If you’re old enough to remember what the printing industry was like in the year 2000, as the writer of this article does, you may well also remember stumbling over the pronunciation of ‘Communisis’ when the John Mansfield Group rebranded with its swishy new name.
After getting used to the fact that the fresh moniker was inspired by communication, rather than Communism, the industry watched as Communisis reshaped in dramatic fashion.
Created via a £400m-plus spree to acquire the Waddington and Rexam printing operations, Communisis then disposed of a swathe of businesses considered non-core and went on to spend what was a fortune at the time getting into print management with the £42m purchase of Centurion in 2002.
However, as the end of that decade approached, cracks were appearing.
Steve Vaughan had joined as CEO from outside the industry in October 2006, with a plan to turn this “moribund” printing company into a marketing services provider, and to boost margins by focusing on high-value print management.
He left at the tail end of 2009 after interim profits crashed.
His replacement Andy Blundell, a seasoned printing industry executive, then spent 11 years at the helm, overseeing a number of mega deals with clients including Lloyds Banking Group and HMRC. Blundell stayed on for two years after the business was taken over by American firm Output Services Group (OSG), with Phil Hoggarth, a champion of “inclusive leadership” taking over from him as CEO in November 2020.
But as we now know, as last year came to a close, Communisis ended up as the industry’s latest large enterprise to fail, leaving nearly 600 people out of work, and becoming another unhappy example of North American ownership of UK companies not working out entirely as planned. Or hoped.
Was Communisis loaded up with too much debt? Was the pension deficit insurmountable? Did the IT project to simplify systems come too late? And did OSG’s own financial issues help bring down the business?
Or was the strategy simply flawed?
After all, paper statements and transactional print have been in active decline for well over a decade with Communisis’ major clients aggressively pushing their own customers towards online communications.
The lessons to be learned go well beyond etymology.
COMMUNISIS TIMELINE
Feb 2000 John Mansfield Group buys Waddington print operations for £319m
Apr 2000 Buys Rexam printing division for £85m
June 2000 Rebrands as Communisis
Jan 2001 Completes disposal of 10 non-core businesses including Jaycare, US healthcare packaging, and Howitt
May 2002 Buys print manager Centurion for £42m
Sept 2002 Wins £50m-a-year Barclays contract
April 2004 Sells off Colour Cards arm
Sept 2004 Buys print manager Dataform for £22m
Dec 2004 Pledges £10m to shore up pension fund deficit
Nov 2005 Announces new purpose-built statement facility in Liverpool
Oct 2006 Steve Vaughan takes over from David Jones as CEO
July 2007 MBO at Bath Business Forms and Economailer creates what is now Integrity Communications Group
Sep 2007 Global FMCG giant Procter & Gamble becomes a client
Dec 2008 Sales are £257.7m
Aug 2009 Half-year pre-tax profits collapse by 78%. CEO Vaughan to step down
Nov 2009 Sales director Andy Blundell replaces Vaughan as CEO
Dec 2009 Sales are £190.2m
Dec 2010 Sales are £193.2m
July 2013 Doubles size of transactional print business by taking over Lloyds TSB’s in-house production facilities
Jan 2014 Signs 10-year inbound mailing contract with Lloyds Banking Group
Dec 2016 Wins huge HMRC contract for all outbound customer comms
Aug 2017 Adds HSBC marcomms work to existing transactional and fulfilment services
Dec 2017 Sales for calendar year 2017 are £375.8m
Jan 2018 Share price reaches a near four-year high of 71.10p.
Oct 2018 Acquisitive US group OSG makes all-cash offer for Communisis that values group at nearly £154m
Dec 2018 OSG takeover completes, Communisis de-lists from stock market
Dec 2019 Sales in 2019 are just under £326.2m
Nov 2020 Former Capita exec Phil Hoggarth takes over from Blundell as CEO
Dec 2020 Pandemic. Sales are down 12% at £271.2m
Dec 2021 Turnover in 2021 falls further to just under £256m. Transactional print sales are down 20%. Brand deployment now 52% of revenues
Jun 2022 Begins five-year ‘digital transformation’ project with Indian outsourcer Tech Mahindra
Aug 2022 US parent OSG files for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection
Sep 2022 OSG exits Chapter 11
Mar 2023 Noise level that all is not well at the business
May 2023 Paragon offers £1 for the entire group on a solvent basis
Aug 2023 Key customers approached for support and eventually stump up more than £21m to help keep it going
Oct 2023 OSG enters Chapter 11 for second time in 14 months. Communisis confirms it is up for sale
Dec 2023 Four Communisis companies go into administration. More than half its workforce – 638 employees – made redundant. Tech Mahindra is a major creditor, owed £14m. Parts of business sold via a pre-pack to Paragon. Paragon also acquires Communisis Ltd's major asset, its shareholding in Brand Deployment parentco PS Holdings, which is not in administration.
Jan 2024 Pension scheme, which had a £20.8m deficit, heads for Pension Protection Scheme
