NAPL Releases New Mergers & Acquisitions Report

The National Association for Printing Leadership (NAPL) Research Center’s newly released study, “Mergers & Acquisitions: A Growth Strategy for an Industry in Transition,” reports the facts of M&A in the graphic communications industry, and whether it is the best path to profitable growth or a risk that may not be worth taking.

The new report is one facet of NAPL’s industry-leading expertise in graphic communications mergers and acquisitions, which also includes M&A consulting services from the NAPL Business Advisory Team; M&A Workshops, co-sponsored by Xerox, which premiered at the PRINT 13 show in September and will next be held at the Gil Hatch Center in Rochester on Nov. 14; and the NAPL book, Strategic Growth: The NAPL Guide to Mergers & Acquisitions. Attendees at the M&A Workshops (www.napl.org/events/ma2013/) receive free copies of both the M&A book and the new M&A study.

The 32-page study is based on the results of a survey and follow-up interviews with 88 companies, with annual sales from under $1 million to more than $150 million. “Our goal was to capture the full range of experiences with M&A,” explained study co-author Andrew Paparozzi, NAPL senior vice president and chief economist. “And we did. For some in our study, M&A has been an unqualified success; for others, it has been an absolute failure.”

Interest in M&A in the graphic communications industry continues to rise, with slightly more than 30 percent now planning to grow through M&A, compared to just 22.6 percent two years ago, and nearly triple the 10.9 percent of five years ago. The study found that the vast majority of those surveyed (87.1 percent) said their experience with M&A was positive―meeting or exceeding some or all of their expectations.

“There are several reasons for the increased interest in M&A,” said Paparozzi. “Among the most important is the growing number of printing company owners who recognize that even a healthy economy no longer creates enough organic growth for everyone, and that the time for a ‘build it and they will come’ approach to business has long passed.”