Page 10 - Print21 March-April 2022

Leading Article
Time to buy ... and sell
Arriving at the market value of a printing business should be straightforward, but only if you take out the human equation. Buying and selling a business is more than simply totting up the figures and arriving at a dollars and cents price. There’s more than money involved when achievement and belief are on the line.
I’ve been buying my printing from Brian and Geraldine Stevens at CopyDocs for more than a decade. These days I don’t require too much print since I sold
the magazine business, but last month I went down to their place in William Street in Sydney’s East to get a poster printed. Although the pavement outside was significantly emptier than usual, without the troops of office workers on their morning march into the city, Brian and Geraldine were in their shop, open for business, as they’ve been for the past 15 years. (See page 18). Glad to have found them still there, I asked how the plans were going to sell the business and retire to the Sunshine Coast.
On some level it’s all going to plan. There have been a few good bids, although nothing has yet come to fruition. The business is debt-free, trade is starting to pick up, and importantly, both of them are in good health, able to continue as long as they want.
On the other hand, the pandemic has knocked them for six, same as many others. Business is still down, and the surrounding offices are practically empty. While they’re happy to stay around to assist whoever buys the business, they’d really like to get going onto the next stage of their lives.
It made me reflect that while we all like to buy at the bottom and sell at the top of the cycle, it’s not always possible. Other plans
get in the way. Sometimes you just have to meet the market, now.
Later, I picked up the phone to Richard Rasmussen, my go-to printing industry financial brain, to ask about the prospects of selling a printing business in this almost- post pandemic period. (See page 16). Is there any demand?
“It made me reflect that while we all like to buy at the bottom and sell at the top of the cycle, it’s not always possible.”
He tells me there is, mostly from established printers that have been unable to grow during the pandemic. While the process of arriving at a valuation is the same, he’s included some strategies to discover the difference in turnover between the lockdown time and normal trade. Identifying who the clients are will also give a better understanding of underlying value: entertainment, travel and event printing have taken a severe battering, but most
are likely to come back. He emphasises the importance of identifying who will want the business and why, ie the type of buyer.
This can be difficult at a time when the ‘print
is dead’ libel is widespread. It’s a falsehood that can infect all levels of the industry, showing
up in surprising places. A few days later, I interviewed Matthew Penfold, executive chairman, Kwik Kopy, who strongly refuted the suggestion, insofar as it referred to his franchise. He identified it as one of the reasons he and his family have stepped back into the day-to-day management of their business. Belief is the parent of enthusiasm and energy, qualities he believes makes for a successful Kwik Kopy franchisee. He tells me 36 per cent of the stores continue to grow strongly, even during the pandemic. Print is far from dead. He plans to expand the number of stores by 50 per cent over the next few years.
Brian and Geraldine Stevens also believe
in the intrinsic value of their business. They can see the potential, even as they will not
be diving back in at this stage of their lives. It’s a matter of timing. Geraldine believes the right buyer is a younger married couple, or entrepreneur, able to see the opportunities with new eyes and enthusiasm. Brian seems to be content to wait it out for the right moment.
Either way, for the right buyer, it’s a little gem of a print business. 21
Patrick Howard
— Editor-at-large
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