Communisis has made two acquisitions as it looks to expand its website building, digital app and social media capabilities. In an upbeat trading update, the £200m-turnover Leeds based marketing services provider said its pipeline of new business opportunities was strong with further business wins anticipated.
Communisis said the deals for Kieon in London and Yomego, which has offices in Glasgow and London, expanded the services of its intelligence driven communications division. Both purchases were made in the three months to 31 March 2012.
Kieon, which was acquired for approximately £700,000, is a specialist software production agency, with an offshore development facility in Bangalore, India, that Communisis said currently generates revenues in the region of £900,000. The deal is expected to widen Communisis' creative services capabilities to include the building of websites and mobile and other digital applications.
The trade and certain assets of Yomego were acquired for £380,000. Yomego is a specialist social media agency that advises on the role of social media as a part of online and off-line marketing campaigns by measuring its effectiveness. Communisis said Yomego, which has revenues of about £700,000, provides insights into brand reputation and sentiment across social media sources.
Each purchase was said to be aligned with the company's strategic objectives to build the range of data and creative services offered and to achieve a double-digit operating margin on sales (excluding pass-through) over the medium-term.
In its trading update, Communisis added that the installation of two T400 high-speed colour digital presses at its Liverpool site was progressing well and on schedule. The first digital press commenced live production in February and the second is due to be fully operational in June.
Communisis said the machines, bought for £10m, cemented its position as a leader in the emerging market for transpromotional communications which includes the placing of personalised and targeted marketing messages on transactional documents such as bills and statements.
Trading in the first quarter was described as encouraging and despite challenging market conditions, Communisis said it was confident the breadth and scale of its offer would drive further new business wins.
In the year to 31 December, 2011 Communisis posted pre-tax profit of £4.2m on turnover of £208m.
