PARAGON HAS BOUGHT A a French print business, which until this summer traded as RR Donnelley SAS as a direct mail producer from a factory at Cosne sur Loire, little more than an hour south of Paris.
The €14 million business will now trade as Paragon marketing Solutions SAS. It has offices in Belgium, France and the UK and 116 staff that have transferred to Paragon. RR Donnelley announced plans to sell or close the business in May, eventually striking a deal with a French business which failed to stick.
PARAGON HAS STEPPED IN TO merge the business within its Paragon Marketing Solutions arm, where European sales director Eamonn Burke says: “This acquisition marks very exciting times for the Paragon Group. With the addition of an innovative and established direct mail division, coupled with Paragon’s portfolio of complementary marketing services, we have a strong offering for brands and businesses of all sizes”.
There will be few changes in the short term, but Paragon has already pledged to invest. It will spend €3-5 million to create a centre of excellence for direct mail at the plant, handling personalised direct mail as well as medium and long run campaigns. The first slice of this, some €1.5 million, will come through in the new year.
AT THE SAME TIME THE UK based company plans to provide the existing customers in retail, charities and luxury brands access to other group services, including intelligent marketing solutions. Paragon operates a €185 million business across Europe with 12 manufacturing operations. Its most recent acquisition in the summer was on UK company Horner Brothers, Rotherham.
One of the these, trading at Paragon Transaction, is also located in Cosne sir Loire. Under RR Donnelley, the business, previously Moore Response Marketing, had seen sales shrink from €31 million in 2004 to its current level with mounting losses. Paragon will be expecting to restore better fortunes to the operation.
