14 December 2022

STEPHENS & GEORGE BUYS PENSORD

South Wales-based Stephens & George Print Group has acquired local rival Pensord Print Group to solidify its position as the UK’s largest sheetfed magazine specialist.

The deal to acquire the £11.4m, 123-staff group, which encompasses Pensord Press, Cambrian Printers, which Pensord acquired in 2017, and Pensord Digital completed on 2 December.

“The two businesses are closely aligned, we’re both leaders in the magazine marketplace and with their association with Cambrian they do quite a lot of commercial work, which we’re used to as well,” said S&G chairman and managing director Andrew Jones.

“There are lots benefits, for example with Pensord Digital we have a large client base and we don’t actively sell any digital as until now we didn’t have that facility.”

Jones said that he had been looking for a “suitable acquisition” for a while, and that the deal came about after had approached the group’s executive chairman Darren Coxon who, having previously worked at S&G, Jones knew well.

From initial conversation to completion, the deal was done in three months.

"This will be an exciting time for the group and will bring some much-needed continuity and stability for every single client across both print groups, in a very fast-changing and uncertain world,” said Jones.

This was echoed by Coxon, who said the deal offered Pensord the best chance of a bright future as S&G has “a robust balance sheet and healthy financial structure”.

“The commercial and periodical print sector has been hit hard over the last three years following two years of pandemic and now a global energy crisis and all the indicators point to a marketplace that will likely contract further in 2023,” he said.

“Despite having a great reputation for both service and quality, we would have found it very difficult, on our own, to survive a fourth consecutive year of crisis.”