Acquisitions, New Technologies, Meaningful Integrations, and Strategic Rebrandings

Brainerd, MN—CJK Group, Inc. has celebrated a year-long journey of growth and realignment with many pivotal events setting the course for a dynamic future in the publishing industry and beyond.

Acquisitions and Rebrandings February 2024 saw the acquisition of Kodi Collective LLC, a leading portfolio of full spectrum print and creative marketing solutions spanning multiple print facilities and a full-service photography/ videography and creative studio with a network of over 400 validated suppliers. Kodi’s breadth of offerings, capabilities, and core values were instantly recognized as a perfect complement to CJK Group’s market-leading Sheridan® family of print solutions.

Perhaps the most strategic developments in 2024 came from the thoughtful rebranding of Kodi Collective’s diverse offerings. In September, the three Kodi commercial digital print facilities were relaunched under the wellknown Digital Lizard™ brand.

The end of October marked the rebranding of Kodi’s Marketing Execution and Creative Production capabilities, once again under a highly regarded brand – Continuum™.

In November, the culmination of the strategic Kodi rebranding occurred, as the remaining Kodi offset print facilities joined and strengthened the Sheridan® brand, expanding the company footprint to twelve production sites across the country. This event, defined as “Uniting Strengths, Delivering Innovations”, was a high mark in Sheridan’s presence as an industry leader in print and publishing services for book, journal, and magazine publishers, as well as catalogers. Key market benefits of this integration include expanded capabilities, unified quality standards, and cost-efficiency and reliability of resources across the entire brand.

CJK Group company KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. (KGL) also realized a key gain in October, acquiring Accucoms, the leading provider of sales and marketing services to academic and professional publishers – a significant integration for KGL’s comprehensive content solutions. KGL’s global footprint now spans India, the US, the UK, and the Netherlands.

New Equipment, New Services, New Technologies, New Integrations Throughout the year, companies under CJK Group leadership enjoyed a steady influx of state-of-the-art equipment, including the first U.S.-based DIGI-B Digital Edge-Colouring T3 OPX machine at Sheridan Worzalla, bringing intricate inkjet edge printing technology to a highly receptive book market. CJK Group has recently purchased 3 additional units to add capacity in 2025.

2024 also saw the introduction of the Sheridan Print Masterclass, an onsite instructional program for leading publisher clients to learn the print production process firsthand.

CJK Group company Tweddle Group™, a top provider of product service and support information and technology to the OEM industry, partnered with leading global automaker Stellantis to create a revolutionary new analytics component for the Stellantis Dealer Connect web portal.

KnowledgeWorks Global Ltd. made major strides in Experiential Learning, Accessibility, and Research Integrity initiatives while also expanding their leading Peer Review automation offering, Smart Review®, with the integration of DataSeer AI-powered Open Science compliance.

Integrated cross-brand solutions became a compelling proposition for shared clients in 2024 and will be a winning industry-leading hallmark for CJK Group companies in 2025.

Universally shared technology, workflow, and leadership platforms across CJK Group companies have greatly enhanced the ability to job share and implement best practices both internally and for the benefit of our customers. The resulting efficiencies continue to strengthen our responsiveness and value in each of our industries.

2024 has been marked by many achievements, improvements, and a few growing pains, but throughout, one constant has guided all actions: CJK Group’s overarching desire to provide superior integrated solutions across our leading brands, thus serving our client bases better than any other supplier while setting new benchmarks in quality, service, and innovation. More succinctly, the year’s activity was underpinned by the #1 Core Value each CJK Group company shares: Customers Come First.