Mon, 30 Sep 2013 | BUSINESS SALE
St Ives has sold St Ives Direct Bradford (SIDB) to Cogent B2B in line with its plans to move away from the commoditised areas of the print market.
The business has changed hands for £8 million, £3 million of which has been paid up front, with the remaining £5 million to be paid in monthly instalments over the course of two years, commencing on 1 November.
SIBD offers direct mail, digital printing and general commercial printing, and reported sales of £35 million and pre-tax profits of £1.2 million for the year to 27 July 2012, with gross assets of £11.1 million.
St Ives is to keep the freehold of the property where SIDB is based, and will lease it out to its new owner. Having sold off the business, St Ives will be free to focus its efforts on marketing services. Difficult trading had squeezed prices at SIDB, with lower levels of profits as a result.
Commenting on the proceedings St Ives chief executive Patrick Martell said: “Following a fundamental realignment of our business, in which we have built a substantial and broadly-based marketing services offering while moving away form commoditised print, it is clear that SIDB no longer fits within our new structure and will benefit from alternative ownership.”
St Ives announced its plans to close St Ives Direct Leeds in July last year to reduce its sheetfed print operations. At the time Mr Martell said the Bradford site has extra space and that the Leeds direct mail business would be consolidated there.
New owner Cogent B2B, which takes on distressed SMEs across many sectors and turns them around, was assisted on the deal by Leeds-based Clarion.
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