For those of you
who’ve been following the goings-on at and with Service Point Solutions since
SPS first began to lose steam, I’ve compiled a brief recap. But, before I get into the recap, I’ve got a
few comments I’d like to make:
Wow, Rafael, the former CEO of SPS got out when the getting-out was
good, well before the shit hit the fan.
Nowadays, he’s the CEO of a very large European business, one that has
nothing to do with the reprographics or printing industries. (For those of you who never met Rafael, he’s
a super nice person and a very smart guy.
In the early 1990’s, he helped one of my friends get underway with a
copy-shop chain in Budapest, Hungary; that operation later grew to several
countries.)
Years ago, Service Point Solutions embarked on a “roll-up” plan – went
out and bought a number of different companies, some in very different
businesses. One thing we learned in
business school; some roll-ups work great ….but some don’t work well at
all. It’s one thing to purchase (and
roll-up) companies that offer the same services and cater to the same types of customers;
it’s an altogether different animal when one acquires businesses that don’t
offer the same thing and don’t target the same types of customers. Years ago, IKON, one of the most, if not the
most, successful “roll-ups” of copier distributors and dealers, ran afoul, ran
into a wall, because it did not stay the course with rolling up copier
distributors and dealers; it went out and began buying all sorts of different
businesses, including IT companies, copy shops, reprographics businesses,
printing businesses, etc., etc. Global
Graphics, a similar roll-up operation in the copier/printer industry, proved to
be highly successful (eventually selling its business to Xerox Corp … and for a
very nice price), because it “stayed the course” and maintained its focus on
rolling-up copier/printer distributors and dealers. Had IKON not extended itself the way it did,
it likely would never have had to sell out to Ricoh Corp for a paltry sum
(compared to what IKON was worth before it went astray.) Another good example of a roll-up that did
not work was Lason Corp. (Lason had been
in the micrographics business prior to reaching out to buy different types of
business, such as Consolidate Reprographics out in Orange County, CA.) Lason eventually wound up in Chapter 11. Anyway, one can blame the “Great Recession”
for what’s happened to Service Point Solutions, but, frankly speaking, I think
SPS’s primary problems – leading to the current state of affairs – were these;
a) way too much debt, b) not implementing a “right-sizing” of its operations as
quickly as that should have been done; this pretty much caused by SPS’s
businesses not all being in the same type of business. If I’m recalling this correctly, SPS had
three different CEO’s within the last 3 years and that certainly did not
help. (The company’s CFO, Mr. Buzzi, is
apparently acting as the current CEO or Managing Director, and I wish him well
as he tries to maintain order at the remaining SPS business units, those that
remain under the control of SPS.)
All that said, SPS, at one point, had sales exceeding 237 mil Euros
and was the 2nd largest reprographics company in the world. Sad, sad story as to what’s happened to SPS
the past couple of years and especially as to what’s happened to SPS since the
early fall of 2013. A lot of excellent
people have lost their jobs. Let’s hope
that there are no further job losses.
Brief recap:
Reprotechnique
(France)
Reprotechnique, SP’s former 51%-owned subsidiary in France, was placed
in bankruptcy and eventually re-emerged, in September 2013, as a SCOP
enterprise (I’m pretty sure that SCOP
means “employee owned” business).
Apparently, a large European firm by the name of Smurfit Kappa provided
most of the funding that allowed Reprotechnique to emerge from bankruptcy and
to become an employee-owned enterprise.
Service Point
Solutions’ lenders take control of certain specific SPS enteprises:
In October 2013, SPS’ lenders, led by Lloyds Banking Group, took
control of GPP Capital LTD, the subsidiary of SPS that was the parent company
of four different SPS enterprises – SP USA, SP UK, Allkopi (Norway), Holmbergs
(Sweden).
