SYRACUSE — The Scotsman Press, Inc., a Syracuse–based company that produces niche publications and offers commercial-printing services for other publications, will soon have local ownership.

Badoud Enterprises, Inc., the Virginia–based owner of the Scotsman Press, on Dec. 17 signed an agreement to sell the company’s assets to William Veit, the firm’s president.

Veit discussed the deal with The Business Journal in a Jan. 20 interview.

Neither side disclosed financial details of the transaction, which is expected to close on March 31.

The owner, John Badoud, Jr., who has owned the Scotsman Press since 1989, wants to retire, Veit says.

“The time was right, given my nearly 24 years in the business and my background, to now carry the company,” Veit adds, noting he’s worked for Scotsman since 1990.

Veit is financing the acquisition through Des Moines, Iowa–based Principal Financial Group. Principal operates a local office at 200 Salina Meadows Parkway in Salina.

In the transaction, Veit will acquire assets that include The Valley News, Today’s CNY Woman, Finger Lakes Vacationer, and other publications, along with plant equipment, vehicles, and Our Press — the firm’s 10,000-square-foot office at 41 Kattelville Rd. in Chenango Bridge.

Our Press handles printing for other publishers.  It doesn’t print any of the Scotsman-owned publications, Veit says.

The Valley News operates in a 2,000-square-foot office at 67 S. 2nd St. in Fulton. Dodge Properties holds the lease to that office, which continues through June 2016, Veit says.

The Scotsman Press prints The Central New York Business Journal, The Mohawk Valley Business Journal, and The Greater Binghamton Business Journal.

In addition, Scotsman also prints other niche publications, including Gater Racing News (a local auto-racing publication), the Jewish Observer (a bi-weekly publication of the Syracuse Jewish Federation), and the Catholic Sun (the official newspaper of the Diocese of Syracuse). 

The Syracuse headquarters of the Scotsman Press operates in a 65,000-square-foot space at 750 W. Genesee St. in a building that Badoud Enterprises owns. Veit will sign a new five-year lease with Badoud to continue operations at that location, he says.

The Scotsman Press, Inc., which does business as Scotsman Media Group, employs 96 people between Syracuse, Fulton, and Chenango Bridge, about two-thirds of whom are full-time employees. 

The employees work in sales and production, Veit says.

The company has “no plans” to reduce its work force once the transaction closes, he notes.

In addition to Veit’s asset acquisition, Scotsman has also purchased new computer systems and started working with new customer-relationship management software.  The firm will also use a new system for estimating and quoting commercial-printing jobs. And the next step after that is to get a new billing system, Veit says.

“One thing I identified as a weakness that I knew we could improve was to improve our data collection, improve the information that we need to run this business,” he added.

Future plans

Under Veit’s upcoming leadership, the Scotsman Press will focus on growth.

“We need to grow, whether organically or through other acquisitions and we need to become as efficient as we can in doing what we do,” he says.

When asked about the types of acquisitions the company would pursue, Veit indicated Scotsman will keep its eye on opportunities to add additional niche publications that are available to the reader either free of charge or at a relatively low cost.

“We believe that there is demand in the marketplace for that,” Veit says.

Pursuing acquisitions is nothing new to Veit in his time at Scotsman. He was involved in the company’s acquisition of The Valley News in February 2010 and its acquisition of Lakeside Printing of Skaneateles in 2000, which he described as a one-time Scotsman competitor.

Scotsman Press, which was incorporated in 1954, made headlines in March 2013 with the announcement that it would stop publishing the Pennysaver newspapers due to what Veit at the time called a “severe” and “abrupt” downturn in its business for those publications.  Scotsman cut about one-third of its workforce as a result but has rehired a few of the affected employees since then.

Operations for the Pennysaver consumed about half of Scotsman’s 65,000 square feet, so the remaining sales and production functions now occupy about 30,000 square feet.

The firm is considering leasing the unused space, Veit says.

He feels “really good” about Scotsman as he prepares to assume full ownership by the end of the first quarter, noting the company has secured new business in the last six months, which included the printing of the Jewish Observer.

The new business in that same time period also included additional sheet-fed printing work, he adds.

“We’ve seen sheet-fed printers leave the market and we’ve been in a good position to pick that business up,” Veit says.

Even though Veit remains optimistic about the future of the Scotsman Press, he acknowledges that controlling the company’s costs will continue to be a “challenge,” including those for the U.S. Postal Service, health insurance, facilities, and for wages and benefits.

Contact Reinhardt at ereinhardt@cnybj.com