Australasia's largest commercial printing and marketing company has confirmed it will consolidate its portfolio of more than 20 unique businesses under a new brand name: Ovato. The company says the name comes from the word 'ovation.'
As reported in November 2018, the rebrand follows a tough year in which PMP posted a net loss of $43 million after losing contracts for Coles catalogues and Pacific Magazines to IVE Group. It has also been forced to deal with "critical integration issues” following its 2016 takeover of Independent Print Media Group (IPMG).
The company still managed to generate total revenue of $756 million in 2018.
The rebrand will see a reorganisation of the company’s core competencies, around four pillars of print, distribution, agency and production, to support the business’s vision of turning audiences into customers and driving growth, according to a press release.
The Ovato brand will unify all companies across the group, including PMP Print, Australia’s largest printing group; PMP Distribution, a residential delivery company covering almost seven million Australian homes weekly; Gordon and Gotch, a magazine and retail distribution group; SBM, a full-house creative and production business; Traction Digital, which provides digital marketing and engagement services; Spectrum Group, a PR, digital and content marketing agency; and Griffin Press, Australia’s oldest book printing business.
 |
| Kevin Slaven, CEO Ovato |
“Our rebrand gives us the opportunity to focus on our clients and their needs directly, around our promise of turning audiences into customers,” says Kevin Slaven, CEO, Ovato. “While each of our businesses will come under the single brand, our work and commitment with all our clients will remain constant.
“Every day we deliver content across print and digital channels to millions of people in Australia, New Zealand and around the world. Our change to a unified brand unlocks new value for our clients, through greater collaboration, increased efficiency, and investments in innovative new technologies.
“One significant new capability is our exclusive partnership with Quantium, a best-in-class data and analytics business. This will link our residential distribution capabilities and household data with their extensive data-cloud and AI platform. For the first-time, this will allow us to deliver enhanced targeting and measurability to our print channels and campaigns, enabling our customers to see analytics and ROI metrics that are more akin to digital advertising.”
Ovato is investing in a new $20 million, 80-page press which is expected to be commissioned at its Warwick Farm facility in Sydney later this year. “This will enable us to reduce our underlying cost base by retiring older less efficient presses and also improve our fleet’s overall productivity,” says Slaven.
The company has a long history in the printing and marketing industries that stretches back more than 150 years. A multi-company merger in 2017 combined printing and distribution specialists PMP Limited with fellow printing and marketing services giant IPMG. The merger united PMP Limited’s stable of business, which include leading newspaper and magazine distributers Gordon and Gotch, with IPMG’s Hannan Print, Offset Alpine Printing and Inprint.
Ovato operates across Australia, New Zealand, the UK and India, and employs 2000 people across 21 sites. Its ASX listing code will change from PMP to OVT.
