The chief executive of Garnett Dickinson in Rotherham has led a management buy-out of its subsidiary Acorn Web Offset, following a restructure.
Nick Alexander, along with Acorn’s general manager, Mark Roberts and sales manager, Matthew Carry purchased the printing firm for an undisclosed sum. Following the deal, Alexander stood down from the Garnett Dickinson board, although he will retain a shareholding.
Acorn, which has a turnover of around £15m, was originally part of the Trader Media Group, before family-owned Garnett Dickinson acquired it three and a half years ago.
While Acorn specialises in short-run magazines and catalogues – of which it publishes over 200 every month, Garnett Dickinson is thought to be focusing more on multichannel marketing and in particular digital production. Joel Dickinson, the group’s former director of digital replaces Alexander as CEO.
“This is a friendly buyout that suits every party. Acorn is a great business, customers love it and it is really well-positioned in its marketplaces. It’s a fantastic opportunity and I’m very excited about it,” Alexander told PrintWeek.
Acorn Web Offset employs 100 staff at its base in Normanton, West Yorkshire. The company prints titles including The Yorkshire Dalesman and Big Issue in the North, it also did the official 64 page TeamGB football programme for London 2012.
