[June 1, 2023] – WARRENVILLE, IL and MONTMAGNY, QUEBEC, – Lakeside Book Company (“Lakeside”) announced today that it has acquired all of the issued and outstanding shares of common stock of Marquis Book Printing, Inc. (“Marquis”). Lakeside is the leading book printing and distribution company in the United States and has been creating quality crafted books for more than 150 years. Marquis is a premier book manufacturer in Canada providing high quality print services to the publishing and communications industries in Canada, the United States and Europe. With this acquisition, Lakeside will enhance its service offering with access to the Canadian market, while improving lead time and overall service capabilities for small and large publishers alike.

Marquis will operate as a division of Lakeside. Dave McCree, Lakeside’s Chief Executive Officer, will lead the business. Serge Loubier will continue to manage Marquis, continuing in his capacity as president.

“We are excited to welcome Marquis into the Lakeside family. Joining the two leading printing companies in North America allows us to better serve the needs of our customers and improve service for publishers of all sizes. Marquis’ business model is designed to better serve small to mid-sized publishers, complementing Lakeside’s unparalleled service to all publishers. With Lakeside’s full range of offerings and Marquis’ strong culture of service and innovation, customers can look forward to receiving even greater value from Lakeside Book. Additionally, Marquis’ presence in major Canadian English and French-speaking markets will improve our responsiveness and efficiency,” said Dave McCree, Lakeside’s Chief Executive Officer.

“Marquis’ long-standing history of operational excellence and Lakeside’s comprehensive printing and distribution services provide customers with immediate benefits in state-of-the-art technology and scale that will enable faster delivery of books to market. I am excited to continue to lead Marquis as part of the Lakeside family with the same dedication to the Quebec, Canadian and US markets and the continued growth this affords our business,” said Serge Loubier, President of Marquis.

About Lakeside

Lakeside Book Company has been crafting quality books enjoyed by readers all around the globe since 1864 when R.R. Donnelley started as a partner at a small printing company in Chicago. As the decades passed, the company expanded its services, acquiring multiple complementary organizations with a love and commitment to the book industry. Lakeside has a rich legacy of innovation as the leading book printing, binding, and distribution company in the United States. The company mission states: “We are committed to crafting books and services that are meaningful. We take pride in the challenge of fulfilling our customers’ visions.” In 2020, Atlas Holdings acquired LSC Communications and established a standalone business out of the book division, Lakeside Book Company. For more company information, visit www.lakesidebookcompany.com.

About Marquis

Founded in 1937, Marquis is one of the premier book manufacturers in Canada. The company operates two production plants in the province of Quebec, one production plant and one a logistic centre in the province of Ontario. Marquis also operates a division specializing in the production of yearbooks and school agendas, Le Laurentien, and a division dedicated to graphic production, Interscript. Marquis’ mission is to be the preferred partner of publishers by offering innovative and integrated printing and logistics solutions. It is thanks to our team of 600 passionate people, to our mastery of technologies, to our sense of innovation and to the solid relationships of our team with our customers that Marquis continues its growth. For more company information, visit www.marquisbook.com.

Lakeside Book Company Media Contact:

Rajeev Balakrishna
Lakeside Book Company
rajeev.balakrishna@lakesidebook.com

Demande média du Canada:

Marjorie Lacroix
Conseillère en communication
514-756-7843
marjorie@mercureconseil.ca

Marquis Book Printing announces an acceleration of its $30M Horizon 2025 capital investment plan.

Marquis’ $30 million investment in world-class book production technologies and systems will create new solutions for book publishers.

In response to the North American book publishing industry’s supply chain challenges and increase in book sales, Marquis is accelerating its Horizon 2025 capital investment plan, in order to increase printed book production capacity and improve manufacturing efficiency. The investments will be operational in 2021-2022 and will impact equally our three Marquis manufacturing plants, located in Montmagny, Louiseville and Toronto.

“This accelerated $30 million commitment will build on Marquis’ state-of-the-art book manufacturing digital and offset platforms. It will create an environment-friendly and efficient work environment for our employees and will unleash more capacity for our customers,” proudly states Serge Loubier, President and CEO of Marquis Book Printing.

$30M to increase capacity, productivity and speed to market for publishers

Accelerated investments in 2021:

• Doubling Toronto capacity for perfect-bound books.
• Increasing Toronto capacity for inkjet book printing driven by upgraded HP inkjet platforms, plus new book finishing capacity.
• Increasing Louiseville capacity for monochrome offset printing.
• Increasing Louiseville capacity with a new highly efficient binding line.

Accelerated investments in 2022:

• New EFI print manufacturing and ERP business systems to improve responsiveness, power new automation and optimize capacity utilization.
• Doubling capacity at Montmagny for sheetfed offset colour book manufacturing with the addition of a best-in-class UV press to improve efficiency and reduce the carbon footprint while matching the highest quality standards.
• Tripling Toronto capacity for case-bound book manufacturing.
• Investing in automated book packaging in all three plants.
• Integrating expanded book warehousing and logistic services.
• Hiring of over 70 new employees to drive higher throughput.

The acceleration of Horizon 2025 investment plan represents a giant step towards the accomplishment of Marquis’ mission to be the preferred partner of publishers by offering innovative and integrated print and logistics solutions.

