trained on one as a young printer, and a B2 Heidelberg which Summers will look to buy.
