Printing Arts

WESTPORT, CT—Terry Tevis, president and CEO of quickly expanding industry consolidator Printing Arts America (PAA), has submitted his resignation to the company's board of directors, effective immediately. In his place, the board has named one of its own, Marion H. Antonini, to succeed Tevis. Tevis will remain on the company's board as vice chairman through the end of the year. PAA officials say Antonini brings a broad business background with extensive experience in operations, corporate acquisitions and strategic planning at such companies as Xerox, where he was group vice president worldwide operations, and Welbilt, where he was chairman and CEO from 1990 through 1998.

The commercial printing industry's leading consolidators share their criteria for the art of the deal. BY ERIK CAGLE When one of our industry's acquisitions is among the top financial stories on "CNN," it becomes readily apparent that the world of commercial printing consolidation is heating up rather than slowing down. The highly anticipated deal that saw Quebecor Printing purchase one of the industry's leading consolidators, World Color Press, for $1.4 billion in cash and stock on July 12, was met by a lot of oohs and aahs. It was an impressive post-Fourth of July fireworks display, to be sure, even though many in the

San Francisco—The Quebecor acquisition of World Color Press dwarfs any other merger and acquisition news in the printing industry, but the industry's other players have not been idle in the past weeks. Perhaps most notable was the news that yet another company has joined an increasingly crowded field of companies seeking to consolidate the still-fragmented North American commercial printing market. The new kid on the block is San Francisco-based Kelmscott Communications LLC, and its first major deal is the acquisition of three printing companies: Watermark Press in San Francisco; Printing Control in Seattle; and Commercial Printing/CDS in Medford, OR. The three boast aggregate sales

Consolidators, independents discuss merits of selling the business to a roll-up company. BY ERIK CAGLE To sell or not to sell? A difficult question with no easy, or clear-cut, answers. The last 15 years have been marked by considerable growth in the commercial printing industry. That growth has been bolstered by awe-inspiring advances in technology: computer-to-plate, offset press automation and digital prepress advances, which have all streamlined production processes and decreased turnaround time. By building a better mousetrap, printers large and small have made their industry highly competitive. While the National Association of Printers and Lithographers projects industry growth in the 4 percent range

WESTPORT, CT—Growing from an ambitious idea into a coast-to-coast printing network, consisting of nine companies with projected revenues in excess of $180 million, is no small accomplishment. But Terry Tevis, president and CEO of Printing Arts America (PAA), moved a step closer to realizing that goal by acquiring George Lithograph in San Francisco, Bay State Press in Framingham, MA, and Tarrant/ Dallas Printing with plants in Dallas and Euless, TX. "We've made nine major acquisitions in 10 months," notes Tevis, "and the addition of these three outstanding organizations changes both the face and the structure of our organization. Printing Arts America now extends the breadth

BY CHRISTOPHER CORNELL If you spent any time at all in 1998 reading the quarterly reports issued by publicly traded printing companies, you are probably up to your Y2K-compatible eyeballs with the term "record-breaking." But as the year draws to an end, it's clear that the phrase will be remembered as the one that most describes it. In previous years, consolidation was an interesting sidelight to other major events in the graphic arts industry. In 1998, it was all about consolidation. More than $3 billion was spent by larger fish swallowing up smaller ones, and while a few big names led the charge, they

POMPANO BEACH, FL—Printing Arts America (PAA), the Westport, CT-based financial rollup, will acquire AIM Riverside Press, based here, its first acquisition since it hired former Donnelley executive Terry Tevis as its president and CEO. "AIM Riverside fulfilled two criteria very important to us," Tevis explains. "It was well-managed and profitable; and has the physical capacity to grow." AIM Riverside will become the 'hub' for the South Florida market," he adds, noting that discussions are under way with other nearby firms that would become "satellite" facilities. Tevis says the management team at Riverside, headed by Oscar and Ike Abolafia, has "accomplished on a regional basis