The company has just finalised the acquisition of K&M Print in Palmerston North, which it purchased in April, following the buyout of Taieri Print in Dunedin in February.

Kalamazoo managing director Steve D'Souza told ProPrint his family-owned business was on track to reach turnover of NZ$1 billion ($770 million) in five years.

He said acquisitions of distressed companies had helped Kalamazoo quadruple revenue to reach NZ$130 million in just two years – and was poised to grow to NZ$150 million in a few weeks thanks to a new acquisition.

"We’ll be at NZ$250 million in the next two years," he added.

D'Souza ranked Kalamazoo as New Zealand's biggest independent print group and fourth largest overall.

Kalamazoo currently has 480 staff across 11 sites in New Zealand, said D'Souza. He predicted that within five years, the company would have 3,500 employees, a presence in Australia and maybe the USA too.

He described the company's business as being 60% printing, 30% logistics and 10% e-commerce.

Five years from now, Kalamazoo will have expanded its digital printing and logistics operations, and will also have moved into publishing, packaging and heatset web offset, D'Souza said.

He said the company was hopeful of completing an Australian acquisition within six months, subject to an agreement with authorities and the union.

Kalamazoo has acquired 12 companies in the past four years, all of which were "going under" at the time, he said.

The aim was to grow Kalamazoo and also save as many jobs as possible, according to D'Souza.

He said he was committed to keeping as many people in work as he could and that his own company had a "no redundancy policy".

"Once I employ someone, I don't make them redundant. We have not had any redundancies in our business since 2006."

D'Souza told ProPrint he moved from India to New Zealand in 2001. He joined Kalamazoo as a salesman earning NZ$27,000, before buying 50% of the company in 2004 and the other half in 2005.

He said he had paid "millions" for the business – more than double its actual value – and had then been surprised to discover a debt "four times the worth of the company".

The struggling Australian arm was liquidated, but D'Souza paid off its debt and thereby managed to save the New Zealand business, he said.

He added that the taint had initially made people in New Zealand wary of dealing with him, but Kalamazoo now had such a good reputation that it was "the only printing company who the banks lend money to without thinking twice".

The K&M Print and Taieri Print acquisitions followed three purchases between February and April last year: Freestyle Artworks in Wellington, Print Shop in Auckland and Astra Print in Wellington.

D'Souza said the company's debts were well managed.

"Every acquisition I've done has ended up making money… Debt is never big when you have the right intention and the right attitude – as I have told you, I paid debt four times over when I was trapped with the Australian Kalamazoo debacle," he said.

"All my debts are paid off always in less than 30 months of a takeover. Also our debt-to-turnover ratio is perhaps the best in the industry by a long shot."

D'Souza said Kalamazoo had bought a Ryobi A1 10-colour press last September, which he called the only one of its kind in the world.

He added that the company had acquired four other large Ryobi presses in the past six months, while two months ago it had ordered two Fuji Xerox 2800s, a first for a non-Japanese company.

D'Souza told ProPrint he was a committed Christian and that his faith was "the only reason for my success".

"I'm a big dreamer. What I've dreamed of has happened so far – at least in the last 47 years… I can't explain in human terms how I've achieved it because what I've achieved isn't human."

He said he wanted to evangelise and that the more successful he was in business the more successful he would be in spreading his faith.

"No one wants to listen to losers. I have to perform miracles in business so the business community will follow me," he said.

D'Souza said while economic conditions were tough, recessions were like drugs and alcohol in that you could choose not to participate in them.

"It's not all about money. It's about faith. If you have the faith and the right intentions there's no need to worry about recession," he said.

"Recession is real. Not participating in it is a fact. It may be there but I don't participate."

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