Updated 6/2/10 Following a reorganization under Chap. 11 bankruptcy, lettershop Continental Services Inc. has been acquired by list management and brokerage firm InFocus Marketing. Continental Services filed for Chap. 11 bankruptcy in Feb. following a drop off in the high-volume mail that once made up much of its work. “A lot of the volume is being replaced by Internet activity but, a lot of my big customers were historically printers who have all become mailers,” said Jim Heim, formerly president of Continental Services and now sales director at InFocus Marketing. The Chap. 11 filing enabled the company to downsize and “become more of a boutique-style direct mail services provider,” Heim continued. Concurrent with the acquisition, Continental Services is also moving into a smaller facility. The majority of the staff will be staying, however. “We need the staff to be able to provide services going forward,” said Heim. Digital print is one of the company’s growth areas. The acquisition by InFocus was approved by the court on May 3. Heim declined to provide a specific purchase price but said the amount was for around $200,000. The deal will enable InFocus Marketing to offer “a total turnkey direct marketing solution fromgetting the right list to being able to design a printed piece or HTML for a multichannel campaign right down to the printing, fulfillment and delivery,” said Jeannine Gibson, director of marketing at InFocus Marketing. The company is based in Warrenton, VA. “This type of consolidation is kind of unusual but, we think it makes sense,” stated Heim. He added that because the two companies’ customer bases and services “complement one another,” the deal is expected to enable InFocus to offer existing customers a broader of array of services. Continental Services’ customers include trade associations, government organizations and non-profits while InFocus is the leading provider of list management and brokerage services to over 150 trade associations. Editor’s note: A previous version of this story omitted information related to Continental Services’ bankruptcy and incorrectly identified it as a printer.
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