R.R. Donnelley Acquires Communicolor

Printing giant R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., Chicago, has agreed to buy Communicolor, a direct mail marketing group of Standard Register, Dayton, Ohio. The sale should be completed by March 31. Terms were not disclosed.

Launched in 1971, Communicolor provides color direct mail products. It employs 550 people at plants in Newark, OH, and Eudora, KS, and sales offices nationwide. The company will operate as part of RRD Direct, R.R. Donnelley’s direct mail business.

Standard Register, with annual sales of $1.4 billion, does document printing and management. The company said in a statement that Communicolor, which represents 7% of its revenue, had become a nationally recognized operation with needs separate from those of the parent.

“The direct mail market continues to consolidate and success in that market will require significant investment to meet emerging customer needs,” Standard Register president/CEO Peter S. Redding said in the statement. “We have therefore determined that our future growth will best be served by devoting capital dollars to our core products and services.”