Industry Insight: BIC Graphic branches out...

Friday afternoons have always intrigued me. Normal, things slow down as my customers prepare for the weekend. But because we're three hours behind the East Coast, I sometimes get interesting tidbits of e-mails.

What happens is companies make announcements after the closing bell on Wall Street. I've found these are often items that won't be perceived as a major triumph within the industry or by its analysts in the investing world.

By announcing it on Friday afternoon, the company is gambling that (a) it won't be commented upon by major business publications, and (b) that something big will happen over the weekend or on Monday morning that will push this bit of "old news" off to the side.

This is a successful strategy, by the - so much so that the present White House staff often employ it for announcements they know will be greeted at least skeptically and perhaps negatively.

An example of this is the following press release from a promotions industry e-mail list named PromoGram:


BIC Graphic USA Buys Atchison Products Inc.

Counselor Top 40 supplier BIC Graphic USA (asi/40480) has purchased industry supplier Atchison Products Inc. (asi/37210). Terms of the deal were not disclosed.

Atchison, formerly owned by Dolly Duffy, CEO, and Dan Fangman, president, were the winners of Counselor's 2007 Supplier Entrepreneur of the Year award. The couple purchased the business in 1990 and have recently seen steady 20% annual revenue growth. Atchison reported $15 million in sales for 2006 while BIC saw revenue growth of 3% to $174 million last year.


BIC, a supplier of business products including writing instruments, sticky notes and magnets, has added a line of totes, coolers and backpacks through the purchase.

In an exclusive interview with Promogram, Duffy said that she was not looking for a buyer when she was approached by BIC. "My first reaction was, 'we're not for sale' -- but then we listened to them and realized what they could offer us that we didn't have, such as a marketing department and a huge customer base we can have access to."

Jack Teague, president of BIC Group Graphic, was traveling when the announcement was made today, but said in a prepared statement, "The imprinted bag segment offers tremendous growth opportunity."


The deal is tentatively set to be signed on 8/31.

Duffy and Fangman will stay on with the company and all Atchison manufacturing will remain in Atchison, KS.

If BIC thought this was a great move, it would have been an early morning announcement, rather than buried at 6 pm on Friday.

Can't say I blame them. While this may bring a new revenue stream to the corporation, the acquired product line (coolers and backpacks) isn't a natural fit into their existing product mix.

By the way, if you didn't know, BIC is indeed one of my Preferred Suppliers, meaning I can get preferential pricing for my customers. Give me a call for a custom Bic pen.

Have a good weekend. Stay safe! - Don