Paperlinx is studying potential acquisition targets as part of its strategy to diversify away from paper.
Executive director Andrew Price said Paperlinx needed to find new revenue streams due to the "deep decline" of paper volumes – and that companies had been targeted "right across Europe and Australia".
Paperlinx has already made two recent acquisitions: New Zealand firm Canterbury Packaging, which it bought for $2 million in 2012, and Swedish digital equipment distributor Cadorit AB, for which it paid $1.1 million in June.
Paperlinx has also sold American and European assets since 2012, although Price said no more sales were currently being considered.
"We think we've got the right business mix, however there are a couple of acquisition opportunities that we're looking at. They're not in the core paper business, they're sign and display or packaging businesses," he told ProPrint.
Price said acquisitions were "the easiest way to kick-start" diversification.
[Related: Paperlinx diversifies into iPhone apps]
"For example, in New Zealand, we could have started a greenfield packaging business, and started from scratch. Buying a business accelerates that by a couple of years, so you still have the same outcome, you just take a couple of years out of the cycle," he said.
"You've got to add up what we're going to pay in goodwill versus what the losses are going to be from a start-up. In packaging, it makes sense in countries where we don't have a presence to look at opportunistic acquisitions where they fit."
Price told ProPrint that the diversification strategy would generate significant change at Paperlinx in the next five years.
"We expect that we will be a different looking business in many ways as we transform the company into one that has a more balanced mix of commercial print, sign and display and packaging sectors," he said.
"There will also be exciting new products that will no doubt form a part of our mix as the technology continues to develop, including initiatives like our car wrap product and 3D printing."
Paperlinx posted a $90.2 million loss in 2012-13.
[Related: Ups and downs of Paperlinx]
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