The deal to acquire the £11.4m, 123-staff group, which encompasses Pensord Press, Cambrian Printers, which Pensord acquired in 2017, and Pensord Digital completed on Friday (2 December).
“The two businesses are closely aligned, we’re both leaders in the magazine marketplace and with their association with Cambrian they do quite a lot of commercial work, which we’re used to as well,” said S&G chairman and managing director Andrew Jones.
“There are lots benefits, for example with Pensord Digital we have a large client base and we don’t actively sell any digital as until now we didn’t have that facility.”
Jones said that he had been looking for a “suitable acquisition” for a while, and that the deal came about after had approached the group’s executive chairman Darren Coxon who, having previously worked at S&G, Jones knew well.
From initial conversation to completion, the deal was done in three months.
"This will be an exciting time for the group and will bring some much-needed continuity and stability for every single client across both print groups, in a very fast-changing and uncertain world,” said Jones.
This was echoed by Coxon, who said the deal offered Pensord the best chance of a bright future as S&G has “a robust balance sheet and healthy financial structure”.
“The commercial and periodical print sector has been hit hard over the last three years following two years of pandemic and now a global energy crisis and all the indicators point to a marketplace that will likely contract further in 2023,” he said.
“Despite having a great reputation for both service and quality, we would have found it very difficult, on our own, to survive a fourth consecutive year of crisis.”
As a result of the deal, it will be “business as usual” while a review of the two businesses and the broader market is being conducted.
“Pensord has a good name, S&G has a good name, putting those two businesses together, however that turns out will be good for everybody,” said Jones.
“With tough times ahead, we will be better and stronger together.”
Along with the staff, Karl Gater, who was Coxon’s partner in the MBO at Pensord twelve years ago, stays with the business. Coxon also remains and will continue to be a director of Pensord following the sale to S&G.
Based in Merthyr Tydfil, South Wales 110-year old S&G employs 155 staff and had sales of £16m in 2020/21, down from just shy of £30m pre-pandemic. It operates out of a 14,000sqm purpose factory around 20 miles from Pensord’s main 4,650sqm facility in Blackwood.
So close are the two firms, that the deal was announced to their respective teams simultaneously yesterday as each has staff with family members working in the other business.
“Print is a small world, and it’s even smaller in South Wales,” said Jones.
