Walstead announces acquisition of Leykam Let’s Print

Print Solutions

Walstead Group has announced that it has completed the transaction to acquire Let's Print Holding AG (Leykam Let's Print) and at the same time raised £33.0 million from Rutland Partners LLP, the London based private equity firm, to help facilitate the deal.

With 2015 revenues of €230 million and 1600 employees, Walstead is a leading commercial printing group with operations in the UK and Spain.

Walstead operates under the Wyndeham brand in the UK, and Eurohueco and Rotocobrhi in Spain.

With revenues of €225 million and 730 employees, Leykam Let's Print is a leading commercial printing group in Central and Eastern Europe. The business operates from two locations in Austria, and one each in Slovenia and Czech Republic.

The combined Walstead and Leykam Let's Print group has pro-forma annual revenues of €530 million with more than 2300 staff at 12 production facilities in five countries.

Walstead will operate 45 web offset and four gravure printing presses which together will process over 600,000 tonnes of paper annually to produce promotional flyers and leaflets, catalogues, magazines and newspaper supplements.

Mark Scanlon and Paul Utting will continue to lead the enlarged Walstead Group as chairman and CEO, respectively.

Mark Scanlon said, ‘Leykam Let's Print is an exceptionally well managed, profitable and successful business which has recently received high levels of investment. It will act as our hub for further expansion into Central and Eastern Europe. This was a complex transaction, and we chose Rutland because of its experience of these situations and their strong appetite to back our business. We see plenty of further potential opportunities to progress our strategy in Europe, and I do not believe any other European print group has the ambition or ability to do what we are doing.’