The acquisition of CIP, which had sales of 6.1m, will take Pims total sales to over 40m, 24m of which is from its UK operations.

The way the business was going we had to get bigger or die, said CIP managing director Phil Cherry. I wanted a long-term relationship, but the chemistry had to be right.

Julian [Henchley, chairman of Pims] and I are like-minded about the future and there is a synergy between the firms, we are similar in what we do without the same customers.

The firm hopes it will now be better placed to win contracts in the public sector with Pims financial strength and CIPs ISO 9001 and Investors in People (IIP) accreditation.

Based on CIPs expertise the firm will appoint a quality control manager to roll out ISO 9002, IIP and environmental standard ISO 14001 across all operations.

CIPs equipment, which includes two IBM Infoprint web-fed digital presses, will allow Pims to produce training manuals a growing business more efficiently.

There are also Pims products and services that Cherry believes will be of interest to CIP customers.

The groups three UK production sites, including CIPs Basildon site, will be retained, as will the CIP name. CIP is synonymous with digital print and fulfilment, and will continue for the foreseeable future, said Pims UK sales director Sarah Moss.

Reduced costs and improved efficiency are two goals behind the move.


Industry rumours are that Pims will be the UK beta site for the iGen3, although neither side would comment on the situation. Xerox has revealed that the first UK machine will be installed in the autumn.

Story by Barney Cox