Vistaprint buys Pixartprinting

Pixartprinting, a web-to-print specialist catering to professional operators in Italy and amongst the five most important in Europe, has been acquired by Vistaprint for a value of 127 million EUR (174 million USD).

Vistaprint serves more than 16 million small businesses and consumers each year with a range of products and services that help to strengthen their business via an online business model.

Vistaprint has now taken control of a 97 percent stake of Pixartprinting, with three percent remaining in the hands of Matteo Rigamonti, Pixartprinting’s founder. It is said to be the largest transaction to date in this area in Europe.

Pixartprinting specializes in providing online printing services for small format work, such as labels, stickers, magazines, leaflets and more, as well as packaging and large format work.

Pixartprinting operates and produces from its headquarters in Quarto D'Altino, Venice, which is spread over an area of 18,000 sq m. 24/7 service is provided to more than 100,000 active customers in Europe, with production of about 5,000 products each day.

Pixartprinting recently detailed how it has expanded its label portfolio after reporting growing interest and rapid success since launching a dedicated label printing operation in 2012. 

Rigamonti said: ‘The print market B2B online still has great potential. Vistaprint is an additional accelerator for us to approach new markets alongside a multinational company listed on the Nasdaq, with offices worldwide and synergistic to our business.’

Robert Keane, president and chief executive officer (CEO) of Vistaprint, added: ‘We believe this agreement will lead to benefits both in terms of the sharing of know-how, expansion of the range, savings in the production process and logistics management, focusing on the strength of the individual brands that will continue to operate independently with their own identity and position.

‘We can count on a consolidated strategy to achieve competitive advantages of scale in our operations. We continue to make great progress from the traditional Vistaprint point of view of the repositioning of our brand and we have won the trust of many kinds of customers, i.e. those small businesses that make up the vast and fragmented universe of print.

‘We believe that the approach of Pixartprinting will help us meet the demands of a market segment that Vistaprint has not yet served. Pixartprinting has a history of success, with a rapid growth in sales and profits and high levels of customer satisfaction. Pixartprinting has much to teach us and together we will expand the range of products.’

Alessandro Tenderini, CEO of Pixartprinting, concluded: ‘Our goal is to cross European borders. We have a cohesive team dynamic, which now has 330 employees, ready to face a new challenge. They are our primary resource on a daily basis to ensure the quality of product and service that distinguishes us in the market and our source of ideas for anticipating new trends.’

Pictured (from left): Ernst Teunissen, executive vice-president and CFO, Vistaprint; Matteo Rigamonti, the founder of Pixartprinting; Alessandro Tenderini, CEO, Pixartprinting; and Ashley Hubka, vice-president of corporate strategy, Vistaprint