Venn Holdings has ordered a further Speedmaster XL75, even though training has barely been completed on the press delivered earlier this month to JDP, previously known as John Dollin Printing, and with the ink only just dry on the acquisition of Culverlands, Winchester. This is just 12 miles away from JDP, the epicentre of the ambitious Venn Holdings empire.
“Culverlands is very similar to John Dollin Printing. It’s unencumbered and with a different work mix to JDP so they are very complementary. We would have done this deal even had it been further away,” says director Anthony Thirlby. “Culverlands is serving a local market which we haven’t been into.”
The deal has been on the cards for more than six months, delayed by due diligence required on buildings and other factors that needed to be sorted even though Culverlands’ directors were keen to complete the deal.
The immediate task now is to integrate Culverlands into the Venn commercial and technology infrastructure. This is not an urgent task: Culverlands has been in the hands of the Edwards family for 36 years and enjoys good loadings.
“We don’t need to be as aggressive as we were at JDP and it will be a softer transition,” Thirlby says.
Nor should it be a challenge, as both companies operate Speedmaster XL75s and are running Tharstern MIS.
“And we have ordered another XL75 for delivery in March,” says Thirlby. “It’s more capacity for JDP and will let us do load balancing between the sites.” Digital print work will head for Whitchurch and both the Indigo 12000 and 100K have been moved alongside each other in the same building.
And Venn has eased a potential bottleneck by taking on five staff from Indigo Press in Southampton after it entered administration last week. “I had not thought that staffing would be the issue we would have when starting this business,” says Thirlby. It can now add shifts to expand capacity.
By the time the next XL75 arrives the company will also have a CX102 B1 press in the group following negotiations to take on the building and remaining assets of failed Push Print business in Bermondsey. And there are two further deals that Thirlby says should complete in the first quarter.
After that Venn Holdings gets to thinking about the next step into other market areas and technologies, including folding cartons, labels and books.
