Southern Graphic Systems-Canada, Co. (“SGS
Canada”), a wholly owned subsidiary of SGS
International, Inc. (“SGS”),
a global leader in the digital imaging and communications industry, has
announced that it has acquired Backwell Design Inc. and its affiliate
Gemini Graphics Imaging Inc., established suppliers of package design,
production artwork and packaging pre-press services located in London,
Ontario, Canada.
For over 20 years, Backwell Design Inc. (“Backwell”)
has been supplying Labatt Inbev North America and other local customers
with strategic creative design and production artwork services. Backwell
supplies the majority of Labatt Inbev North America’s
packaging design and artwork services for many of their major brands
including Labatt Blue, Kokanee, Keiths and Budweiser for the Canadian
market. Backwell also services Labatt Inbev North America’s
international and US business for such well known global brands as
Stella Artois. Backwell and Gemini Imaging Inc. (“Gemini”)
operate from the same London, Ontario location. Gemini provides
packaging prepress services, which support Backwell’s
design and artwork business to provide a complete “strategy
to plate” solution for Labatt Inbev North
America.
“Backwell has a longstanding relationship
with Labatt Inbev North America and has worked with SGS for many years.
Our partnership and the integration of our two businesses will deliver a
more powerful integrated model to Labatt Inbev North America,”
said Paul Naccarato, Senior Vice President of SGS Canada. He went on to
say, “Labatt Inbev North America endorses and
supports this acquisition and they are excited about these two companies
coming together to increase the depth of services that Labatt Inbev will
require today and in the future.”
Backwell and Gemini will continue to operate out of the London, Ontario
location. This will complement SGS’s
Brampton, Ontario facility, which receives finished artwork from London
to produce printing plates and printing cylinders for many of Labatt
Inbev’s packaging and label suppliers. “SGS’s
acquisition of Backwell and Gemini will be positive for our employees
and our valued customer,” said Duke Backwell,
owner of Backwell and Gemini. “The benefit I
see for our clients is the ability to deliver an integrated graphics
solution from design to print,” offered Mr.
Backwell. He went on to say “this marriage
will offer our employees opportunities with a large global company like
SGS.”
SGS offers a full spectrum of innovative digital solutions that
streamline the capture, management, execution and distribution of
graphics information. SGS’s clients include
many of the world’s preeminent consumer
products companies, retail merchants, and the printers that support
them. SGS’s value proposition includes a
broad creative service offering built on the foundation of executing
from design to print.
SGS focuses on the domestic and international supply chain, helping
clients build extraordinary new brands while growing existing brands. SGS’s
industry leading technology facilitates the quest for reduced time to
market and improved cost.
The suite of global services includes: color management, project
management, digital asset management and remote approval/collaboration.
SGS is a portfolio company of Court Square Capital Partners (formerly
Citigroup Venture Capital), located in New York, NY.
Should you have any questions regarding this release, please contact
Luca Naccarato, Executive Vice President of Southern Graphic Systems,
Inc. at 502-637-5443.
This press release contains forward-looking information. These
statements reflect management’s expectations,
estimates, and assumptions, based on information available at the time
of the statement. Forward-looking statements include, but are not
limited to, statements regarding future events, plans, goals,
objectives, and expectations. The words “anticipate,”
“believe,” “estimate,”
“expect,” “plan,”
“intend,” “likely,”
“will,” “should,”
and similar expressions are intended to identify forward-looking
statements. Forward-looking statements are not guarantees of
future performance and involve risks, uncertainties and other factors,
which may cause our actual results, performance or achievements to be
materially different from any future results, performance, or
achievements expressed or implied by those statements. Factors
that could cause actual results to differ materially from those in the
forward-looking statements include: loss of existing customers
and/or failure to acquire new customers; graphic products industry
trends, including greater than anticipated pricing pressures, product
and service rates and factors affecting supply and demand; and our
ability to execute our business plan, including the costs of and ability
to integrate acquisitions; as well as other risk factors summarized in
SGS International, Inc.’s filings with the
Securities and Exchange Commission. We undertake no obligation to
publicly update or revise any forward-looking statements to reflect
changed assumptions, the occurrence of anticipated or unanticipated
events, or changes to future results over time.
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