Denmark: Stibo merges with German printing company

The Danish Stibo Complete Group merges with the German printing group Eversfrank Gruppe. The goal is to become the leading graphic supermarket in Northern Europe within the next few years. This is reported in a press release.

This is good news to customers in Northern Europe who buy graphic products. Together, the two companies can offer services within the entire graphic value chain: from development and design, financing through advertising sales, production, sourcing and distribution to the installation of physical and digital graphic solutions for inventory and logistics services, the parties write in the press release.

The two companies are equally large, and together their annual turnover is Mio. EUR 330, they have +1,000 employees and production sites in Scandinavia and Germany.

“The two businesses fit well together. There are obvious synergies and possibilities for us to win new orders and enjoy economy of scale. And there are many business opportunities today and in future – also although the printing market is gradually declining. In Scandinavia, our market share is below 10% today, and in Germany, the Eversfrank Gruppe has a market share of below 5%”, Søren Henriksen, CEO of Stibo Complete Group and Philipp Lerchner from Eversfrank Gruppe, who will become Executive Vice President in the new set-up, explain.

The merger rests on a strong foundation. We have two companies, which have been competitors for many years. Both parties enter into the merger with mutual trust and respect and a clear common plan for the future.
After the merger, where the Stibo Foundation becomes the principal shareholder, a joint goal will be pursued to become the leading graphic supermarket in Northern Europe.

For many years, the Stibo Complete Group has been consolidating and today, the company is Scandinavia’s largest graphic supermarket, where the Eversfrank Gruppe in recent years successfully and determinedly has made a turnaround of their entire printing business and today is among the very strong players in Germany.

The Eversfrank Gruppe will use their strong name and network to create growth at the big German market and in Benelux, where the full version of the graphic market shows growth potential. In Scandinavia, there are still very good possibilities for winning market shares under the brand Stibo Complete and the subsidiary GigantPrint – both in respect of digital and physical printing and distribution solutions.

The merger has long-term business perspectives supported by a strong foundation ownership at Stibo and the Evers family, who will remain a long-term investor.

“Owing to the merger, our position is stronger than ever. We have modern production platforms, which supplement each other, we are close to our primary markets and not least we have more than 1,000 skilled and dedicated employees who deliver high quality services at competitive prices. Due to the merger, we are even better positioned for the future”, Søren Henriksen and Philipp Lerchner say.

Due to formalities, the German competition authorities must now approve the merger. The approval process may take about a month.