Chanhassen, Minn. - IWCO Direct, a leading privately held national provider of direct marketing solutions, has signed a letter of intent to sell its Fort Worth, Texas, operations to Business Ink, Company of Austin, Texas. IWCO Direct's Fort Worth facility was part of its acquisition of Transcontinental Direct's U.S. operations earlier this month. The proposed transaction, which is targeted to close by mid-May, is subject to satisfactory completion of due diligence by Business Ink; terms are not disclosed.

"We approached IWCO Direct about the possibility of acquiring the Fort Worth operations because it offers a unique and attractive opportunity for our company to better serve our customers in this region," said Jim Goodwin, executive vice president of Business Ink. "Business Ink's expansion into the Fort Worth area will help us provide better services and additional capabilities to our Texas customers."

"As we evaluated how best to integrate all of the Transcontinental Direct facilities to drive the highest competitive advantage for customers through our new coast-to-coast platform, it became apparent that building out our total package platform in Texas was not feasible and hindered our ability to deliver a postage and logistics model that is truly the best in the country," said Jim Andersen, IWCO Direct president and CEO. "However, the Fort Worth operations provide significant opportunities for Business Ink to efficiently expand its service to Texas customers. The highly skilled Fort Worth staff is dedicated to their customers and we are pleased with this solution that takes advantage of the existing infrastructure."

IWCO Direct plans to retain some Fort Worth assets including the Mail-Gard Critical Communications Recovery operation which will be deployed to Minnesota and expanded there to support the growth anticipated from this business. Mail-Gard, powered by IWCO Direct, offers comprehensive data security and critical communications recovery services. Fort Worth employees who are not offered positions by Business Ink will receive pay and benefit continuation through the end of June from IWCO Direct.