New Direction Partners

Today is a great time to be a seller. It’s also a great time to be a buyer. It may be a little better to be a seller, but there are still plenty of acquisition opportunities for buyers out there.

It sounds like hyperbole, but it isn’t: 2015 was the best year of the century for mergers and acquisitions among printing and packaging companies.

Last week, many of us served a big and elaborate Thanksgiving dinner to family and friends. If the feast went well, it was because we used a special ingredient that made everything taste good even though it didn’t appear in any of the recipes.

Perhaps the biggest piece of news in the printing industry so far this year was the recent announcement by RR Donnelley & Sons of its intention to split itself into three independent, publicly traded businesses.

Some say life is a beach, and if you’re a beachcomber or a professional surfer, that may well be the case. For owners of printing and packaging companies, though, “beach” is a metaphor for life after selling the business.

Not everyone who claims to be a capable M&A advisor proves to be one in practice. Unfortunately, misjudging an advisor’s credentials can prove to be a costly mistake. Our experience points to a number of criteria that a truly qualified advisor should be able to satisfy.

It’s only natural for printers to take pride in their equipment—the tried-and-true machines that helped to make their companies what they are today. But, when the time comes to sell the business, it’s also time to start looking at the machinery through different eyes.

There are two ways to build a printing company’s top line: by increasing share of market, and by increasing share of customer. Successful companies are good at doing both.

As the owner of a printing or a packaging business, you probably think of yourself as a pretty effective negotiator—and you probably are correct. Skill in negotiating is, after all, a hallmark of the leader of any successful business.

It’s a straightforward proposition: if you’re considering the sale of your business, you should hire an investment banker to manage the transaction. The reasons in favor of doing it this way also speak for themselves.