Grafenia, which owns Nettl, Image Group and Printing.com, has raised the fund by way of a subscription for shares, at 13.5p per share from existing investors.
The fund will be used to further the group’s investment in the launch of Nettl in America, as well as to relocate and integrate Image Everything’s operations to the group’s main production site in Manchester. The group highlighted it will continue with the series of acquisitions within the sign and graphic arts industry.
"We are looking forward to continuing our journey of growing Grafenia organically and by way of acquisition,” says Jan Mohr, chairman of Grafenia. “To that end, we appreciate our shareholders' support in our strategy and are determined to allocate funds wisely."
At the time of writing, Grafenia had completed the acquisition of another business. Artichoke Design in Birmingham, a small design and print agency, was a Printing.com bolt-on franchise and more recently became a Nettl partner. The £180,000 turnover business will merge with Nettl of Birmingham Business Store when the firm’s lease is up at its current site.
It was a pleasure to meet potential Nettl franchisees face-to-face and to hear common challenges and opportunities”
Peter Gunning, chief executive officer of Grafenia, adds: "One of the original attractions of acquiring Image Everything was their geographic proximity to our existing production hub. It's always been our intention to consolidate both sites when the timing was right. And that time is now.
"Bringing our two production streams and account management teams under one roof should allow us to make better use of both our talent and our equipment.
“Earlier this month, we launched Nettl of America. The team have put a tremendous amount of effort into upgrading our platform to work in a different currency, with different tax rules and translating our marketing and product range to work with different sizes, different weights and different words.
“It was a pleasure to meet potential Nettl franchisees face-to-face and to hear common challenges and opportunities. We look forward to growing together. On behalf of all at Grafenia, we thank participating shareholders for their continued support."
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