Schawk, Inc. Completes Acquisition of Benchmark Marketing Services

DES PLAINES, Ill.—Schawk, Inc., one of the world’s leading providers of digital imaging graphic services to the consumer products and brand imaging markets, announced that it has completed its acquisition of Benchmark Marketing Services LLC, a brand consulting and design firm located in Cincinnati with approximately $6 million in annual revenues.

Benchmark provides brand creation and strategic design services to consumer products companies and retailers with a specialized expertise in environmental design. Benchmark will become part of Anthem Worldwide, a Schawk strategic design company.

Anthem’s existing business in Cincinnati which includes the July 2006 acquisition of WBK, Inc., another established design firm in this market, will be consolidated into the office space currently occupied by Benchmark. WBK’s specialized expertise is in leading innovation-driven ideation exercises.

“Our acquisition of Benchmark is consistent with our strategy to enhance the integrated global services that Schawk provides to its clients by acquiring top quality companies that deepen our competencies, expand our geographic presence and add new, related capabilities to our offering,” said David A. Schawk, president and chief executive officer. “We are committed to offering best-in-class advice, services and products from the point of brand creation to full brand realization. This acquisition further strengthens Anthem’s ability to meet the growing trends of retailers and consumer products companies to create in-store kiosks designed to capitalize on health, wellness and demographic trends.”

Benchmark, having served the branding and design needs of Fortune 1000 companies for more than 30 years, has an established a track record of developing integrated solutions that build greater brand experiences. The company will be known as AnthemBenchmark for a short time before migrating to the Anthem name and identity. This will allow Anthem the opportunity to leverage the equity and goodwill associated with the Benchmark brand in the Cincinnati market.

“Benchmark’s ability to be both visionary and business-building at the same time is a key attribute that makes them a great fit with Anthem,” said Anne Marie Pagliacci, executive vice president and group managing director of Anthem Worldwide. “Their finely tuned shopper-centric point of view on in-store design and merchandising enhances Anthem’s offering to consumer products companies and retailers. They succeed at inspiring consumers to think and in moving shoppers to buy.”

“Our interest in being acquired by Schawk initially grew out of our realization of an inescapable trend among our clients,” said John Carpenter, executive creative director of AnthemBenchmark and former president and chief creative officer of Benchmark. “While we were known for great creative work created quickly, our clients were growing more and more interested in design agencies that could offer them greater scale and a global reach.”

Added Carpenter, “What we found was that Schawk and Anthem offered an elegantly integrated global solution. Anthem also differentiated itself with its networked style of operating across its offices worldwide, tapping into multiple offices for the right knowledge and talent for each assignment to create worldwide ‘best-in-class’ teams. Finally, we felt that it was just a great cultural fit. We believe it was the perfect opportunity to become part of something much bigger than ourselves without losing the essence of what made us successful in the branding and design market.”

Schawk’s globally integrated brand image management supply chain solutions are custom built for clients based on services that include branding and strategic design through Anthem Worldwide, production and premedia services through Schawk’s graphic services group and content and graphics lifecycle management through Schawk Digital Solutions. The Company’s integrated solutions deliver strategic business value, improved speed to market, enhanced brand consistency, and improved marketplace agility.