Mark Shergill has picked up his fifth print business in just over a year with the acquisition of Brisbane-based PurePrint to increase his slice of the Queensland market.

Shergill will take over the business from retiring owner 72-year-old Hans Bakker and roll it into his three-state Focus Print Group that already had a presence on the Gold Coast with Dynamic Print Communication, which he bought out of receivership last April.

Shergill says PurePrint and its 12 staff will operate business as usual for the time being at its Acacia Ridge facility in Brisbane’s outskirts under existing general manager Robert Mellor.

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He says the plan is to eventually merge it into the Gold Coast site with Dynamic Print, but the timeline is uncertain and dependent on how production goes.

“Pure Print will operate from its current site for now as it will not fit into the Dynamic site so it won’t move until we make some decisions down the track,” he says.

The deal includes a Komori Lithrone 440 and 526 which will continue to operate at the PurePrint site servicing its existing and new clients.

Shergill says he heard about the opportunity from his broker before the Focus Press saga began and the deal was completed after about a month of negotiations.

“This acquisition adds another print company to our portfolio and increases our presence in the QLD market,” he says.

He says he was drawn to the company by its access to new client markets and two big ongoing contracts for civil manufacturing clients, though the type of printing done there is similar to Dynamic Print.

[Related: More mergers and acquisitions news]

Focus Print Group now includes BPA Print Group, Print Warehouse, NewTone, Trodel-Docucopy, Dynamic Print Communications.

It also includes the remains of Focus Press, though what Shergill will actually be able to keep from his deal with David Fuller is still up in the air with the company in liquidation owing more than $27m.

“For the past 30 years we have been successfully managing a number of business's and developing a reputation for buying companies in distress and turning them into profitable and successful ventures, all trading today,” Shergill says.

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