A delighted Pitts, who was formerly managing director of TPL Printers in Kidderminster, was able to meet with the Jarrolds clients at its annual Valentines Day party, held last Friday (13 February). The MBI deal was a once in a lifetime opportunity, he said.

Announced last month (PrintWeek, 22 January) the deal gives the Pitts-led buy-in team a 70% stake, while the Jarrold family will retain 30%. Charles Jarrold will become deputy managing director.

Other recruits to the new team include ex-Polestar Colchester customer services director Dave Medler and Ian Thorpe, ex-sales at St Ives Web, as well as ex-BPIF regional director Greg Kane.

The new factory is set to be one of the biggest single-site web plants in the UK. Pitts and his team, who have already outlined plans for a 25m investment, are known to be looking at two new 64pp webs along with either a 48pp or 32pp. The company is also likely to relocate its existing MAN Roland Lithoman short cut-off 64pp and six-unit 16pp Komori for cover printing.

Renamed New Jarrold Printing, the firm can remain at its Jarrold-owned city centre factory for up to three years, but Pitts said the aim was to relocate to a greenfield site within two.

Jarrold has sales of more than 27m and employs 327 staff. It prints around 80m magazines a year but is also heavily involved in catalogues. Pitts said he envisaged that 60%-70% of the firms sales would continue to be in magazines.

Story by Jo Francis