Air Business makes acquisition of specialist mailing and fulfilment firm » Bill Payments » 24dash.com

Air Business, the distribution management company for the publishing industry based in St Albans, has acquired Jordan and Co International Limited, the mail and fulfilment service provider, based near Oxford.

The deal positions the enlarged company as one of the UK’s leading mail and distribution providers for the publishing market and creates a combined organisation totalling over £35m in annual sales.

Air Business, a wholly owned subsidiary of An Post, the Irish Post Office, provides mailing solutions to leading publishers such as Informa, Dennis Publishing, The Spectator and a host of trade and technical journals including Lloyds List and IFW.

It has also recently taken on the complete outsourced operations for distribution and fulfilment from Emap. Air Business operates directly through a dozen post offices and over forty local mailing agents around the world.

Jordan and Co, a family run business established in 1983, handles a wide range of direct mail fulfilment services including postage, digitalisation and poly-wrapping to a wide range of clients.

Its substantial UK wrapping capability will further enhance Air Business’ own wrapping operation, which is concentrated heavily but not exclusively on international distribution.

“The combined services of Jordan and Co and Air Business will provide an even more extensive range of mailing services to our customers as well as adding scale,” commented Adam Sherman, MD of Air Business and Group MD of the new operation.

“We have known of Jordan and Co for a number of years, as its reputation, like our own, is built on excellent customer service and the highest quality operation. When the opportunity arose to purchase the business, we took it!”

The new combined business will have a turnover of £35m and will continue to employ 150 people across three locations at St Albans, Colchester and Oxford. Existing management will all stay in place.

“This acquisition further emphasises our position as the key mail and distribution provider to the publishing market and large scale direct marketing sector,” continued Adam.

“Our rapid growth is testament to the quality of our service and the competitiveness of our price. With Jordan and Co’s added operational structure we now have the ability to grow even further”.

“The decision to sell the company to Air Business made perfect sense to the Jordan and Co team,” commented Harry Lloyd, Jordan and Co’s MD.

“It provides a springboard to further develop our mail fulfilment services, takes us further into the publishing sector and also provides the stability of being part of a larger organisation.”

Harry Lloyd will continue as Managing Director of Jordan and Co.