St. Ives Completes Deal To Buy Avanti Case-Hoyt

LONDON—St. Ives plc, a printer of publications, catalogs, and commercial products with U.S. operations in Cleveland and Hollywood, Fla., has acquired Avanti Case-Hoyt of Miami for $42 million in cash. Overseas, St. Ives operates facilities in England, Germany, Holland, Japan, and Wales.

Avanti Case-Hoyt, which posted sales of $148 million last year, operates two manufacturing facilities, in Rochester, N.Y. and in Miami. The company specializes in printing annual reports, high-quality brochures, and catalogs for the retail, cruise line, commercial, and automotive markets; it also offers design, photographic, and other creative services.

For the most recently completed fiscal year, Avanti Case-Hoyt's turnover and profit before tax (after adding back certain expenses that are not expected to continue following the acquisition) amounted to $109.2 million and $7.2 million, respectively.

The purchase is expected to almost double the annual sales of the St. Ives U.S. division, from $115 million to $230 million.

"The merging of these two companies increases our ability to better serve our customers from multiple state-of-the-art manufacturing facilities," explains Wayne R. Angstrom, president and chief executive of the U.S. division of St. Ives. "We can now offer services ranging from creative through complete personalization and demographic distribution of our printed products. These ISO 9000-certified facilities are now merged to provide the best service available to our customers."

Joe Arriola, chairman of Avanti Case-Hoyt, will continue to assist the U.S. division; Gene Martinez continues as president and Robert Walters as chief operating officer of Avanti Case-Hoyt.

Jeanne M. Caruana continues as the U.S. Division's chief financial officer. Gary Davis and Mike Stought will remain as the general managers of St. Ives Cleveland and St. Ives Hollywood, respectively.