Images & Editions sold to Otter House
Stamford-based publisher, Images & Editions, has been sold to Otter House, having previously gone into administration.
David Pike, joint MD of Otter House, said I&E's assets had been acquired for an undisclosed sum and the staff retained.
The reason for I&E's failure has been put down to the loss of major contracts with high street retailer, Wilkinson and a large export customer in the US, which "hit the revenue profile quite hard."
'We think it's a viable business going forward," said Pike. "We share a lot of customers, particularly in garden centres so there is some overlap there but the product line-up is complimentary."
I&E will continue to trade from its Stamford base with Pike taking over the reigns. "Although Otter House is based in Exeter, by happy coincidence I live in Stamford and will be spending the next few months here while we sort things out," he added.
Full Statement:
The Directors of Otter House Limited 1 are delighted to announce the acquisition on Wednesday 24th March 2010 of the Images and Editions 2 business. We are very excited by this opportunity to progress our plans for the development of our greetings card business. In particular we are pleased to bring on board the extensive selection of everyday and seasonal greetings cards at the heart of the Images and Editions range.
We will be working closely with the Images and Editions sales team and head office staff to ensure a smooth transition for all of the existing I&E customers, many of whom we know through our gift sales and calendar programmes. There are significant synergies between I&E and Otter House, both in terms of the product offering and in terms of the customer base. We will be contacting all of our customers to ensure that they understand the changes that are occurring as we bring the two businesses together.
We are already working on new designs and new line extensions and we are very excited by the product development that is in the pipeline and that will be feeding through to customers in the coming weeks.
Kirsty Guy, Managing Director of Otter House said, “This acquisition is a great fit within our overall strategy to develop Otter House into a leading Gift and Card company. The I&E range brings real strength to our greetings card business and we will be looking to build on this and our Gift range as we move forward over the course of this year and next.”
Jon James Card and Gift Director of Otter House said “This is a very exciting development for Otter House and will be a significant addition to our existing greetings card business. Images & Editions has strong brand recognition and we are looking forward to working with customers on new additions to the range and to build on the strengths and traditions of the Images & Editions brand.”
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