Onlineprinters to Acquire Leading UK Online Printer Solopress
Investment in strongly growing UK market
Onlineprinters, one of Europe's largest B2B online printing companies, is about to acquire Solopress, a leading player in the UK online printing market. Solopress was founded in 2004 and has grown significantly in recent years reaching 225 employees in 2016. With “print delivered tomorrow” Solopress is uniquely positioned to fulfil customer demand for speed and quality. Solopress’ founders Aron Priest and Andy Smith will continue to lead Solopress as Managing Directors and become shareholders of Onlineprinters Group. Last year Bregal Unternehmerkapital became the new majority shareholder of Onlineprinters partnering with Project A and founder Walter Meyer to lead the company to its next phase of growth
The parties involved in the acquisition have agreed not to disclose details of the transaction.
Onlineprinters was one of the First Movers in online printing, and in 2016 produced over 2.1 billion printed items. Having expanded its clientele by 100,000 new customers in 2016, the company welcomed its 600,000th customer in January 2017 and currently has more than 650 employees. Onlineprinters CEO Dr. Michael Fries commented about the deal, “We are glad that Solopress with its premier position in the UK market will become part of the Onlineprinters Group. The experience of the founders Aron Priest and Andy Smith will be instrumental in developing our UK business and helping to further develop Onlineprinters as a European leader in online printing.”
“With Onlineprinters we have found a partner who is one of the pre-eminent international players within the European online printing sector. The Onlineprinters Group provides the right framework to continue the successful development of Solopress,” says Solopress’ Co-Founder Aron Priest.
Growth strategy
The UK is one of the major European printing markets which has recently begun to accelerate in the transition to online print. “With Solopress we have a partner with a well established brand in the UK, a broad customer base, knowledge of the market and an efficient production facility, with high quality standards. The acquisition of Solopress strengthens the market position of Onlineprinters as one of Europe’s Top-5 online print providers,” explains Dr. Michael Fries.
Award winning quality and service
Solopress has grown year-on-year and won seven prestigious awards, including 'Business of the Year' and 'Business to Business of the Year'. Onlineprinters was awarded for excellent customer service several times in the past few years and has earned many commendations by renowned media outlets.
About Solopress
Solopress is one of the UKs largest independent online printers, offering a wide range of business related printed products, including business cards, leaflets, brochures, posters and banners. With the maxim “Print Delivered Tomorrow” the company ships over 85% of its print jobs within 24 hours of being ordered. Last year alone Solopress produced over 300,000 online orders, and hit the 1,000,000th order milestone in October 2016. Within Solopress’ two sites covering more than 63,000 sq ft. the company boasts an impressive plant list including; 7 Heidelberg Speedmasters, 5 Xerox iGens and 9 Polar guillotines. These machines combined with an internally developed workflow and superb customer service (rated Excellent on Trustpilot with over 8,500 reviews) have seen Solopress achieve double digit growth for twelve consecutive years.
Press contact:Patrick Piecha
Head of Press & Public Relations
press@onlineprinters.com
Tel.: +49 9161 6209807