Editorial
Transcontinental sets its sights on the packaging market
Filomena Tamburri
Coveris America deal turns it into one of the largest flexo printers in North America
Transcontinental made an historic pivot in early April.
Companies merge and change direction all the time, but given
Transcontinental’s long-established position at the top of the
heap of commercial printing, this particular pivot is more like
a tectonic shift.
With the announcement that it planned to purchased US-based
Coveris America, the Montreal-based company shifted firmly
away from its core business of the last 42 years and moved
aggressively into flexo packaging. The acquisition, a US$1.32
billion deal, transforms Transcontinental into one the top-10
flexo packaging converters in North America.
Both Isabel Marcoux, chair of Transcontinental, and Francois
Olivier, president and CEO, spoke about the move in terms of
its significance during a press conference in early April. “This
is a historic moment for Transcontinental,” said Olivier. “This
is of capital importance. It’s one of the biggest, if not the big-
gest, transaction in our history.” Marcoux called the deal
transformational, in line with the vision of the company and
one that positions Transcontinental “nicely” to continue to
consolidate in the soft packaging market.
As bold as this deal is, the groundwork for it has been laid for
it over the last four years. Since 2014, Transcontinental has
steadily been making incursions in the packaging market and
it had made six acquisitions in that segment. In fiscal 2017,
packaging accounted for 15% of the company revenues, and
while printing remained the bulk business, at about 74% of
revenues, the number of printing plants had shrunk to 18 from
54 in 2008. Significantly, while the short-term goal is to inte-
grate Coveris into the parent operation, in the long term
Transcontinental is looking at growth and more acquisitions in
the packaging market.
A history of pivots
Transcontinental has always been deft at pivoting and consoli-
dating. Those who have been following its history will remember
it scooped up some of the leading names in the commercial
world, including O’Keefe Printing, Litho Acme, Yorkville Printing,
RBW Graphics, Optipress, LGM Graphics, Ross-Ellis Printing,
Metropole Litho, Metrolitho, and PLM in a $130 million purchase
in 2007. In the late 90s it also made big pushes into the US
where it acquired direct marketing operations, and it bought
one of Mexico’s largest flyer-printing companies, Refosa.
It then pivoted into publishing and media, and for a while it
was one of the largest magazine and newspaper publishers in
Canada. It was a huge book printer. Around the turn of the
millennium, the company targeted newspaper printing, having
keenly spotted