Saturday, December 18, 1999
Multi-Color buys Buriot as step one of expansion
BY MIKE BOYER
The Cincinnati Enquirer
In a move to expand its share of the printed-label business, Multi-Color Corp. has made the first of what it expects will be several acquisitions in the pressure-sensitive label market.
The Cincinnati-based company announced Friday it has acquired Buriot International, a start-up label printer in Clermont County's Union Township. The price was not disclosed.
Multi-Color said it will continue to operate Buriot's 30,000 square-foot plant and includes a 40-inch Komori offset press and an 18-inch Comco flexo press. Buriot's plant employs 25.
“With this acquisition, we obtain state-of-the-art offset and flexographic printing technology that complements our industry-leading gravure printing capabilities,” said Frank Gerace, Multi-Color's president and chief executive officer.
Multi-Color has just over half the $100 million in-mold label market. Buriot, which was launched here in 1996 by the French-based Pierre Buriot S.A., produces pressure-sensitive labels. That is a $6 billion market.
Mr. Gerace said the acquisition would make Multi-Color a “one-stop-shop” for its consumer goods customers such as Procter & Gamble, offering them both label-printing technologies.
And Multi-Color, which has strung together five consecutive profitable quarters after completing a restructuring that eliminated years of losses, plans to make further acquisitions.
“We're definitely looking at several acquisitions in the pressure-sensitive area,” said Dawn Bertsche, vice president and chief financial officer.
Mr. Gerace said the Buriot acquisition will begin making a significant contribution to Multi-Color's revenues and earnings in its fiscal year starting in April.
Multi-Color has teamed with Buriot in a sales and marketing agreement since last year. Multi-Color also announced that Thomas J. Vogt, a printing industry executive who headed National Label Systems in Cincinnati from 1984 to 1993, has joined the company as vice president of specialty labels.
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