Peter Schaefer

Thank the steadfast strategy of financial buyers for keeping the pace of acquisitions brisk in 2023 and carrying the momentum to 2024.

Companies don’t prioritize M&As on their trade show agendas, but the capital investments they make at these events tell us something.

Buying or selling a printing company often consists of a six-step sequence that owners can follow to reach a successful deal.

Despite the pandemic, we project M&A activity to be healthy for the rest of the year, even if some economic indicators weaken.

M&A trends seen throughout 2021 explain why the present moment is a bright one, and the right one, for buying and selling printed packaging manufacturers.

Any slowdown in the pace of M&As among printing and packaging firms is only temporary. The industry is recovering, buyers are flexible, and the fundamental forces that drive M&A activity are still in play.

For sellers, managing risk is a five-step process that’s really no different from the exit planning strategy we recommend to clients in normal circumstances. But, until COVID-19 starts to recede and market conditions improve, sellers should carry out specific steps with special urgency and care.

An “attractive” company is a well-managed company: one whose owner has kept it competitive by making the right decisions about market focus, technical capability, and customer relationships.

Family-owned businesses are the backbone of the printing industry, but when the time comes for closely held firms to put themselves up for sale, family ties don’t always pull in a helpful direction. With the right strategy in place however, family-owned businesses can be involved in transactions that lead to beneficial results for all involved.

Anyone who owns a printing company today is an owner who should be planning either to sell it or to grow it. Today, the straightest path to growth is through mergers and acquisitions in a market that remains very receptive to these transactions. We see four reasons why the M&A climate continues to be as healthy as it is.

Not all that long ago, it seemed that investors seeking middle-market opportunities wanted to look at anything but printing. This, happily, has changed, and for the last several years, middle-market investors have shown that they now regard acquiring profitable, well-run printing and packaging companies as a smart play.

Do you, as the owner of a printing business, have a plan for no longer being the owner of that business?

The fast pace of transactions in 2016 tells us that the market is sound and many that are looking for opportunities to buy or sell have had little difficulty in locating them.

At New Direction Partners, we have found that closing a deal is almost always the culmination of a number of steps — six, to be precise — in a process that applies both to buying and to selling.

In our recent webinar, we were happy to report that the pace of dealmaking in the industry remains strong and that opportunities for buyers and sellers should continue to be abundant at least in the near term. How long these conditions will last is impossible to predict. For the moment, though, as M&A advisers, we like what we’re seeing.