Business News
Draft agreement to sell the Hérissey and France Quercy printing companies to the Qualibris Group
Thursday 29. April 2010 - The management of CPI France, the industrial group specialising in book printing, has announced that it has informed staff representatives of a draft agreement to sell its two printing plants to the Qualibris Group. The two companies in question are Imprimerie France Quercy, in Mercuès (Lot Département) and Hérissey, in Evreux (Eure Département).
Along with Aubin Imprimeur, in Ligugé (Vienne Département), these two companies make up the “Offset” division of CPI France, specialising in a range of books in diverse formats, both in colour and in black and white: tourism guides, mangas, practical books and scientific, technical, medical and academic books.
A difficult market environment has forced CPI to look for means and ways of retaining its competitive edge, in order to secure its long-term future. It has become essential to streamline investments, to release the necessary resources for development in the medium term.
Following a successful financial restructuring process, in January 2010, the group launched a modernisation and reorganisation project for its “Cameron” Division, which specialises in monochrome books (General Literature and Paperbacks). Monochrome books represent the core of the CPI business and the group plans to invest 30m in this business in France over the next three years.
In parallel, a thought process was launched for the Offset division, in which CPI has invested more than 32 million, but which has suffered heavily from negative market trends over the last two years:
Aubin Imprimeur, which is proving more resistant, thanks to its national scope and diversification into catalogues, magazines and packaging, has growth potential and should become a centre of operational excellence for CPI France.
Imprimerie France Quercy is better placed to position itself in a regional market with strong potential, where its great versatility, from phototypesetting to routing, gives it a certain autonomy in relation to the groups business activity.
Hérissey, being a small company, has been most weakened by current trends, but benefits nevertheless from valuable sector expertise, particularly in the printing of mangas, which is an expanding segment.
CPI considered that its strategy of streamlining investments and specialising in printing companies of national stature no longer allowed Hérissey and Imprimerie France Quercy to find means of development within the group.
In this context, the draft agreement to sell to Qualibris represents the best opportunity for these two sites.
Qualibris is a French printing and finishing group at the forefront of four-colour printing of hard or soft bound works, which wishes to strengthen its position in its core business area. In this respect, the acquisition of Imprimerie France Quercy and Hérissey would complement its current product range and enable it to increase its customer base beyond that of its publishers, in the face of competition from Italy and China. The draft agreement would also give it the possibility of winning new markets in binding for existing finishing customers who would like to see their products printed and bound by the same service provider.
Qualibris intends to continue the process it has already started, by placing Hérissey and Imprimerie France Quercy at the heart of the groups business activity and strategy, developing commercial strategy independently of publishers, in complement to its other businesses (particularly binding), as well as developing regional business activity.
The draft agreement would therefore give Imprimerie France Quercy and Hérissey the chance to restore their competitive edge and benefit from new means of development, particularly thanks to the additional workload that Qualibris is currently sub-contracting to other printing companies.
The transaction, which could be concluded before the summer of 2010, would manifest itself in selling to Qualibris all shares comprising the share capital of Imprimerie France Quercy and Hérissey, with a guarantee from CPI to bring the debts of these two companies to zero beforehand and provide significant financing in order to ensure their transition and operational management under the best possible conditions.
Within CPI France, Aubin Imprimeur is naturally set to develop as a single site for offset printing, in complement to the monochrome books produced by the technology of the Cameron division. Aubin Imprimeur has sufficient critical mass to concentrate the groups investment capacity and benefit from a dedicated sales structure, particularly in non-book activities (catalogues, magazines, packaging).