We’ve often written in these columns about the advantages that tuck-ins offer to owners whose businesses are best suited for this type of acquisition. A tuck-in is usually the right move when growth has plateaued, the owners have no next-generation successors, or the local market is too limited to generate new clientele. Size matters as well, with small firms more likely to be acquired as tuck-ins than larger ones.
General business conditions also drive the market for tuck-ins, and if the results of 2025 are predictive of what’s to come, we can expect to see more tuck-ins happening this year and in 2027.
In PRINTING United Alliance’s “State of the Industry Report 2025,” it’s revealed that sales for survey respondents rose by an average of only 0.7% compared with sales one year earlier. Sales were flat or decreasing for 62.8% of the survey group and up for just 32.7%. At the same time, tariff- and inflation-driven operating cost increases put pressure on margins that respondents could not fully compensate for by adjusting pricing to their customers.
Tough trends like these affect everyone, but they tend to fall hardest on companies that have not sufficiently reinvented themselves in ways that make their customers “stickier” to them. Firms in these circumstances will be especially ripe for tuck-ins by buyers who appreciate the value that is still inherent in their business.
Read the rest of this article on Printing Impressions, a publication of PRINTING United Alliance, ASI’s strategic partner.
