Contact Information: FOR SCHAWK: Patti Soldavini Corporate Communications 908-850-6300 psoldavini@anthemworldwide.com AT SCHAWK: James J. Patterson Sr. VP and CFO 847-827-9494 jpatterson@schawk.com
Schawk, Inc. Completes Acquisition of Benchmark Marketing Services LLC, a Brand Consulting and Design Firm
| Quelle: Schawk, Inc.
DES PLAINES, IL--(Marketwire - June 26, 2007) - Schawk, Inc. (NYSE : SGK ), one of the
world's leading providers of digital imaging graphic services to the
consumer products and brand imaging markets, announced today that it has
completed its acquisition of Benchmark Marketing Services LLC, a brand
consulting and design firm located in Cincinnati with approximately $6
million in annual revenues.
Benchmark provides brand creation and strategic design services to consumer
products companies and retailers with a specialized expertise in
environmental design. Benchmark will become part of Anthem Worldwide, a
Schawk strategic design company.
Anthem's existing business in Cincinnati, which includes the July 2006
acquisition of WBK, Inc., another established design firm in this market,
will be consolidated into the office space currently occupied by Benchmark.
WBK's specialized expertise is in leading innovation-driven ideation
exercises.
"Our acquisition of Benchmark is consistent with our strategy to enhance
the integrated global services that Schawk provides to its clients by
acquiring top quality companies that deepen our competencies, expand our
geographic presence and add new, related capabilities to our offering,"
said David A. Schawk, president and chief executive officer. Added Schawk,
"We are committed to offering best-in-class advice, services and products
from the point of brand creation to full brand realization. This
acquisition further strengthens Anthem's ability to meet the growing trends
of retailers and consumer products companies to create in-store kiosks
designed to capitalize on health, wellness and demographic trends."
Benchmark, having served the branding and design needs of Fortune 1000
companies for over 30 years, has an established a track record of
developing integrated solutions that build greater brand experiences. The
company will be known as AnthemBenchmark for a short time before migrating
to the Anthem name and identity. This will allow Anthem the opportunity to
leverage the equity and goodwill associated with the Benchmark brand in the
Cincinnati market.
"Benchmark's ability to be both visionary and business-building at the same
time is a key attribute that makes them a great fit with Anthem," said Anne
Marie Pagliacci, executive vice president and group managing director of
Anthem Worldwide. "Their finely tuned shopper-centric point of view on
in-store design and merchandising enhances Anthem's offering to consumer
products companies and retailers. They succeed at inspiring consumers to
think and in moving shoppers to buy."
"Our interest in being acquired by Schawk initially grew out of our
realization of an inescapable trend among our clients," said John
Carpenter, executive creative director of AnthemBenchmark and former
president and chief creative officer of Benchmark. "While we were known for
great creative work created quickly, our clients were growing more and more
interested in design agencies that could offer them greater scale and a
global reach."
Added Carpenter, "What we found was that Schawk and Anthem offered an
elegantly integrated global solution. Anthem also differentiated itself
with its networked style of operating across its offices worldwide
tapping
into multiple offices for the right knowledge and talent for each
assignment to create worldwide 'best-in-class' teams. Finally, we felt that
it was just a great cultural fit. We believe it was the perfect opportunity
to become part of something much bigger than ourselves without losing the
essence of what made us successful in the branding and design market."
Schawk's globally integrated brand image management supply chain solutions
are custom built for clients based on services that include branding and
strategic design through Anthem Worldwide, production and premedia services
through Schawk's graphic services group and content and graphics lifecycle
management through Schawk Digital Solutions. The Company's integrated
solutions deliver strategic business value, improved speed to market,
enhanced brand consistency, and improved marketplace agility.
Schawk, Inc., headquartered in suburban Chicago, is one of the world's
largest independent brand image solutions companies. Schawk delivers a
broad range of digital pre-media graphic services through 169 locations in
13 countries across North America, Europe, Asia and Australia. Schawk
designs, creates and manages images and text for reproduction to exact
specifications for a variety of media, including packaging for consumer
products, point-of-sale displays and other promotional and advertising
materials. Schawk provides its services to the food, beverage, health &
beauty, pharmaceutical, home care and consumer products industries. For
more information, visit www.schawk.com.
Anthem Worldwide, a Schawk Strategic Design Company, blends innovation and
efficiency to create high performance, first-to-market brand solutions.
Anthem manages the entire brand creation process, providing long-term
vision, client-centered workflow systems, and predictable schedules,
quality, and cost. Anthem currently has offices in Chicago, Cincinnati, Los
Angeles, New Jersey, New York, St. Paul, San Francisco, Shenzhen,
Singapore, Sydney, Toronto, and York (U.K.). For more information on Anthem
visit www.anthemworldwide.com.
Certain statements in this press release are forward-looking statements
within the meaning of Section 21E of the Securities and Exchange Act of
1934, as amended and are subject to the safe harbor created thereby. These
statements are made based upon current expectations and beliefs that are
subject to risk and uncertainty. Actual results might differ materially
from those contained in the forward-looking statements because of factors,
such as, among other things, higher than expected costs, higher than
expected costs associated with compliance with legal and regulatory
requirements, the strength of the United States economy in general and
specifically market conditions for the consumer products industry, the
level of demand for Schawk's services, loss of key management and
operational personnel, our ability to implement our growth strategy, the
stability of state, federal and foreign tax laws, our continued ability to
identify and exploit industry trends and exploit technological advances in
the imaging industry, our ability to implement restructuring plans, the
stability of political conditions in foreign countries in which we have
production capabilities, terrorist attacks and the U.S. response to such
attacks, as well as other factors detailed in Schawk, Inc.'s filings with
the Securities and Exchange Commission.