Trevor Hansen
Editor’s Note: Thomas Printworks is one of a small handful of companies in the reprographics space that has been regularly acquiring other reprographics firms. We wrote about their growth – they now have 26 locations -- when they acquired Dynamic Reprographics in 2020 (click here to read about that) and since they acquired Triangle Reprographics last month, we figured it was time to catch up with them and see how things are going. This conversation between IRgA Managing Director Ed Avis and Trevor Hansen, chief revenue officer for Thomas Printworks, occurred August 13.
Avis: COVID happened immediately after you acquired Dynamic Reprographics. How did that acquisition play out?
Hansen: We barely got started with it when COVID hit. Their building was being sold, so we moved those operations and merged them into our existing operation. It was a nice tuck-in business. So I think all things considered it still worked out well. We got some new clients and some new team members, which considering the hiring challenges that existed after COVID, it was nice to have some of those additional folks.
A lot of reprographics firms found new work during COVID, doing COVID-related signage and that kind of stuff. Was that the case with Thomas?
We found a lot of new opportunities, gained new clients. At some point during COVID a lot companies, especially larger organizations, were looking to change things up because of some of the supply chain issues and other things. And then obviously with inflation they were looking for cost efficiencies. So we probably bid on and participated in more RFPs during that time than any in my memory.
Wow, that's interesting. And the RFPs were for plan printing or what?
Very little of it was construction related. It was all restaurant retail, home services companies that were having to redefine themselves and evolve. You had a lot of fine dining and casual dining restaurants that were now doing curbside pickup and those types of things. So a lot of signage demands and that type of stuff.
Do you have a feel for approximately what portion of your business is signage these days versus traditional reprographics?
So it's a little hard to pull out because we still do a lot of work for those traditional construction and architecture firms, but a lot of that work has evolved so as planned printing and those types of things have decreased over time, we've replaced a lot of that with barrier signage and site signage and even wall coverings and murals and window films. So we are becoming more of a subcontractor on the projects that traditionally we were printing plans and specs for -- now were involved at different levels in those processes.
Let’s talk about the Triangle acquisition. Are all the staff staying or is there going to be some combining of staffs?
So there was some combining, but the majority of the staff is staying.
How about [former owner] Reg Garner? Is he staying?
Reg is retired and going off to do what he enjoys most.
Good for him. Now, when you acquire, do you rebrand?
Yes, the interior signage has already been replaced and the exterior signage still says Triangle, but typically in these acquisitions week one is “Triangle, now Thomas Print Works.” Week two or three is “Thomas Print works, formerly Triangle,” and then a few weeks later it's Thomas Printworks.
So it's a pretty quick move then. What else do you do to integrate successfully new acquisitions?
During that first week we work with the local team, try to help them feel comfortable and meet all the people. I think change is hard for people and for most of the people involved in an acquisition, it's a surprise to them that day that it happens. And so for the average employee, it's unnerving.
Triangle has had a great business for many years. They have a lot of very long-term employees and so we help the employees [of the acquired firm] feel like they're part of a new team and a new family. That's an important part of it. I'm actually back in Orlando right now for the week, spending time with the folks here and just answering questions.
The internal transition into our systems and those things typically takes longer. So we try not to disrupt too much of what's going on and kind of slowly work all those things out.
Do you meet with the client base to reassure them?
We provide the sales team with the new marketing collateral, some messaging about the acquisition. And in cases of some large key accounts, we set up time and I go out with the sales rep and we meet with them and just make introductions and build those relationships.
Were there any things at Triangle that Thomas is learning from or taking back and saying, “Wow, we can do this at all of our locations”?
Yeah, I think there are some processes and things that they do that are unique and interesting that I think can help us and vice versa. In Orlando we have fabric and SEG [silicone-edge graphic] capabilities that they didn't have previously and they were outsourcing. So we'll be able to bring in all of that work. They have offset work that they've been outsourcing that we'll be able to bring in-house through our Houston facility. And then there's direct mail opportunities and our visual logistics solution for marketing fulfillment and web-to-print that they don't currently have. There are a lot of opportunities with their existing clients for that as well.
Any surprises with the Triangle acquisition? Anything you didn't expect?
Not really. I mean we've done a fair amount of acquisitions over the years and there are always little things that come up, but Reg and his team were great to work with through the process and they've got a great team here that has helped make that process easy.
How do you decide who to acquire?
Well, there are a couple of factors. Some of it's around geographic location and how [the acquired company] complements our existing business. One of the big benefits of an acquisition is you immediately get well-trained, qualified people in the process. That's part of the decision process.
The decision is also driven around our strategic focus on where we want to grow. The visual logistics part of our business is a huge growth side of our business, and then the branded environment side. Triangle brought a lot of strength to the branded environments. A lot of good clients in that space. A lot of well-known brands that they worked with and a lot of expertise that marries well with what we're doing.
And then [if the acquisition target] is outside of our geography, it's really driven around either adding some capability that we need or just geographic presence. For example, if one of our clients is a national brand that has locations all over the country, being able to produce something nearer to them reduces shipping costs and other things. So that would be a strategic reason to make an acquisition in a city or state that we don't currently have a presence in.
Are there some secrets to making acquisitions that you can share?
The people part of it is probably the most satisfying but also the hardest. Helping people feel like they're part of the new organization and building a culture that incorporates them. Five years from now, you don’t want the old company’s process and culture still going on inside of the organization.
That's part of why we rebrand quickly and spend a lot of time with the team, answering questions, helping them feel comfortable, helping empower them to be able to make decisions and to get back to work and feel like they belong and they're part of something even better than what they were part of before, that bringing those two companies together helped make everything better.