Alliance Franchise Brands Formed to Unite Allegra Holdings, Sign and Graphics Holdings

PLYMOUTH, MI—February 19, 2013—The ownership groups of Allegra Holdings, parent company of the Allegra, Insty-Prints, American Speedy and Signs Now franchise brands, and Sign and Graphics Holdings, parent company of the Signs By Tomorrow and new Image360 franchise brands, have united these organizations through the formation of a common parent company called Alliance Franchise Brands.

From a functional standpoint, Alliance Franchise Brands will have two operating divisions:

• The Marketing/Print Division, led by President Bob Milroy, will include the Allegra Network brands of Allegra, Insty-Prints, and American Speedy Printing. This division includes approximately 300 franchise members generating nearly $230 million in annual sales.
• The Sign Division, led by President Ray Palmer, will include the Sign & Graphic Brands of Signs Now, Signs By Tomorrow and the new Image360 brands. This division includes approximately 340 franchise members generating nearly $150 million in annual sales.

“This restructuring was initiated to better reflect our growing stable of franchise brands and how we’ve organized our company to provide separate and focused leadership for our franchise owners,” explained Mike Marcantonio, CEO of Alliance Franchise Holdings. “This realignment also reflects that we have two separate and distinct divisions, each with a focus on being the best in their respective industries. It also results in unifying the investment groups under the Alliance Franchise brands entity and simplifies many accounting and administrative functions, generating efficiencies and economies for our company.”

This follows the announcement last week of a new Sign and Graphics brand called Image360. “This brand initiative will bring much more than a new name to the market; it will introduce a new approach that will change the way that many companies fulfill their visual communications needs,” said Palmer.

In addition to Marcantonio, Milroy and Palmer, investors in Alliance Franchise Brands include Andrew Akers, vice president of operations of Sign and Graphics Brands; Brian Tyll and Mario Grech of Allegra Plymouth (corporate-owned franchise center); Harry Silverman, chief financial advisor and Laura Pierce-Marutz, vice president of finance and administration for Alliance Franchise Brands.

About Alliance Franchise Brands
Alliance Franchise Brands is the parent of two franchise companies in the field of marketing and visual communications. Allegra Network is the operator of Allegra, Insty-Prints and American Speedy Printing brands of marketing, printing, mailing and Web service providers, and Signs Now brand of sign and visual communications providers. Sign & Graphics Operations is the operator of Signs By Tomorrow and Image360 brands of sign and visual communications providers. In total, Alliance Franchise Brands serves nearly 650 franchise members in the United States, Canada and England with combined annual sales approaching $380 million.

Source: Allegra.