Dixon and Taylor embark on new venture

Nick Dixon and Rick Taylor, who between them created the £53m Lateral Group, are poised to return to the industry with a new buy-and-build venture.

The new business, Veriteva, was established by the duo last summer, after Dixon and Taylor’s three-year non-compete following the sale of Lateral Group to DST in August 2011 had expired.

“We’re having discussions with various people and seeing where that takes us,” said Dixon.

“The most important thing is to find the right business or businesses. We’re not planning to rush into anything, we want to make sure we find the right businesses, the right acquisitions and the right partners to work with.”

He added that while his and Taylor’s reputation was built on turning around distressed businesses like Colorgraphic and Howitt and then stabilising and growing them into new markets, this time the duo were targeting going concerns as part of a buy-and-build strategy in the marketing and graphic communication sector.

“The priority is going concerns rather than distress assets, but never say never,” said Dixon.

While he didn’t want to be drawn on the size and type of businesses Veriteva was looking to target, in his interview with PrintWeek he hinted that the potential targets would most likely be “north of £20m” and operate in markets beyond purely traditional print.

“The culture is very important too, we want to work with like-minded individuals,” said Dixon.

Dixon and Taylor, have already explored finance providers and are understood to have a number of possible funding options from private equity houses and lenders, depending on the scale and type of acquisition.

To read the full interview with Dixon, click here.