GRAND RAPIDS, Mich., Nov. 6, 2017 /PRNewswire/ — Blackford Capital is excited to announce the acquisition of Kingsport Book. Kingsport Book is the second company in the book printing industry to be acquired by Printing Consolidation Company—a Blackford Capital portfolio company—which also owns Dickinson.

Kingsport Book has developed a strong reputation as a high-end book finishing and fulfillment company, located in Church Hill, Tennessee. In their 120,000-sq. ft. facility, they have developed an equipment platform that can flexibly service deluxe, trade, and soft cover books at quantities ranging from one to a million. “The addition of Kingsport Book is in direct response to the needs of our customers. The ability to manufacture deluxe books domestically with very short turn times, is one of the core requests we have heard from our customers base,” said Aaron Day, CEO of Printing Consolidation Company (PCC) and Dickinson. “Kingsport Book has built a reputation over the last 13 years as the industry leader in deluxe book production and we could not be happier to add them to our family,” said Steve Parker, Chairman of the PCC.

Fred Cooper, CEO of Kingsport Book, and CFO Rick Jennings will stay on to lead operations at Kingsport Book. PCC plans to expand the capabilities of this operation and continue to drive innovation in the book industry. “I am thrilled to expand, and formalize, the longstanding relationship between Dickinson and Kingsport. I know our clients will benefit more now that we have a fully integrated company that plans to continue to grow and add new solutions,” said Cooper. “I am very excited to share with our clients and prospects our vertically integrated services created from the combination of two great companies and the new equipment we are installing,” said Jennings.

“As we continue to grow PCC, we are focused on the companies that have industry leading talent and are dedicated to exceeding the needs of their customers. It is hard to find a group of employees more dedicated to servicing the deluxe book market than the team at Kingsport Book,” said James Cook, Associate at Blackford Capital.

As a compliment to their full-service suite of deluxe book finishing, Kingsport Book has also developed a fulfillment and distribution division that has been rapidly growing in recent years, and has the ability to expand significantly with this acquisition. As demand increases for same day and next day delivery, Kingsport Book is strategically located nearby major hubs for FedEx and UPS that will enable them to provide timely distribution.

For more information on Kingsport Book go to dickinsonpress.com and click on the link to Kingsport Book.

About Blackford Capital

Blackford Capital is a private equity firm based in Grand Rapids, Michigan, that acquires, manages and builds family-owned, lower middle-market manufacturing, distribution, and service companies. Founded by Martin Stein, the 2016 M&A Advisor Private Equity Professional of the Year, Blackford currently has 11 portfolio companies located across the United States and has been recognized with numerous awards, including the M&A Advisor Deal of the Year in 2015 and as one of America’s fastest growing private companies by Inc. 5000 in 2016 and 2017. For more information, visit www.blackfordcapital.com.

About Dickinson

Founded in 1884, Dickinson is a leading full-service book manufacturer and printing service provider offering a variety of capabilities including sheet-fed lithographic printing, heat-set web lithographic printing, digital printing, and services such as warehouse and fulfillment services, and perfect binding. The company produces various books and printed materials such as Bibles, dictionaries, reference books, children’s books, and a variety of other printed literature for the religious, business, education, and other end markets. For more information, visit www.dickinsonpress.com.

Contact:
Eric Kamstra
Blackford Capital
616.233.3160
ekamstra@blackfordcapital.com

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SOURCE Blackford Capital