Beauty and
 the Beast

The M&A activity level was busy earlier this year with several well-established label printers announcing acquisitions. In a matter of about two weeks, Smyth Companies acquired Dow Industries; CCL Industries acquired pharmaceutical label company, Thunder Press; and Hooven-Dayton completed the acquisition of Benchmark Graphics. Transactions such as these will most likely continue for several more years as the tag and label printing industry begins to look more and more like its cousins in the flexible packaging and folding carton segments, i.e., fewer, larger companies.