Swindon printers Acorn Press Swindon and MPD Offset have accomplished a merger that units the mixed entity on a powerful progress path.
Acorn is a B1 printer that runs Heidelberg litho and Ricoh wide-format equipment whereas additionally providing varied digital printing companies, whereas MPD has B2 litho capabilities and runs digital package from Xerox.
Acorn managing director Simon Evers has efficiently led the merger, which was agreed in early September and accomplished later within the month. The deal will see MPD director Victor Hopkinson changing into the second director of the brand new setup, together with Evers.
Acorn gross sales account supervisor Paul Shellard instructed Printweek: “MPD was taking a look at some type of sell-off or merger, a minimum of for the final 12-18 months, and we have been one of many corporations that they approached. Over the time period, it made sense for Acorn to take [MPD] on.”
Acorn stated that whereas it’s looking for additional litho funding, MPD’s B2 package will sit alongside Acorn’s present Heidelberg Speedmaster XL 106 B1 five-colour and coater. Finally, Acorn’s present web site will grow to be the corporate’s litho plant.
Plans are to finally transfer all digital work, together with B3, wide-format and label manufacturing, over to MPD’s current web site in Swindon to make {that a} devoted digital plant. Shellard stated the 2 corporations’ websites are a stone’s throw away from one another.
MPD will retain its personal id in the meanwhile and will likely be often called MPD – a part of the Acorn Group. The enterprise at the moment has 13 employees, all of whom will likely be coming over, whereas Acorn employs 57 employees throughout its varied companies.
Acorn’s first acquisition was APD (One other Good Supply) in 2022, which grew to become its in-house mailing facility with a Buhrs mailing line and likewise provides polywrapping together with hand fulfilment services.
Evers added a second acquisition initially of this yr with Superior Printing Companies (APS), a specialist printer that produces promotional clothes by way of display printing, dye-sublimination, and DTF printing – a latest funding space for the corporate.
On the wide-format facet, APS additionally produces vinyl graphics and becoming companies, plus engraving and signwriting for car graphics.
With the addition of MPD to Acorn, the mixed group’s present gross sales stand at £10m, with practical milestones to drive gross sales in direction of £15m by the tip of 2026.
MPD’s pre-merger gross sales have been round £1.3m to £1.5m.
“We consider that with the brand new package, we are able to drive that up fairly simply with out doing something dramatic on the preliminary stage, due to the prevailing buyer portfolio we are able to faucet into,” stated Shellard.
“We wish to be modest about what we’re making an attempt to attain as this all involves move. However after that, then clearly we’re on an accelerating progress [path] – we now have to be to justify what we’re making an attempt to do.”
He added: “Rising too rapidly is a nasty factor however with the quantity of useful resource that we’ve bought, and taking into account that the MPD guys can faucet into our B1 tech as effectively, it opens up their portfolio.
“Throughout the group, if you learn by way of the companies that we now supply, we do not need simply orders, we wish accounts as effectively. We will discuss to prospects on an encompassing package deal, so we are able to have accounts quite than simply orders – as a result of if you’ve solely bought orders, that’s once we discover that the market is a little more fickle.”
Acorn, which serves prospects together with the e-book market, charities, and the instrument business, can be at the moment working with its inner print IT specialist, Cheryl Corbett, to create what it claims is an business first; a singular end-to-end workflow system that can cut back the touchpoints inside the enterprise and in the end cut back prices, with the main target to make sure the enterprise stays environment friendly and aggressive.
