Retail flyers, media inserts and catalogues producer York Mailing has purchased The Lettershop Group (TLG) so that the business can add complementary and technologically advanced printing capabilities.
The acquisition, which has been made for an undisclosed amount, comes a month after York Mailing became the fourth business to receive an eight-figure investment from the bank-backed Business Growth Fund (BGF).
BGF’s equity investment, which gave it a minority stake, is being used with additional funds from asset-based lending and cash facilities to fund new ‘state-of-the-art’ printing presses to improve with efficiency and volume capacity.
Selection of Business Growth Fund deals:
- BGF makes maiden investment in Benefax
- Youngest company to date backed by BGF
- BGF enters Wales with SHS deal
- Wear Inns uses NVM and BGF cash to acquire pubs
New purchase TLG provides print marketing and mailing services throughout Europe. The business had reportedly focused on direct mailing for the financial services industry, but has now expanded into the retail sector.
According to York Mailing, the enlarged business will have a turnover of £100 million and 500 staff across three sites.
Chris Ingram, CEO of York Mailing, says that the York-based company has admired TLG for a long time.
‘It is a natural fit within the York Mailing business and we look forward to being able to offer customers an enhanced range of promotional printing services,’ he adds.
‘This type of deal was a significant undertaking for us as a management team and the financial backing and operational support provided by BGF has been invaluable.’
As part of the deal, TLG joint managing directors David McGolpin and Simon Cooper will remain in their positions, brining with them customers including Marks & Spencer, Sky and Tesco.
Richard Taylor, senior investment manager at BGF, comments, ‘This is a fantastic example of BGF’s capital being put to good use; an ambitious management team leading an expanding business but with a desire to grow that bit further and offer customers that bit more.
‘When we started discussions with Chris and Mike [Newbold] prior to our investment, they flagged that this acquisition would be a significant part of the strategy and rationale behind making equity investment and is great to see the plan come to fruition.’
Since its foundation in 2011, BGF has invested approximately £150 million into 29 companies from 17 sectors – and now has 3,500 people employed by its portfolio businesses.
