Taylor Corp. Buys Staples Print Solutions

By Elise Hacking Carr

Taylor Corp. is making headlines once again. Yesterday, the North Mankato, Minnesota-based company announced its intent to acquire the assets of Framingham, Massachusetts-based Staples Print Solutions.

Staples Print Solutions offers business-printing services, ranging from business cards and brochures to labels and packaging. Its parent company, Staples Inc., is trying to complete the $6.3 billion acquisition of Boca Raton, Florida-based rival Office Depot Inc. The U.S. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) has long opposed this transaction due to antitrust concerns, and the case currently is being heard in federal court in Washington.

Taylor Corp. CEO Deb Taylor said her company and Staples Inc. have worked together for more than two decades. “Throughout this time, we have partnered with Staples to meet the communication needs of its contract and retail business,” she said in a press release. “… This pending acquisition broadens our ability to provide a full range of print and digital communication solutions, customized to serve our customers’ marketing and business needs. We are thrilled to welcome this business into our family of companies.”

Taylor Corp. is one of the largest privately held companies in the country with more than 12,000 employees. Taylor Corp. owns several major print and promotional product companies, including ADG Promotional Products, ComplyRight, Carlson Craft, Navitor and Label Works and Amsterdam Printing. Most recently, the Taylor family added Standard Register Co. to its growing roster of companies after making a last-minute bid of $307 million for the struggling printer at a bankruptcy auction. (The acquisition was completed in August 2015.)

Since then, Standard Register Co. has been the target of many news reports like this, this and this. In March, it was revealed that after operating under the Standard Register name for more than a century, the company would now go by Taylor Communications—a nod to its new parent company. In a letter posted on the new subsidiary’s website, Deb Taylor wrote:

We have some important news to share. Taylor Corporation is proud to announce the formation of a new subsidiary, Taylor Communications Inc., under which Standard Register will now go to market as Taylor Communications and Taylor Healthcare.

Taylor Corp. is expected to complete its purchase of Staples Print Solutions within the coming months, at which time Taylor Communications Inc. will take control.

Terms of the deal were not disclosed.