After Studio3B and Adhéquat in 2016, Expocreative in 2017 and Sitep in 2018, the large-format Montpellier-based digital printing group has strengthened its strategic divisions with the signature of its fifth and sixth acquisitions. The new entity projects more than €15 million in revenue and aims to rapidly double in size again.
The Leader Print group was created in April 2017 at the initiative of Emmanuel Denis, who combined his company MediaFab, which was taken over in 2011, with Studio 3b and Adhéquat, its first two Paris acquisitions. The group thus increased its revenue from €2 million to €5 million and invited Odyssée Venture to acquire an interest in its capital to help finance this ambitious growth strategy. Two other acquisitions will follow shortly, notably Sitep, a historical player in the Lyon region.
Now a specialist in various digital printing technologies, the group offers its customers high-quality, tailored printing across all media and positions itself as a key player in institutional communication. It supplies flags, posters, POS advertising, signage and art photographs. Its customers are agencies, advertisers, events specialists, SMEs and local authorities. The responsiveness, production quality and positioning of the group’s various brands enable it to meet the needs of each type of customer.
Picto Rhône Alpes, founded in 1999, has grown through its operations in various printing technologies and has maintained unrivaled image expertise thanks to its photographic laboratory know-how. The company serves a broad portfolio of customers made up of institutional players and major luxury groups. Located in Vénissieux, it has plans to merge shortly with Sitep. With an employee headcount of around twenty, it generated revenue of nearly €2.7 million in 2019.
Comptoir de l’Image, founded in 1992, offers its customers a comprehensive service ranging from the creation of signage and decorative projects to the installation of printed media. With a fleet of large-format digital printing machines, production is integrated so as to offer a high-quality service. Serving large-scale customers, particularly in the hospitality and construction industries, Comptoir de l’Image specializes in large turnkey projects for a customer base of large accounts.
With the takeover of this printing business, Leader Print will strengthen and expand its Paris teams of around fifteen people. Located just a few hundred meters from each other, the two sites were able to be combined. This large-format digital printing group therefore has also secured additional revenue of more than €2.5 million.
The manager and founder of Comptoir de l’Image is maintaining the agency business and will now focus on developing its interior design projects under the name Ab6 Signalétique. A partnership has also been entered into with the Leader Print group for printing work to be carried out on behalf of the agency’s customers. This reorganization should make it possible to reposition the respective teams in their core businesses and offer greater added value for their shared customers.
Picto-Rhône Alpes and Le Comptoir de L’Image, which will strengthen the Lyon and Paris divisions respectively, now have sufficient critical mass to meet most of the local markets and Emmanuel Denis has plans to develop markets in other regions. He retains the option to further strengthen the company’s position in Paris by combining companies with complementary know-how.
These deals add to PAX Corporate Finance’s references in the sector, after the recent acquisitions of Inessens (label printing) and the LBO transactions of Formes & Sculptures, RC Concept (POS) and Verpack (Packaging).
