Service Point USA’s assets purchased by The Color Company. (And, The Color Company has also purchased the assets of CFI.)

I received an e-mail, this morning, from Robert Feld of The Color Company, and he provided me a copy of the Press Release you’ll read below.

So, The Color Company has, in fact, purchased the assets of Service Point USA, Inc.  And, The Color Company has also purchased CFI (Chris Fowler International), the “financial printing” part of SP’s business. 

COLOR COMPANY LIVES UP TO THE ROOTS OF THE NAME

Press Release, 29th November 2013

It is announced today that Color Company 1 Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of the Color Company (TM) Limited domiciled in the UK has acquired the entire assets of Servicepoint US Inc. (“Spusa”) and CFI Inc. (“CFI”) from the syndicate of bank lenders to Service Point SA under the aegis of Ernst and Young administrators to GPP Capital PLC.

Spusa and CFI ceased certain operations on Friday 8th November 2013. Before closing they operated 7 locations in the Philadelphia to Boston corridor offering printing, finishing, wide format and digital reprographics as well as serving nationwide many architectural and construction businesses through their On Site Services division.

Elgin Loane, Managing Director commented “In London our brand has been spelt the American way Color instead of Colour for years so the addition of this acquisition is indeed heartily welcome. Many of our London based clients have offices on the US Eastern sea board so the synergy is self-evident. Spusa and CFI were managed at a distance from Barcelona but our management team will be far more supportive by being hands on.”

He added “the task ahead of us is to re-establish the business and this we have already started at New Haven CT where the business has reopened where the previous staff have re-joined and started work immediately on re-engaging with their clients. This process will continue in the other US major cities.”

Enquiries:-

Robert Feld


Tel: +44 208 900 4220

Cell:+44 7730 646480

Color Company 1 Inc.

85 Willow St,
New Haven, CT 06511, United States

Color Company

First Floor

One Lindsey Street

Smithfield

City of London EC1A 9HP

On a related note, we received this comment, on November 27^th, from Greig Fairclough of The Color Company:

“Your article speculates we could be working with a Kevin Eyers which is untrue.”

How much did Service Point Solutions pay for Service Point USA?

First, let me point out that, when Service Point USA was purchased by Service Point Solutions (SPS), SPS was known as Gruppo Picking Pack.  And, back then, SP USA was known as Charrette.  And, at the time the purchase was completed, Charrette operated two different business segments, supplies (Charrette) and reprographics services (Charrette ProGraphics).

I just updated a post I put up a couple of weeks ago (post was on Nov 13^th).

The articles in that post reveal a) that SPS (then called GPP) paid $107 mil (USD) for all of Charrette, and, later on, b) that SPS sold off the Charrette (supplies) business for 21 Mil Euros.  Back in 2002, the USD / Euro exchange rate was around $1.00 (USD:EUR).  

So, based on that exchange rate, SPS received around $21 mil USD for the Charrette supplies business it sold off.

By process of elimination, that “kinda means” that SPS paid $86 mil (USD) for the Charrette ProGraphics business (which was later renamed SP USA.)

If the number I’ve arrived at is even close to the price that was actually paid, it adds – OMG - to the stunning turn of events that resulted in the abrupt shut down of SP USA.

Here’s a link to the previous post I just updated:

http://reprographics.blogspot.com/2013/11/three-articles-about-charrette-from.html

Flashback – how Chris Fowler International (CFI) became part of Service Point Solutions

For those of you who were not aware of this:

Livingstone Inks Deal for Chris Fowler International

July 2008

Livingstone Partners’ Industrial team has completed the successful sale of global financial print services group, Chris Fowler International (CFI), to Spanish-owned document, print and information management company Service Point Solutions. Leveraging its teams in London and Madrid, Livingstone advised the management and shareholders of CFI. 



Headquartered in the UK and with wholly owned subsidiaries in Hong Kong and New Jersey, USA, CFI specializes in high quality, fast turnaround financial research printing services to blue chip organizations in major financial centres across the UK, European, US and Asia.



Service Point Solutions (SPS) will profit from CFl’s expertise in financial printing to add to its portfolio of existing products, as well as more exposure and contacts within the large investment banks – a market they are not selling into currently.



Kevin Eyers, MD at CFI, said of the deal: “Service Point is an excellent fit to carry on the name and services we have worked hard to build at Chris Fowler.”



SPS provides digital reprographics and document management services for the infrastructure, industrial, public and services sectors. It employs over 3,000 people across the eight countries including the UK, US, Spain, France, Germany, Holland, Belgium and Norway. The acquisition will also strengthen SPS’ presence in the Asian market.



Phillip McCreanor, head of the Industrial team at Livingstone London commented: “Financial printing fits well into SPS’ existing business offering. Its strong management team will ensure that CFI’s services are integrated properly into the business, allowing it to grow and contribute to the enlarged group’s ongoing success.”

Has THE COLOR COMPANY made a deal to acquire Service Point USA’s assets (perhaps some, maybe all)? UPDATED Nov 27

The Color Company (TCC), a graphic imaging services enterprise based in the U.K., with approximately 10 locations in the U.K. (primarily in London) and with one location in NYC, is rumored to have inked a deal to acquire SP USA’s accounts receivable and SP USA’s customer contracts.

If this is true, this will be an interesting story to follow. 

When I visited TCC’s web-site, I did not see any indication that TCC offers A/E/C reprographics services or OnSite (FM) services, and both of those segments were reportedly the largest revenue drivers in SP USA’s business.

Someone has also indicated that Kevin Eyers, the former Managing Director of SP USA, is involved with TCC, but, at this point, that’s simply speculation.  (if this is true, that would be really, really interesting!)

UPDATE, Weds, Nov 27, 7:00 am:

After we put up the above post, we sent off an e-mail to The Color Company.  Below, you'll see the e-mail we sent AND the response we received:

THE EMAIL I SENT TO THE COLOR COMPANY:

From: joel salus [mailto:joel.salus@mac.com]

Sent: 26 November 2013 14:51

To: New York

Subject: Service Point USA

Hi,

I'm an industry blogger, my blog is located at http://reprographics.blogspot.com

I was told this morning - by someone else in my industry in the U.S. - that The Color Company has purchased the assets of Service Point USA.

Is that true?

Thanks,

Joel Salus

THE RESPONSE I RECEIVED FROM THE COLOR COMPANY

From: Greig Fairclough

Subject: RE: Service Point USA

Date: November 27, 2013 3:39:21 AM EST

To: joel salus , New York

Dear Joel,

Thank you for your mail.

We have no comment to make at this time.

Your article speculates we could be working with a Kevin Eyers which is untrue.

We also do know AEC reprographics and on site and near site print facilities for our clients being the leading reprographics company in Central London.

Kind Regards,

The Color Company