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5 Tips for Acquiring a Marketing Company
By John Hyde - Thursday March 28, 2013Acquiring a marketing firm can be a strategic investment for printing company owners looking to broaden and deepen relationships with existing customers. Additional services can spur new business — and under the right circumstances, the marketing firm’s customer base can be a valuable asset, both in the short and long terms. That said, there are as many post-merger war stories as success stories. More than a few printing company owners will tell you that a year after the acquisition, all they had to show for their investment were half a dozen used PCs and a handful of customers who chose not to follow the talent, wherever it went. So what should a printing company owner looking to acquire a marketing company look for? 5 suggestions... -
Printers Helping Printers: Thoughts on the New Association
By Tom Crouser - Friday March 22, 2013
Just because printers agree doesn’t make it right. And just because an expert says it is so doesn’t make it right either. I’m reminded of all this as I see another group of printers beginning a trade association with the focus of printers helping printers. Don’t get me wrong. I’m all for it, as long as it is done appropriately. Unfortunately, I know of a number of times when the old NAQP got off track. Here are a couple of experiences, which I put forth in hopes that the new group can avoid similar situations. My favorite example is the multiple times a good presenter came with a new marketing concept. Everyone is thrilled, but fails to ask if the speaker has actually put the concept into practice and had any measurable results... -
Remembering "Acquiring Sales Without the Baggage" — 10 Years Later
By John Hyde - Tuesday March 5, 2013
Remarkably, it’s 10 years ago this month that I was invited to speak at the NAPL Top Management Conference on the topic of “Acquiring Sales Without the Baggage”. Reflecting on “then” and “now”, royalty transactions in 2003 were a negative backwater of printing industry M&A. They grew in popularity from 2003 to 2006, and were literally the only game in town until 2011. We’ve seen a return to EBITDA-based transactions since then, and our M&A practice has also seen cases in which investment paradigm such as ROI or cash yield on investment has worked their way into recent negotiations. n 2003, we were coming off the internet boom and blowback from the wave of consolidations that had shook up the landscape of the print and... -
How to Price New Services
By Tom Crouser - Monday February 18, 2013
How do we price something that we’ve never done before? It appears to me that many business owners worry more about how to price a new product/service than they do learning about how to do it in the first place. Web sites, social media, QR codes, email broadcasts, shopping carts as well as Twitter, Facebook Business Pages and LinkedIn pages all come to mind. How do you price such a service for customers? First, understand you can never accurately price something you haven’t done before. Second, you need to know how to do it before you worry about pricing. And third, it’s hard to learn on the customer’s nickel but that’s been the tradition in the printing industry. Going far afield however requires a better approach and I have a... -
Transaction Concepts for Acquiring Print and Graphics Communications who have Multiple Partners (Part Three)
By John Hyde - Friday February 15, 2013The dynamics of family-owned and entrepreneurial companies raise unique challenges for strategic acquirers. This is the third blog post in a series of 3 that offers several transaction concepts for acquiring print and graphics communications companies who have multiple partners. “I really like this M&A opportunity,” said an NAPL client. “But one of the partners doesn’t seem interested in selling their business. It probably doesn’t matter because he’s the production guy. I’m thinking of just hiring his partner as a sales person. The production guy will end up owning a plant full of equipment with no customers, but he’s too stupid to understand that his partner controls the sales and the company is worth zero if he... -
Transaction Concepts for Acquiring Print and Graphics Communications who have Multiple Partners (Part Two)
By John Hyde - Monday February 4, 2013The dynamics of family-owned and entrepreneurial companies raise unique challenges for strategic acquirers. This is the second blog post in a series of 3 that offers several transaction concepts for acquiring print and graphics communications companies who have multiple partners. The CEO of the potential acquirer is disappointed that, for whatever reason, the deal has stalled after promising early talks. It’s been weeks since he/she brought up the idea of buying all or substantially all assets of the business so that each partner gets a fair deal based on objective criteria ( “Plan A” ). The lead partner of the seller “comes clean” and admits that the partners are not on the same page about whether and how to sell the... -
Transaction Concepts for Acquiring Print and Graphics Communicatoins Who Have Multiple Partners (Part One)
By John Hyde - Monday January 28, 2013The dynamics of family-owned and entrepreneurial companies raise unique challenges for strategic acquirers. This is the first blog post in a series of 3 that will offer several transaction concepts for acquiring print and graphics communications companies who have multiple partners. We regularly advice clients who are growing by strategic acquisition to strive for a win-win transaction with the target company partners. Disgruntled former owners are bad for business. They can cause morale problems, disrupt efforts to connect with customers, and disseminate negative messages into the marketplace which could chill other M&A opportunities. So what approach is most likely to get selling shareholders to say “YES” to the offer’s... -
3 Tips for Exploring Strategic Transactions Involving Partners
By John Hyde - Wednesday January 23, 2013An NAPL client calls with an opportunity to acquire/merge with a leading company in the region. The complicating factor is the ownership structure: one partner with 51% (woman-owned) and 4 others combined 49%. The shareholder issues involved in the pending opportunity are not unique. The print and graphics communications industry is full of family-owned partnerships. Ownership dynamics are complex and involve elements of succession planning, business valuation, and M&A, all under the backdrop of a rapidly changing industry. The M&A advisory team at NAPL has handled numerous ownership restructuring/M&A cases over the past few years. A few tips from prior experience: 1. Get to know the other partners as soon as politically correct... -
Takeaways from 2013 EFI Connect
By Denise Gustavson - Tuesday January 22, 2013
Last week I had the opportunity to attend EFI’s Connect conference at the Wynn Las Vegas. Now in its 14th year, EFI Connect caters to graphic arts business leaders' need for continued innovation and education and profitable growth opportunities. Graphic arts professionals had the opportunity to participate in more than 150 sessions covering MIS/ERP software, Web-to-print systems, industrial inkjet printers, and Fiery technology. In addition to featuring VUTEk, EFI Wide Format and Jetrion inkjet production printers, Connect included a newly enhanced line of JDF-certified Fiery digital front ends, as well as a complete lineup of EFI Productivity Software products. EFI also demonstrated systems from its two recent acquisitions... -
Tis the Season for Mergers and Acquisitions
By John Hyde - Friday January 4, 2013Seasonality is one factor that drives the velocity of mergers and acquisitions activity among privately-owned print and graphics communications companies. It’s fair to say that M&A activity directly correlates to family sensitivities. Holidays bring families together both literally and figuratively, and, given that at least 25% of companies in our industry are family businesses, it’s no surprise that what goes on at the dining room table ends up in the conference room six to nine months later. Communications right after the New Year go something like this: “I’ve been thinking that this is the year to ‘do something’ with the business. My wife [substitute husband for woman-owned companies] and I talked over the holidays and it...