BJ Ball buys Access Paper

BJ Ball has stepped up its presence in the wide format market by acquiring Access Paper as the big three paper merchants continue to expand their offerings.

The deal will see Access Paper, which specialises in screen and wide format digital paper, will be absorbed into the BJ Ball brand with all five staff coming on board.

BJ Ball marketing manager Tony Bertrand says the acquisition has been in the pipeline for a while and is part of the company’s organic and acquisitions-driven growth strategy for 2015, which is not only through acquisitions but also organically.

“Access Paper has established itself as a major force in the market and the acquisition is great news for their customers as well as BJ Ball clients, who will enjoy more options and services,” he says.

“All the employees of Access Paper will be offered jobs with BJ Ball and this will ensure our service providing capabilities in the wide format digital market will get stronger.”

[Related: More mergers and acquisitions]

The acquisition comes hot on the heels of its takeover of API Foils’ Australian operations last month, digital merchant Longbottom Paper last November, and its entry into wide format in October.

Spicers and KW Doggett have not made any recent acquisitions but both have been active on the organic diversification front, launching new lines of digital, packaging, and wide format products.

Access Paper owner Domain Pocock says he is looking forward to joining BJ Ball and thanked customers and suppliers for their many years of support.

“Early on we identified the need to have the ability to supply large format paper, board and synthetics, as existing suppliers were not catering for what we could see was a growing market,” he says.

“We established a wide range of flexible and rigid media for the wide format market in both screen and digital. We have always viewed this market as our core business and now coming into BJ Ball – Digital Media we are looking forward to growing the support of our customers with a broader range of products and services.”

[Related: More paper news]

Access Paper specialises in screen print and wide format digital, as well as an extensive range of rigid and flexible media, including flute board, foamboards, screenboards, self adhesives, banner vinyls, synthetic papers, paper and cards.

The 22-year-old family run business has sales and distribution sites in Melbourne, Sydney and Brisbane, which will eventually merge with BJ Ball sites, depending on ‘leases and other contractual agreements’.

BJ Ball chief executive Craig Brown says the acquisition will accelerate the company’s push into the wide format market.

“We successfully launched our digital media division in June of last year, and believe the Access Paper acquisition will greatly benefit our combined customer base with additional supply lines, converting capabilities and sales expertise,” he says.

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