The Business
Walstead is the leading European commercial printing group with operations in the UK, Spain and Central and Eastern Europe. The Group employs around 2,500 staff at 12 production facilities across six countries. The business mainly operates web-offset presses, which produce promotional flyers and leaflets, catalogues, magazines and newspaper supplements.
Investment thesis
There was great complexity in the initial deal which involved three simultaneous acquisitions and refinancings of Walstead’s UK and Spanish operations, Leykam ‘Let’s Print’ Austrian business and the asset purchase of Polestar’s site in Bicester. The core plan was to use the Group’s scale to drive procurement savings and synergies from the initial acquisitions, drive strong cash flows as a result of those efficiency projects, , and pursue selective M&A acquisitions in Europe in a ‘last man standing ‘ strategy.
