Carrollton Graphics Purchased; Aggressive Turnaround Planned
CARROLLTON, OH—Carrollton Graphics, which has been in Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection, has been purchased by a partnership of Bill Svatos, Martin McGreevy and Paul McGhee II. The group says it plans "an aggressive turnaround" for the printer after it emerges from Chapter 11 protection this month. Carrollton specializes in commercial and circular printing.
"Our plan is to inject the resources, money and people required to make Carrollton Graphics competitive again," says Svatos.
Svatos, who has been named president, has previous turnaround experience with CSC Ltd., a $240 million steel company in Warren, OH, and Spartanburg Stainless Products in South Carolina. McGhee is the owner of PM Graphics, an $8 million printing company based in Cleveland, which has grown 800 percent since McGhee took the helm in 1989. Officials expect a good deal of cross-selling between the companies, since PM Graphics is a coldset web printer and Carrollton uses heatset web printing equipment.
"There is a real synergy; we can cross-sell each other's products to meet a wider range of client needs," he says.
McGreevy's previous experience is as president of Cyclonics, a designer and fabricator of custom tradeshow exhibits based in Medina, OH. Under McGreevy's leadership, Cyclonics grew from $3 million to $12 million in annual sales in a period of three years.
In 1996, Carrollton Graphics reported annual sales of nearly $35 million. After being acquired in June 1997, the firm fell to its current volume of about $13 million.
"The people who made Carrollton Graphics what it was are still here. Our hope is that under our management we can take this business back to that level, then beyond," says McGreevy.
In addition to an 87,000-square-foot plant here that employs 140 people, Carrollton Graphics has a 40,000-square-foot facility in Walterboro, SC, that employs seven.