Irish Independent owner Mediahuis Ireland has announced a deal to buy Paramount Packaging, which supplies food, industrial, luxury and pharmaceutical packaging products to customers around the country.
Mediahuis said the deal, through its subsidiary Reach Group, is in line with the media company's strategy to support its news wholesale business and protecting a route to market for its print publishing titles.
Mediahuis's Reach Group, a logistics and supply chain specialist, operates in several sectors including grocery retail, hotels, cafés, delicatessens, schools, hospitals, medical centres, pharmacies, libraries and others.
Its brands include Newspread, the main distribution organisation for newspapers and magazines in Ireland, as well as Supreme Stationery.
Paramount Packaging was established in 1997 and is located new Arklow in Co Wicklow.
It imports, distributes and supplies premium paper and environmentally friendly packaging solutions to customers across a number of market sectors including pharmaceutical, retail, food services, merchant and industrial.
Peter Vandermeersch, the CEO Mediahuis Ireland, said today's deal is evidence of the company's continued commitment to diversifying its wholesale division in order to support the distribution of its print products to the widest possible audience for the longest possible time.
"By combining Reach's extensive logistics infrastructure and customer base with Paramount's excellent track record in design, sourcing and delivery of packaging products, we're confident we can capitalise on potential synergies between the organisations and generate significant additional resources to prolong the lifespan of our market-leading print publishing titles," he added.
James Kavanagh, CEO of Paramount, said today's deal gives it access to Reach's wide customer base and extensive distribution network which will add great value to the business.
Mediahuis also owns the Sunday World, Belfast Telegraph, Evening Herald newspapers, the Ireland's Own magazine and several regional newspapers including the Fingal Independent, Wexford People, Sligo Champion, the Corkman and the Drogheda Independent.
