Friday, February 10, 2012

Is OCE going to soon be exiting the plain-bond-paper media business in the U.S.?

A few minutes ago, I received an e-mail from someone (who wishes to remain anonymous), who is connected to the large-format paper business. Here’s what was said in that e-mail:

Joel –

Precision Paper is going to sell media under the OCE label and OCE is OUT of the paper media business. This is an imminent happening. I would appreciate my name not be referenced as a source, but you should have other avenues to verify this. This means: National Azon, Precision Paper, Converting Solutions, Inc., Dietzgen and Oce all come under one umbrella and all under control of one majority owner.

Regards

Can anyone out there verify this news? If it’s true, it’s a very interesting development, for sure.

5 comments:

  1. I've heard this from several sources myself. We do know that the recent sale of Dietzgen's inventory and assets to Precision would warrant something as a development like this.

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  2. I just received an e-mail from someone who is with one of the companies mentioned (- mentioned in the body of the e-mail that was embedded in the original post -), and, in today's e-mail, the person (who wishes to remain anonymous) said this:

    a) Azon has nothing to do with Precision Paper
    b) and, certainly, OCE is not getting out of the paper business

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  3. From an e-mail from another person who wishes to remain anonymous:

    "Noticed on your blog, someone told you Azon and Precision had no connection, which isn't so. One continuing thread in National Azon, Precision Paper and Converting Solutions, Inc (which bought Oce's assets in March of 09 and has converted all of Oce's wide format paper media since that time) is the name of Robert (Bob) Anderson (who has controlling interest in National and Precision). Actually, I thought that connection was known in most repro circles. Methinks, someone protests too vociferously, but my initial information to you is still viable. And of course, let me remain nameless."

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  4. Just a couple of comments: Over the years I was in the reprographics business, our companies did business with (purchased paper from) Azon, National, OCE and Precision. Personally, I found their service to be excellent and prices to be quite reasonable. Years ago, I had the opportunity to meet Bob Anderson (he took our team out to dinner in Las Vegas), and I found Bob to be a very upstanding guy, good to do business with, no complaints here. One of my all-time-favorite "paper" sales guys is Mike Ahearn, Azon/National; you'd be hard pressed to find a nicer guy to do business with. On the paper side of things, most responsive sales rep I ever had the pleasure of dealing with. And, inasmuch as our last company was based in Tampa, I had the opportunity to meet Darren (Precision Paper) several times (along with Clint), and Precision Paper was our primary paper vendor - great service, decent prices.

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  5. I received the following in an e-mail sent to me today. I received this comment from an industry veteran, who I've known for almost 30 years and who is one of the reprographics industry's leading players.

    "Joel - Thanks for the call back Friday - sorry I missed you. I confirmed Oce's position regarding the report of their being "out of the paper media business" as false. Just wanted to pass along. Best regards."

    ReplyDelete