In a major step towards northern expansion of its business, Radstock print and mail company CFH Total Document Management has acquired FST Technologies, a print and mail business based in Livingston and East Kilbride, Scotland.
FST, which has a turnover of £4m, went into administration last week. It has been bought for an undisclosed sum followed a pre-packaged administration and bidding process.
The Scottish company, established in 2000, has made a name for itself providing both online and paper-based document services. Bill McFedries, previously FST’s technical director, will join the CFH board to oversee the integration of the two companies. FST Technologies will retain its trading name in Scotland.
CFH, the provider of Docmail – the market leading hybrid mail service - is a £28m print and mail business employing some 200 staff. It offers litho and digital print, mail enclosing and sortation. It has an access agreement with Royal Mail and, as a licensed postal operator, claims to provide clients with a “supply chain under one roof”.
Managing director Dave Broadway said: “FST provides interesting IT driven solutions to a number of key clients. There is a lot of synergy between our businesses and I am looking forward to exploring the benefits that CFH can bring to the clients of FST and vice versa.
“As we stated some months ago, CFH is currently seeking suitable acquisitions. This is the first of those, and once we have understood and settled FST, we will be looking for further opportunities.”
Joint administrator Geoff Rowley, of specialist restructuring, recovery and insolvency firm FRP Advisory who organised the sale, said: “FST Technologies is an innovative and successful business with a blue chip client base. The business performed extremely well during 2010 and following a number of major client wins, invested in new technology to improve its service.
“Unfortunately the loss of a key client towards the end of that year impacted heavily – the company’s revenues were too low to off-set its increase in overheads and it found itself in financial difficulty.
“Together with key stakeholders, it was decided the best course of action was to enter a formal insolvency process to protect the company’s underlying value and seek to secure a sale of the business immediately as a part of a managed administration.”
