Two-hundred fifteen employees who work for Quad/Graphics in Dubuque (IA) will now have to seek employment elsewhere. Devastating news to those who work at the printing plant and for those who have been fighting to keep the company from leaving.
After finally emerging from bankruptcy protection, with a much lighter debt load, NewPage Corp. clearly has merger on its mind. Why else would North America’s largest maker of coated paper choose as its chairman Mark A. Angelson, the U.S. printing industry’s Great Consolidator?
Further consolidation of the paper industry is inevitable, but could Angelson & Co. have something more radical in mind? Like maybe a marriage with a printing company? Like maybe Quad/Graphics, the continent’s #2 printer?
The idea that the two Wisconsin-centric companies are natural allies has been around for years. Quad...proposed an unusual alliance with a NewPage predecessor
An investment group is paying nearly $4.4 million for the former Quad/Graphics printing plant in Depew, with plans to subdivide the massive facility for a collection of manufacturing and distribution tenants. The purchase comes one year after Wisconsin-based Quad/Graphics closed the plant, putting 400 employees out of work.
In April 2011, Quad/Graphics announced that it would close the plant by the end of that year. The company won a reduction in the plant’s assessment earlier this year, from a market value of $9 million to $7 million, and put the property up for sale in January.
SUSSEX, WI—Quad/Graphics announced that its board of directors approved an increase to its 2013 quarterly cash dividend by 20 percent to $0.30 per share from $0.25 per share. In addition, the board of directors also declared a special dividend of $2 per share.
SUSSEX, WI—Santa Claus came early for the nation's No. 2 printer when a U.S. Bankruptcy Court green-lighted the proposed sale of Baltimore-based Vertis Holdings to Quad/Graphics.
Quad/Graphics Inc. and Vertis Holdings jointly announced that the U.S. Bankruptcy Court has approved their proposed agreement, clearing the way for the sale of Vertis to close. The companies are in the final stages of integration planning and expect to close the transaction in January.
It's hard to believe that this marks the 29th anniversary of our annual Printing Impressions 400 list of the largest printers in the United States and Canada ranked by annual sales. The consolidation trend has intensified, albeit more from the result of shrinking print markets coupled with the economic fallout from the Great Recession.
Direct mail is still considered the marketing channel of choice by a vast number of marketers across verticals ranging from telecom and utilities to nonprofit, publishing and financial services. According to the Direct Marketing Association's “2012 Response Rate Report,” the rates for letter-sized direct mail (3.4 percent) were 30 times higher than those for email (0.12 percent). The belief that direct mail is dead or dying will have to be suspended for the time being.
Quad/Graphics and Vertis Holdings jointly announced that the waiting period for antitrust review in relation to their proposed business combination has expired with no action taken by the Federal Trade Commission. The companies anticipate the sale will be approved by the bankruptcy court on Dec. 6, 2012.
Quad’s net sales for the third quarter of 2012 totaled $1.04 billion vs. $1.11 billion for the same period in 2011. Its Adjusted EBITDA was $155 million, compared to $174 million in 2011. “Our third quarter performance was in line with our expectations,” said Joel Quadracci, Quad/Graphics chairman, president and CEO.
