Acquisition Simplified: Three Printers Break Down Deals and Mergers
At Printing Hub 2012, no one harped on the importance of business growth, of implementing new marketing methods or of engaging your printing company’s employees. The business owners and managers in attendance already knew that.
No, Printing Hub 2012 was far more in-depth. Every session taught the audience how to grow their business, how to implement new marketing methods and how to engage employees. As promised, conference speakers delivered tangible takeaways so that printers could implement what they learned right away.
For example, the panel discussion at Day 2, “Growth through Acquisition,” was a Q & A-style tutorial on how printing companies can increase their customer base by acquiring failing competitors. The panel featured three print shop owners who consistently secured substantial ROIs via acquisition: Jim Colt, Kevin Thomas and Jay Wilkinson.
Advice from all three print owners was distinctly practical. They agreed, for instance, that printers can acquire other businesses without a broker. As Colt said, “All of my deals have been very simple.” Wilkinson added: “Every deal [we] considered with a broker didn’t work out. The broker is convinced that [the acquisition] is worth way more than it usually is.”
The best way to keep profitable prospective acquisitions coming is to be fair: word travels, Thomas explained. “Pay people like you’re supposed to and they will give you a great reference [for future deals]” Colt piped in.
And good news for printing companies looking for their first of many acquisitions: “Buy one and [prospective acquisitions] will know about you. If the word on the street is that there’s a successful printing company in town, [businesses in trouble] think, ‘I better get in line or there will be nothing left for me.’”
If that’s not enough to get you moving on growth through acquisition, what is?
Tell us: has your printing company considered acquisition—or being acquired—before? What’s holding you back?
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