Paragon Group makes key acquisitions

Print Solutions

Paragon Group has announced the acquisition of Celerity Information Services, ORM and Graft Services.

The purchase of the three businesses, with total turnover in excess of £30 million, will further strengthen Paragon’s digital communications and identification capabilities in the UK, Europe and the US.

Celerity Information Services has three sites in the UK (London), US (Boston) and Spain (Madrid), currently employing 87 people.

The investment in Celerity Information Services will enrich the operational capabilities of the group in the sphere of customer communications and will complement solutions already offered by the existing team at Paragon Customer Communications, particularly around digital and regulated communications, and identification.

Established for almost 20 years, ORM has more than 100 staff operating from bases in the UK (London), Poland (Jelenia Góra) and Ukraine (Kiev). ORM is a digital partner to leading brands globally – specialising in digital strategy, technology platforms, data, customer experience, design, brand and marketing communications.

ORM will be a centre of excellence for these activities within Paragon Group, further enhancing Paragon’s existing abilities to deliver technology driven insights for multichannel customer communications.

Kent based Graft, founded in 2013, delivers a marketing concierge service that includes a broad range of disciplines including big data, multichannel marketing, postal optimisation, direct sourcing and supply chain management. It has experienced substantial levels of growth serving both corporate and not for profit clients.

The order book of Howard Hunt City, as well as the company’s customer base, has also been acquired by Paragon Group as part of the deal.

These acquisitions, as well as other recent deals including rcDDM in Germany, and Asf Noyelles in France, have contributed to the continuing strong growth of Paragon Group. In the past three years the group has nearly tripled in size, employing close to 6500 employees and recording a pro forma turnover in excess of €850 million.

Jeremy Walters, CEO at Paragon Customer Communications UK, said: ‘We are delighted to welcome Celerity Information Services, ORM and Graft Services to the Paragon Group, adding their expertise to our full service range of bespoke market leading communications solutions.

‘The acquisitions underline Paragon Group’s ongoing commitment to being the market leading service provider for customer communications. By further strengthening our unrivalled position in digital communications and identification services across the company, we hope to build our reputation as one of the most trusted and reliable service providers in the transactional, regulatory communications and identification markets.’