Marsh aiming to acquire

Sydney printer Marsh Media is embarking on a growth by acquisition strategy its owner says should be emulated by other printers.

Owner Glen Marsh says the industry badly needs consolidation and he wants to buy printing companies that need help.

He says since he started talking to owners about setting up web-to-print portals, he has found the whole industry could benefit from more cooperation.

“I realised there are a lot of small printers out there not making a lot of money and there is a huge amount of duplication in the industry,” he says.

“If someone is on the treadmill, there are other options. We can all make better margins through economies of scale and better efficiency.”

[Related: More mergers and acquisitions news]

Marsh says he is looking to buy small digital or signage companies with three to five staff and that growth by acquisition makes sense because of the cost of getting new sales.

“Advertising and sales reps are expansive and I could buy another business and get more clients for the same expense,” he says.

Marsh says other options for struggling printers, or those who want to expand but don’t have the equipment, include joint ventures, co-locating, or profit sharing work from web-to-print portals.

Marsh expects to increase turnover by at least $500,000 after setting up a web-to-print portal for a major salon supplier chain.

He also says the availability of web-to-print portals like MyPrintCloud means printers could form co-ops where they do jobs suited to their strengths and let others do the rest, instead of going to big trade printers.

“If you have solid turnover and a good crew but are still not going anywhere, it’s worth thinking about changing your business model,” he says.

This is similar to the idea advocated by OCA chief executive Naresh Gulati, who urges printers to embrace collaborative models to save the industry.

“Insolvencies will continue to happen until the industry cooperates to bring costs down. Corrective action must be taken now,” he says.

“We have to work with each other to stop dropping prices in a race to the bottom, and stop the dangerous reliance on a few big clients that could leave at any time.”

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