With so much going on in wide-format mergers and acquisitions, now is a good time to take a closer look at the trends driving the space, and what to expect in the coming months. We sat down with Peter Schaefer, partner at New Direction Partners, to get his perspective on what wide-format printers need to know about M&A activity.
Looking at the M&A activity you’ve seen this year, what are a couple of overarching trends in that space?
Schaefer: “In M&A, 2021 was a record-breaking year and 2022 was even more. In early 2023, we thought we would see a slowdown – interest rates were high and there were recession fears. However, everything stabilized and 2023 turned out to be another blockbuster year. 2024 has been above average, but less than a blockbuster, and I believe there are two reasons for this. There are fewer sellers out there today, partially due to uncertainty over the election – everybody was consumed with that. Also, the industry has not had a great 2024. That said, wide-format continues to be an attractive segment for M&A because it is a hard segment to be in. Wide-format companies operating outside of the price-based, commodity printing area have figured out, for instance, how to produce and fulfill retail graphics for numerous locations. They’ve made themselves sticky to the customer.”
