In an interview with PrintWeek, Mailmen VP Michael Vignola said much of the integration of Madcar into Mailmen has already taken place and that he expects few staff reductions as a result of the acquisition. Though Madcar does a lot of hand assembly, Vignola added Mailmen will be picking up some new equipment in the acquisition. "They have some shrink-wrap equipment, along with gluing and fixing machines and they have some inkjet equipment," he said.

Madcar is based in Ronkonkoma, NY and will keep its brand and operate as a division of Mailmen. Though the acquisition will not provide any geographic expansion opportunities, Vignola said, "We can now offer a broader range to customers - we've turned down work in the past if it involved assembly because typically we wouldn't do that."

Vignola added that Mailmen will also be able to provide new services including variable data printing to Madcar's current packaging customers. "I think a lot of those dimensional high-end packages that go either in the US mail, FedEx or UPS now all have highly personalized brochures with direct one-to-one communication within the package," he said. "And that's something we currently do whether it's a black and white letter or a full-color brochure."

Like Madcar, Mailmen is a family-owned business, albeit one with the capacity to produce and mail more than 2m pieces daily. Vignola added the company has customers as far away as California, but is primarily focused on the East Coast, noting, "It's easier to sell to local customers."

Though packaging is one of the few bright spots in US commercial printing these days, Vignola pointed out that Mailmen's direct mail business has been doing quite well and is up over the past 12 months after several down years.

Financial details of the deal were not disclosed.