itX acquires printing and marketing company for $6m

ASX-listed distributor, itX (ASX:itX), has acquired specialist printing and media distributor, Briell Marketing, for $6 million.

Briell is focused on two main areas - the identification market and specialised printers for the medical industry. One of Briell's main vendors, Fargo, manufactures printing devices that print onto plastic cards that can be used for identification. itX has also acquired Briell's marketing company, I.D Easy.

The ASX-listed distributor will make a cash payment of $6 million and has also assumed liability for a $ 1 million bank overdraft, which has been paid out.

itX managing director, Laurie Sellers, said Briell tied in with plans to grow and diversify its business.

"What we liked about Briell is that they established a niche for themselves in the specialist printer area, which is where we have no presence at the moment, and it will open up some new avenues for us," he said.

Briell will continue to operate as a separate subsidiary and remain at its Belrose, NSW location. "I don't want to effectively upset its culture because it's a very successful business," Sellers said. "While we want to take it to the next stage, I don't want to fundamentally change things unless there's a very good reason to do that."

Sellers said he would like to understand Briell's channel and vendors a lot better to potentially seek out opportunities between the businesses.

"When people buy printers they're obviously attaching them to something - either a server or a network - and we distribute relevant products such as Sun and Apple," he said. "I'll be encouraging the sales team within Briell to start asking additional questions of their resellers about what the printers are being attached to see if there's any pull through opportunities."

Briell's 10 staff will be retained, with company founder, Brian Warren and his wife, Helen, continuing to serve as directors.

Sellers said Briell does distribute some product interstate and he would be look at leveraging itX's national premises to expand Briell's business. He was continuing to search for acquisition opportunities. In July last year, itX acquired Web hosting outfit, ICO International.

"We're after businesses that enhance what we do and leverage our core skills and systems, but at the same time take us into new markets and help to diversify the business," he said.

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