Service Point
USA (United States)
SP USA’s operations were completely shut down on November 8th,
2013. An absolutely extraordinary
development! Later on, a firm called
Color Company 1, owned by The Color Company, a UK based enterprise, purchased
the assets of SP USA, and, at this point in time, is operating 3 locations in
the U.S. (see http://www.thecolorcousa.com/)
Koebcke (Service
Point Germany)
Koebcke’s was put into bankruptcy in November 2013. Koebcke has since been purchased by
Mimeo.com, a US-based company that already had operations in Europe. I have not yet seen any press release about this deal on mimeo.com
Service Point UK (United Kingdom)
SP UK was
put into “administration” in April 2014, apparently in conjunction with the
imminent sale of the company. PrintWeek,
a UK print-industry publication, recently reported that Paragon Group will
likely emerge as the acquirer of SP UK
Allkopi (Service Point Norway)
Last time I
checked, Allkopi’s web-site was updated to exclude any mention, at all, of
Service Point or Service Point Solutions.
This enterprise, apparently, is owned by GPP Capital, LTD and is
currently being managed not by SPS but by the Administrators of GPP
Capital. I can’t imagine that SPS’
lenders, who took control of GPP Capital, want to be in reprographics business,
so I’m expecting to hear, at some point down the road, that Allkopi is either
up for sale or has been sold.
Holmbergs (Service Point Sweden)
This was the
last acquisition that SPS made prior to the “shit hitting the fan”, and, seriously
speaking, I hope that the Holmbergs family got paid all cash when they sold
their business to SPS. Last time I
checked, Holmbergs’ web-site was updated to exclude any mention, at all, of
Service Point or Service Point Solutions.
This enterprise, apparently, is owned by GPP Capital, LTD and is
currently being managed not by SPS but by the Administrators of GPP
Capital. I can’t imagine that SPS’
lenders, who took control of GPP Capital, want to be in reprographics business,
so I’m expecting to hear, at some point down the road, that Holmbergs is either
up for sale or has been sold.
Service Point Netherlands
Reportedly,
SP Netherlands is operating in bankruptcy, but, per a visit I just made to SP
Netherland’s web-site, it appears that this enterprise is conducting business
“as normal”.
Service Point Belgium
Reportedly,
SP Belgium is operating in bankruptcy, but, per a visit I just made to SP
Belgium’s web-site, it appears that this enterprise is conducting business “as
normal”.
Service Point Spain
Reportedly,
SP Spain is operating in bankruptcy, but, per a visit I just made to SP Spain’s
web-site, it appears that this enterprise is conducting business “as normal”.
Service Point Solutions (parent company of the group)
The parent
is in “Administration” (i.e., bankruptcy).
GlobalGrafixNet
I have no
idea what’s happened to GlobalGrafixNet, the “association” that SPS acquired,
several years ago, from the European reprographers who first founded this
association. GGN’s web-site, apparently,
is down for the count. (I thoroughly
enjoyed attending GGN annual conferences in Prague and Rome, several years ago!)
Service Point Soutions’ Financial Results for
the year ended December 31, 2013:
Per what I
read in a letter SPS issued to the Spanish Securities Commission (CNMV) around
April 4, 2014, SPS will not be filing its financial statements (for the full year
2013) by the time normally required, and, instead that filing will be delayed
(permitted by the Bankruptcy Administration) until after SPS has completed its
bankruptcy paperwork, which will include an inventory and list (and accounting)
of creditors. From that recent filing:
That, for the reasons
set forth below, Service Point Solutions, SA (hereinafter, “SPS”
or the “Company”) is not legally able to meet the deadline for
the submission of their Annual Financial Report for the year ended December 31,
2013. The bankruptcy proceedings in which the Company and its group of
companies is, in thereby increasing workload, are superimposed with the
preparation of the documentation file bankruptcy and subsequent referral
documentation requested by the insolvency administration; all this must be
added the drastic downsizing and the consequent delay in starting the audit,
which make it impossible, despite the efforts undertaken, meet deadlines
established by law for the formulation and approval if and filing of annual
accounts for 2013.
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Proactive Management
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As a result, the
Company and its subsidiaries obtained on the basis of that article, the
authorization of the Bankruptcy Administration exempting them from compliance
in a timely manner the obligations of preparation of annual accounts year 2013,
and audit retrasándolas the month following the submission of the inventory and
list creditors in bankruptcy venue. At this time, both the auditors and the
Financial and Administrative Department Company and its group of companies are
working to finalize the preparation of the Accounts Annual audit and in the
shortest possible time.
Reprographics 101 