Move to accelerate growth in service-based solutions business 

Durham, N.C. – Bell and Howell announced today it is acquiring the assets of Sensible Technologies, LLC of Livonia, Michigan. The deal closed on January 1, 2017. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Sensible Technologies is a privately held equipment and services company that provides simple, intelligent production systems and document-integrity software to print-and-mail businesses. Sensible customers will continue to be supported by their local Sensible service team, and will immediately gain access to the extensive support infrastructure of Bell and Howell.

“We recognize the growing mid-market need for simple and cost-effective solutions to complement our state-of-the-art inserting and finishing technologies,” said Ramesh Ratan, chief executive officer of Bell and Howell. “We are now able to satisfy customer demand in multiple market segments while further augmenting our existing product reconditioning and refurbishing services. Sensible has built an amazing company with fantastic people, and we look forward to welcoming them to our team.”

Bell and Howell customers will notice an expanded service footprint, providing better coverage, knowledge and expanded capabilities. And they now have access to the Sensible product portfolio that includes the CL and LX lines of production inserting systems, and one of the industry’s leading lines of feeder-folders.

“We think this is a great move on the part of Bell and Howell,” said Joe Harper, vice president of operations for Pinnacle Data Systems, a customer of both companies. “By adding the Sensible Technologies solutions to their portfolio, Bell and Howell will be able to address a segment of the market that they can’t reach with their current offering of high-end inserting solutions. The big win, however, is for the Sensible customers who will now benefit from the Bell and Howell service operation.”

Through an innovative remanufacturing process that includes installation of modern programmable logic controllers, intelligent feeder-folders, and updated software, Sensible Technologies transforms older, discontinued Bell and Howell systems into reliable workhorse solutions. In addition, Sensible has developed a suite of output-verification systems and production software called Document Reliability System™ or DRS™ that helps ensure the integrity of mailpieces and the security of consumer data.

“We believe Sensible brings an expanded choice of solutions to Bell and Howell’s customers,” said Earle Painter, president of Sensible Technologies. “In addition, this move is a really strong demonstration of Bell and Howell’s long-term commitment to its mail-production customers.”