The two businesses have a prior connection as they have both been owned by American Industrial Partners (AIP), and they had an existing partnership whereby Mark Andy Print Products handled North American sales for Presstek’s DI and CTP products.
AIP sold Mark Andy to an investment group headed by former Mark Andy CEO PJ Desai in 2014, and Presstek has now become part of the enlarged Mark Andy business. The terms of the deal were not disclosed.
Presstek’s Zahara waterless plates business is not included in the sale. It is being spun out into a new company, Verico Technology, which is headed by former Presstek chief executive Yuval Dubois.
Presstek has around 130 press installations in the UK, and around 400 in Europe. The company transferred service and support for its UK computer-to-plate users to Marlowe Digital last year.
In a statement, Mark Andy chief executive Kevin Wilken described Presstek as a well-respected force in the small and medium format offset segment. “We expect Presstek’s customers to benefit from Mark Andy’s stable leadership, tremendous customer service and unmatched product offerings,” he said.
Ian Pollock, Presstek director for EAMER, said there would be no changes to customer-facing functions in the UK, such as ordering process, distribution logistics and contact details.
“It’s exciting for us and Mark Andy are very happy to have us on board,” Pollock said. “Mark Andy is in serious expansion mode, they recently became the sole distributor for DuPont flexo products in the US. There are obvious synergies about what we can offer moving forward.”
Stuart Gallup, who was director of sales and consumables operations at Mark Andy, becomes vice president of its offset business as a result of the deal. He was director of sales operations at Presstek for nearly a decade, prior to joining Mark Andy five years ago.
Presstek has worldwide sales of around $55m (£39m). It has 16 employees in EAMER. Mark Andy's global turnover was not disclosed. Mark Andy UK had sales of £26.3m in its most recent financial year, although most of this was export business. It employs around 25 staff.
During the period from 2000-2012 Mark Andy acquired Comco, Rotoflex Internatinoal, Arpeco and flexographic supplies business Print Products.
Earlier this month AIP agreed to combine another of its printing industry investments, Goss International, with rival Manrland Web Systems.
