Apogee and Balreed in £150m managed print marriage

Duo claim union creates UK and European giant with unrivalled scale

UK managed print services players Apogee Corporation and Balreed Group have fused to create a £150m-turnover outfit.

Apogee announced today it has completed its acquisition of Balreed in a move it claims makes it the "UK's largest independent Europe-wide provider of managed services for print, document and process technology".

Ricoh, Konica Minolta, Kyocera and Xerox partner Balreed has a turnover of £40m and two of its bigwigs – Robin Stanton-Gleaves and Gary Downey – will join Apogee's board as joint CEO and group marketing director, respectively.

Having made more than 20 acquisitions during its two decades in business, Wimbledon-based Apogee has 19 regional offices in the UK, as well as a European headquarters in France.

Jason Collins, Apogee joint CEO, said: "Balreed is an excellent business with a trusted name throughout the UK. We are delighted to bring their clients and staff into the Apogee group and are very much looking forward to leveraging the synergies and best of breed from both organisations. This acquisition gives Apogee a run rate turnover of over £150m."

Stanton-Gleaves added: "The two organisations share many values and a commitment to delivering superior levels of service. The proactive managed services we have developed will remain a key focus for the new enlarged Apogee group, playing a critical role in our future growth, and giving us the scale and reach to become the number one independent choice for managed services in the UK and across Europe."