ST. PAUL, Minn., Oct. 26 -- Deluxe Corporation announced today that it has purchased the assets of The Johnson Group, an award-winning commercial printing enterprise, and its affiliated companies. The Johnson Group is headquartered in Rockford, Illinois and employs 130 people. "The Johnson Group's custom, full color, and digital printing expertise and its emerging web-to-print technology strategically fits our growth objectives to expand our capabilities and portfolio of products to our small business and financial institution customers," said Lee Schram, Deluxe's chief executive officer. "We are thrilled to have found such a strategic partner." Dennis Johnson, chairman and chief executive officer of The Johnson Group, who is retiring with this sale, said, "I am excited about the new opportunities the company will have to grow and better serve its customers." Tonya Meister, president of The Johnson Group, added, "It will enable us to expand our custom and digital printing to include Deluxe's six million small business customers and thousands of financial institutions." Deluxe paid $16.5 million as part of the transaction and indicated that it does not expect the acquisition to have a significant impact on diluted earnings per share or operating cash flow for the remainder of 2006. On a full year basis, The Johnson Group is expected to generate approximately $22 million of revenue in 2006.