HC Pro buys Wimmera Design & Print

Regional Victorian photo printer HC Pro has acquired local company Wimmera Design & Print (WD&P), expanding the business further just months after purchasing two divisions of print veteran Michael Warshall’s Nulab in December.

WD&P is a family owned design and printing studio located close to HC.

Chris O’Connor, director and production manager of Wimmera says, “I have sold off my share of Wimmera to HC Pro. We are a small digital and offset business and they are the largest printer in Horsham, country Victoria. I wanted to retire and they wanted a retail business.

“Everything is moving over, our equipment and our staff, the whole lot. I am staying on for a couple of months and then I will be taking off.”

Among the company’s ranks are two Fuji Xerox 700i Series Printers, a Heidelberg GTO46 and a Praktika press. Its services include brochures, booklets, flyers, book and magazine printing, stickers and banners.

WD&P says it now is able to provide its customers with a new range of products, including large format printing, banner printing, hardcover books and albums and stock printing.

O’Connor says, “I can offer their services to my customers, such as framing. I do not even know the whole range, it is such a large company, they have a lot and I have only been there a couple of days.

“We moved over on Thursday. We are sill taking out printing machines from our old premises, we took over the main machines we needed last week.

WD&P was founded by O’Connor along with Andrew Crosgrove, offset printing manager along with former co owner Shelley Baker, who Crosgrove and O’Connor bought out.

O’Connor has worked in print for 43 years, having been commercial print manager at The Wimmera Mail Times before starting WD&P for 29 years.

He says, “I am happy about it, I can now retire. I am going to do a lot of travel, I will be going over to Europe with my wife.”

HC Pro was established by Brian Murray as Horsham Colour in 1968. Current owner and managing director Bruce Wilson bought the business from Murray four years ago.

Following Michael Warshall’s retirement, operations for Nulab Professional Imaging and Nushots moved over to the company’s base in Horsham from Melbourne over the Christmas period.

 

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