RR Donnelley Acquires Book Printing Firm

Commercial printer R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago, has agreed to acquire Von Hoffmann, a printer of books and other products that primarily serves the education, trade and business-to-business catalog segments.

The Von Hoffmann unit is being purchased from Visant Corp., Armonk, N.Y., for $412.5 million. The all cash deal is expected to close by the end of the first quarter of 2007.

“Together with our recently announced agreements to acquire Banta and Perry Judd’s, this completes our trilogy of transactions designed to offer our print customers greater capacity and flexibility, and further secures our position as the leader in our industry,” says RR Donnelley CEO Mark A. Angelson. “This also completes our promise to grow our business through strategic acquisitions and positions us for further organic growth,” he adds.

Von Hoffmann has production operations in Jefferson City and Owensville, Mo., and in Eldridge, Iowa. Design, creative and other pre-press functions are carried out in an office in Arlington Heights, Ill.

RR Donnelley is one of the world’s largest commercial printing companies, providing direct mail and printing services to customers in the publishing, health care, advertising, retail, technology, financial services and other industry sectors.

Visant Corp. provides marketing and publishing services to sectors including the school affinity, direct marketing, fragrance and cosmetics sampling and educational publishing markets.