Product category:
Direct Mail Printing and Services
News Release from: Astron Group
Edited by the Printingtalk Editorial
Team on 19 April 2004
Plotting The Astron Growth Voyage
The growth of the Astron Group plots an interesting course across the charts of the printing industry.
The growth of the Astron Group plots an interesting course across the charts of the printing industry So what has the journey that has led to the acquisition of Edotech comprised? Astron was established in 1996 with venture capital backing of ?5m that enabled its new chief executive officer, David Mitchell, to acquire three print-related businesses
This article was originally published on Printingtalk on 10 Mar 2004 at 8.00am (UK)
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The realisation by Mitchell that the communication needs of customers could not continue to be limited to a paper-only medium, but should be based on finding different approaches to customers' information needs, has been the key to Astron's success ever since, it believes.
In 1999, thanks to the organic growth of clients like British Airways and Bristol and West, Astron's turnover climbed to ?30 million.
2000 saw Astron's fortunes continue to rise with the merger with DMS, formerly Her Majesty's Stationery Office (HMSO).
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The merger, together with new contracts from major organisations including Compass, Siemens Business Services and the Inland Revenue, resulted in a turnover of over ?100 million.
The year 2002 saw Astron extend its influence further into Europe with the acquisition of IPLS in Ireland.
That increased Astron's turnover to ?116 million and coincided with winning the O2 and Bank of Ireland contracts.
In 2003, Astron stepped onto the global stage with its acquisition of Hays Transaction Processes, Hays Document Technologies and Hays Marketing Technologies, which have since become Astron BPO and Astron Document Services.
By extending its reach further along the document-management process, Astron believes it became the UK's 4th largest business process outsourcing (BPO) provider.
Prior to that acquisition Astron employed in the region of 3,300 employees worldwide, with an annual turnover of ?180 million.
Sam Ferguson, chief executive officer of Astron's new Document Solutions Division was head hunted to set up Edotech in 1994 as a joint venture between Barclays and IBM.
Initially the objective was to review and reduce the operational costs for Barclays Bank within the production environment through the introduction of new technology and streamlining of business processes.
Between 1994 and 2000 the in-house production operation was re-shaped to create a strong, cost effective commercial business.
That led to Sam Ferguson leading a management buy out from Barclays in May 2000.
Since the MBO, Edotech has believes it had grown to be the largest transactional print and mail supplier, whilst at the same time developing a range of complementary IT services supporting document management and customer communications including: archiving and scanning and work-flow, document design and composition, consultancy, e-delivery and software, with services ranging from in-house to completely outsourced.
Since 2000 Edotech had grown from a ?20m turnover - break even business, to ?75.5m in 2003 with earnings of ?11.5m.
It has also expanded from 180 staff in the UK to 700 staff across the UK and Europe, with operations in France, Spain, Austria, Switzerland as well as seven centres located the UK.
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