Graphic Arts (UK) owner Alan Buck, 72, has retired from the company and has sold it to an MBO team led by his son and Printoff technology director Alex Buck, managing director Jane Cleaver and finance director Jason Tomlinson. All will remain in their current roles.
The companies are now being held under the newly formed holding company Partnership4, which was incorporated on 12 October. The MBO deal was officially signed on 26 October.
Cleaver said that discussions began in January of this year with the outgoing Buck, who was always scheduled to retire at the end of the company’s 40th trading year.
She said: “There wasn’t a lot of nitty gritty, Alan wanted this to happen, we wanted it to happen and we were able to work through it very swiftly.
“As we celebrate the 40th anniversary of the business this has been very timely. Alan is very confident that we will be able to take things further forward for him and we are all excited at the opportunity.”
Cleaver has been with the business for 18 years and Tomlinson and Buck have been there 22 years.
Printoff Graphic Arts, which trades as Printoff, provides a variety of printing services, including digital, litho, finishing and web-to-print. Concept4 Creative, which trades as Concept4, is its partner marketing and design agency, focusing primarily on the education and health sectors. Printoff is the preferred supplier for all of Concept4’s print services.
“We aren’t looking for much change, we have from Printoff’s point of view invested in a new web-to-print solution that has taken traction,” added Cleaver.
“We feel we can press forward with that and embrace the technology that is out there and feel we are quite unique because of what we offer as a group of companies. So we will be embracing new technologies but continuing to invest in traditional print.”
Printoff recently invested in an Apogee StoreFront web-to-print solution, which it is referring to as PrintBank.
Of its 50 overall staff, 32 are employed in its 15,000sqm Nelson premises and 18 are Concept4 agency staff in its Wandsworth, London office.
Group turnover is £3.5m, £2m from Printoff and £1.5m from Concept4. Cleaver said turnover has increased for the past two years and the new owners are confident there will be growth next year as well.
