Tips On Buying A Printing Company

loveandlight

Hi Guys,
I have a couple of friends who are thinking about buying a small printing business that has been running already for about 25 years. The business has three employees - one printer, one designer and one general person/supervisor. My friends are planning on getting the financials checked out by their accountant and if the purchase goes ahead, they plan to learn as much as they can about the business but not the printers job as that is a skilled job. The plan is to also ultimately put an experienced full-time manager in place to run it for them. They don't know anything at all about running a printing business although they are very business minded and good with money. Is there anything they should be aware of or is this the kind of business that they should stay away from? They are a lovely couple and have had a lot of bad luck these past ten years so I would love to be able to offer them some advice as they have been great friends to me. Any info you can give me for them would be great! Thanks.

fguk

I have a couple of printers as clients, and it doesnt look particularly rosey from their perspective. The small printers just cant compete, and are dropping like flies. One of them has given up being a printer, and is concentrating purely on design.

Now this is only my limited experience, in my area, but it doesnt look to be a great investment at the moment.

greyteam1959

Has the business been run by an owner / operator or by a manager before ????
This would have a strong influence on the profitability of the business and I would be extremely careful with the financial side of 'putting in a manager'.
Personally having run my own business for 25 years I would put my money in the bank and stack shelves in Sainsburys / Tesco etc

linzibean

The printing industry in this country is getting harder and harder to compete in, what with more and more companies going to Spain, Poland and even India / China for anything over than small run, privately printed books etc. I would avoid like that plague unless they have a VERY strong customer base that you can almost guarantee to keep.