Signet LLC is adding to its stable of publishing-industry companies with the acquisition of BindTech Inc., a private trade bindery and book manufacturer in Nashville, Tenn.
The Akron-based private investment firm announced the move in a March 6 news release. BindTech joins Signet’s 2015 acquisitions of Riverside Group, a book binder in Rochester, N.Y., and Publishers Storage and Shipping Corp., a Massachusetts book storage and order fulfillment center with additional sites in Michigan. In addition, Signet has owned Cleveland-based Finish Line Binderies for more than a decade.
Terms of the BindTech deal were not disclosed.
BindTech’s leadership, including president Dale Nichols, will stay in place as will the company’s 100 employees at its 90,000-square-foot plant.
“Signet’s philosophy is to buy, hold and add value to companies through close collaboration with company operatives,” Signet chairman Anthony Manna said in a statement. “BindTech was a family-owned, service-first company that expanded to 100 employees in 30 years of successful growth. They have an impeccable name in this industry and it was important to them, and us, that they remain as BindTech. We look forward to providing them with additional resources and stability to continue that growth.”
The purchase allows Signet to add a broad client list in an industry that is shrinking through attrition and consolidation, the company said. It also lets Signet reinvest capital in facilities, equipment and employees.
“BindTech’s capabilities and capacity will open up new doors for the entire Signet print services group of companies,” said John Helline, CEO of Signet’s group of print-related companies, in a statement. “With facilities in Cleveland, Ypsilanti MI (near Ann Arbor), Rochester NY, Fitchburg MA (just outside of Boston), and now Nashville, our diversification, fulfillment and distribution reach is much larger.”
BindTech’s capabilities include hardcover binding, smyth sewing, wire spiral binding, plastic spiral binding, high-speed perfect binding, embossing and die cutting, among others. Products include coffee table books, Bibles and classic titles.
In January, Signet unveiled a new website and dropped Enterprises from its name. Both moves were part of a broader rebranding campaign to better define the company’s three main platform capabilities: operational portfolio company investment, where it manages acquisitions and venture investments; real estate; and capital finance.
Read the original article on Crain’s Cleveland Business here.
