EvolvedGroup announces St Ives plc as a Strategic Investor in Easypress Technologies
London – 24th November 2011: Easypress Technologies today announces that St Ives plc (“St Ives”) has made a minority investment of £1.5m in The EvolvedGroup Limited (“Evolved”), the parent company of Easypress Technologies Limited, a leading provider of eBook conversion software to the publishing industry.
The investment will enhance the Group’s ability to further develop its eBook strategy, and in turn will accelerate Evolved’s expansion, principally via investment in additional sales and marketing resource within the UK and North America. St Ives’ existing publishing solutions business, Clays, is the UK’s leading book printer producing over 160 million books a year.
The move represents another step in St Ives’s strategy to create a complementary range of publishing and marketing solutions and services, whilst reducing exposure to commoditised print markets, enabling the Group to add further value to existing and new clients.
Established in 2005, Evolved backed Easypress in the development of its Atomik easy-to-use cross-media publishing software that helps its clients to create, manage and publish content in multiple media, efficiently and profitably. A particular focus of its proprietary technology is the conversion of content into eBook and tablet formats. The business employs eleven staff, is headquartered in Guildford and has a strong client base within the publishing community.
St Ives has agreed to invest £1.5m in cash for a 15.75% equity stake in Evolved and will have a right of first refusal in the event of the sale of all or part of the remaining equity in the business. The current shareholders are the co-founders along with a number of private individuals.
“This investment will help accelerate our growth plans both here and in the USA and Canada where the eBook market is booming,” said James Macfarlane, CEO of Evolved. “The opportunity to work with St Ives again in this fast moving industry and help global publishers change the way they approach the digital book market was clearly a massive benefit for the company too.”
Following the investment, Evolved will work closely with St Ives within the UK but will continue to be managed by the existing management team from its current premises.
For further information, please visit www.easypress.com
About Easypress Technologies
Easypress Technologies (www.easypress.com) provides software that helps organisations manage the creation of corporate documents, magazines and books. The company’s suite of products helps with version control, approval processes and digital conversion across a range of industries.
Its flagship products include:
· EasyEPUB – cloud-based eBook creation software that converts Adobe InDesign, QuarkXpress or MS Word books to EPUB and/or Amazon Kindle files with no human intervention, in minutes.
· Atomik® Dynamic Publisher (ADP) – allows companies to edit, proof and approve Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress documents through a standard web browser with associated workflow management and full audit trail.
· Atomik® Quantum Publisher (AQP) – automates the delivery of Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress documents to a range of outputs including web ready formats.
· Atomik® Tools – provides rich XML conversion functionality for Adobe InDesign and QuarkXpress.
Easypress Technologies is a Premier Development partner for Adobe InDesign; a QuarkXtensions partner for Quark and a member of the International Digital Publishing Forum (IDPF).
The company has an extensive global client list including John Wiley & Sons, Centaur Communications, Economist Intelligence Unit, Imprima Group, Harvard Business School Publishing, Roularta Media Group, Roger Publishing of Canada, Sandoz Pharmaceuticals, US News and Media, Sotheby’s, Time Out, ECW Press, the Association of Canadian Publishers, Moneyweek and the American Institute of Physics.
Easypress Technologies is an operating division of EvolvedGroup Limited and is headquartered in Guildford, UK.
About St Ives Plc
Headquartered in London and listed on the London Stock Exchange St Ives plc (SIV.L / SIV.LN) is a group of market leading companies offering a portfolio of products and services with the ability to help its customers maximise returns from their investment in marketing services and print solutions. St Ives has a wealth of experience in the retail, publishing and commercial markets. St Ives’ experts use the most innovative thinking and technology to deliver a wide range of high quality products and services in consultancy, data management, campaign management, media production, fulfillment, distribution and field marketing.
In the financial year ended 30 July 2011 St Ives reported sales of £296.8m and employed 2700 people in 16 operating sites throughout the UK.
On 9th February 2011, St Ives acquired Tactical Solutions UK Limited. Established in 2000, Tactical Solutions is one of the UK’s leading and fastest growing field sales and marketing companies. Its highly skilled sales teams work with leading brands and retailers to drive sales and ensure that product is always available in store and ready for purchase. Its ability to deploy a nationwide network of highly trained sales professionals enables the business to deliver measurable return on investment for its clients within the retail and FMCG sectors.
On the 6th of April 2011 St Ives sold the magazine production businesses that operated under the St Ives Web brand. The Magazine business, comprised of St Ives Peterborough Limited, St Ives Plymouth Limited, St Ives Roche Limited and St Ives Web Limited and were sold to Walstead Newco3 Limited (“Walstead Newco3”), a wholly owned subsidiary of Walstead Investments Limited.
On the 14th September 2011, St Ives acquired Response One Group. Established in 1998, Response One is one of the UK’s leading and fastest growing data marketing businesses. The business helps its clients design and deliver effective customer and prospect communications through more intelligent use of data. Principal services include specialist media buying and sales; data quality insight and strategic campaign planning; and print management. By integrating these services into one solution, Response One has created a unique offering that has transformed multi-channel marketing activities for organisations across the UK. The business employs approximately 70 staff, is headquartered in Bath and has a strong client base including a number of FTSE 100 companies and household names.
One 20th September 2011, St Ives acquired Pragma Consulting. Established in 1988, Pragma helps its clients to develop and implement retail and consumer strategy through the use of sophisticated market research and complex analysis. The business employs approximately 17 staff, is headquartered in Twickenham and has a strong client base including a number of major retailers, financial institutions and other consumer facing organisations.
St Ives has a total of 14 divisions:
· Occam: Data management, campaign management, data insight & data marketing.
· Response One: Providing integrated marketing services, including strategic data acquisition and planning, insight-driven customer management, online search and strategic direct and digital campaign expertise.
· Pragma Consulting: Leading consultancy specialising in retail and consumer markets providing profit improvement and business enhancement services.
· Forward Thinking: Business audits, market research, field marketing, marketing & operations reviews, compliance management.
· Connected Thinking: Online campaign management, asset management, print management, management information & ordering solutions.
· SP: Brand, POS, POP & retail print and display production and marketing services solutions.
· St Ives Digital Media: Retail screen networks, digital signage, touch-screen, mobile and e-paper solutions. Full turnkey provider delivering network strategy, solution development, content production and evaluation
· Service Graphics: UK’s leading large format digital print and display production company
· St Ives Direct: Data management, direct mail & multichannel print and fulfilment and commercial print production.
· Clays: Book printing, print on demand, data management & distribution services.
· Tactical Solutions: Field sales and marketing company consistently delivering measurable return on investment for leading retailers and brands across the UK and Ireland.
· St Ives Music & Multimedia: Specialist Packaging, design & print production for music CDs, DVDs, games.
· Westerham Press: High quality print production in commercial, fine art and Report and Accounts markets.
· SIMS (St Ives Management Services): Business consulting, business process outsourcing, vendor management and print management
