Ironmark, Annapolis Junction, MD: A Decade of M&A Dominance Leads to New Plant, Equipment

Here's a walk down the M&A road Ironmark took to becoming a force in the Washington, DC; Baltimore; and northern Virginia markets:

• Admiral Envelopes (2004) gave Ironmark a new audience for its digital printing. Sales moved to $5.5 million, and the addition of a key sales representative tacked on $1 million worth of business.
• Lex Print On-Demand (2007), another local firm, had a strong following in the DC/northern Virginia area. Ironmark provided digital and offset printing services to the company's client base.
• Junior Press (2008) brought aboard the Marzullo clan, a three-generation family of printers. This deal ballooned Ironmark to the $12 million plateau.
• Graphix Unlimited (2010) was a distributor of printed product outsourcing and brokering a large amount of print within the local market. Graphix Unlimited was bringing in $2.5 million a year at the time of the deal and Ironmark grew it to $5 million within three years of closing the transaction.

"Graphix Unlimited's whole business was warehouse distribution. They were print brokers, but did a lot in the healthcare field, as well as print management," Marzullo says. "Adding them to the mix got us into the warehouse/fulfillment side of the business, which was something we really weren't doing."

• Corporate Printing Solutions (2011), also known as CPS, marked the largest deal to date for soon-to-be Ironmark and brought aboard Scott Hargest, who now serves as president of the overall company. CPS brought graphic design proficiency and wide-format capabilities. At that point, the firm was renamed CPS Gumpert. Image Mark (2011), a small promotional products company, also joined the fold that year.

It is interesting to note that CPS and then-Frank Gumpert Printing were both vying for the chance to acquire Graphix Unlimited. It was around this time that Ostenso and Hargest began having conversations about a potential merger.