Finish Line Binderies and HF Group Acquire Rochester, NY-Based The Riverside Group
CLEVELAND—March 13, 2015—Finish Line Binderies (FLB), a Signet Enterprises company , and HF Group have announced the acquisition of The Riverside Group from its former owner Peter Pape, effective Jan. 1, 2015.
Finish Line Binderies is one of the leaders in the book manufacturing industry offering services in perfect binding and mechanical binding. HF Group’s binding industry strength lies primarily in specialty hardcover binding segments. This acquisition and partnership has occurred in order to strengthen Riverside’s service offering to the graphic arts industry.
Finish Line Binderies has been an industry leader since 1937. Operating in a 60,000-square-foot facility, FLB has the capabilities and capacity to handle challenging projects. The direction of FLB over the past few years has shifted to a very customer centric focus. By concentrating on customers’ needs and requests, FLB has been able to grow the business during challenging times. This growth has allowed the company to reinvest capital into new equipment, facilities and employees.
“Our philosophy at Finish Line Binderies played itself right into this acquisition," commented John Helline, CEO of Finish Line Binderies. "We are continuously looking to improve and expand our service offering to our customer base.”
HF Group, with facilities in Boston, Greensboro, NC, North Manchester, IN, and Cleveland, remains a trusted vendor to the high-end case binding, library binding and prebinding markets. The company has reliably served its clients for over 75 years and continues to both expand service offerings and diversify its business.
“We saw a tremendous amount of synergies between the three entities that made this a great opportunity to pursue," relayed Jay Fairfield, CEO of HF Group. "The new partnership has already provided benefits to the market place."
The new company name of Riverside Bindery remains recognizable. Much of the key, long-tenured staff at Riverside remains with the company. The staff, including Mike Hill, president of Riverside, is excited to be working with the two organizations.
“In a graphic industry that has been continuously challenged with change, consolidation and reinvention, our employees in Rochester are pleased with the investment these two companies have made in this Rochester, NY, operation,” Hill said.