More printing capacity at Marquis

Announcement

Montreal, Quebec, Canada

September 1, 2020

Despite the negative impact that the COVID-19 pandemic has had on the economy and within the printing industry, Marquis is announcing two significant investments at our Toronto plant. These investments aim to increase the production capacity of monochrome and colour books for trade, educational and professional publishing markets.

” These investments demonstrate the trust we have in the publishing world. We sincerely believe that the paper book is resilient and will go through future crises and technological developments to remain the refuge of knowledge and imagination. We have dedicated and very professional employees who operate our equipment and the existing management team created the confidence to enable Marquis to continue to invest in the operations of Marquis Toronto”.

Serge Loubier, President and Chief Executive Officer – Marquis Book Printing

The first investment is to meet the current strong demand from the trade book publishers due to the lack of book printing and binding capacity in North America:

•          A reconditioned Timson press has been acquired and the installation is expected to be completed by the end of September at its Toronto plant, this new equipment brings to 9 the number of offset rotary presses in operation at Marquis.

” The addition of a Timson press specially built for the monochrome trade market will allow us to make better use of the capacity available on our perfect and case binding lines to which we add shifts”.

                                   Jason Foubert, General Manager – Marquis Toronto

The second investment is to better meet the evolving needs of the educational and professional markets. It consists of server upgrades and color controls for our HP T300 and HP T360 rotary inkjet presses. The installation of this latest HP technology will significantly increase the productivity of digital presses by reducing start-up times and increasing printing speed.

 “These HP inkjet press upgrade investments will support publisher market trends towards lower print runs & POD. New workflow compatibility opens the door for publisher integration and development discussions, helping publishers successfully respond to changing supply chain requirements and online order growth”. 

                       Mike Collinge, Executive Vice- President – Marquis Toronto

About Marquis 

Established in Montmagny, Quebec, since 1937, Marquis is leading the Canadian book manufacturing industry. Marquis operates 3 printing plants located in Louiseville, Montmagny, and Toronto and has 3 divisions: Interscript for graphic design and file layout, Laurentien, a Canadian leader of agenda and yearbooks, and Canada Coatings who specialize in paper coating applications in the print industry. Marquis creates and provides the best solutions for the publishing and communication industry in Canada, the U.S. and Europe. The company’s mission is to be the preferred partner of the publishers by offering innovative and integrated print and logistics solutions.  Marquis is the partner of choice for thousands of publishers around the world.

COVID-19 Outbreak: Official Statement From Our CEO To Our Customers

March, 16th 2020,

Business Continuance

This situation is changing daily, but we are confident that both our standard practices and enhanced safety measures will allow us to adapt to this important health concern and minimize near-term business impact. We value and appreciate the loyal partnerships Marquis has built with our customers. In the event of disruption, we will capitalize on our available production resources, flexibility of services and regular communications to help our publishers sustain their businesses.

Marquis has invested in a common business ERP and production platform that will allow us to sustain operations and transition projects effectively in any of our 3 plants. Our staff has secure access to customer CRM and data that will support our continued operations, should remote work be necessary. Our Customer Support Representatives (CSRs) are all paired with back-ups and work in teams to ensure continuity of customer communication.

Marquis has production redundancy built into our 3 plants in the event we experience a plant shutdown due to COVID-19 incidence including:

• Inkjet backup between 2 plants
• Offset backup between 2 plants
• Sheetfed backup across all 3 plants
• Softcover backup across all 3 plants
• Hardcover backup with strategic partnerships

We are working with our suppliers to understand how they are responding to this health crisis, as well as creating contingency plans for individual projects as needed. At this time, our 3 major paper suppliers, all located in Québec, Canada, have confirmed that they will have full service. Ink, plates and other supplies are also secured.

Marquis will expand our services wherever possible should our customers require us to replace services traditionally provided by other partners.  Supporting customer logistics and product distribution would be a primary extension of current services if current channels or publisher fulfillment partner services are disrupted.

In our plant and office locations

• Communication of best practices for hand washing and protective measures
• Increased cleaning of common and high contact public surfaces
• Sourcing and distribution of additional sanitizing supplies for employee use in personal workspaces
• Limiting and restricting plants visit for customers and suppliers

People and movement

• Business travel by plane has been suspended until further notice
• Promoting the use of social distance techniques (video conferencing, emails, telephone, etc.) to limit contacts and travel
• Encouraging employees to work remotely where possible, and to restrict travel by public transportation

We appreciate knowing about your approach to the 2019 Novel Coronavirus and will be collaborating with you in keeping our workforce safe and healthy, and protecting our communities. Should you have a specific concern with regard to your projects or needs, please reach out to your Sales Representative for discussion. We will continue to update you on our guidelines and approach as they evolve.

Our hearts and thoughts go out to the people who have been affected by this unprecedented event and we appreciate the dedication of healthcare workers, local communities, and governments around the world working on solutions.

Respectfully,

Serge Loubier

President & CEO – Marquis Book Printing Inc

The recent Webcom acquisition defined by Print Action as ‘the most defining moment of the industry in 2018’!

Read the whole article here: https://www.printaction.com/headlines/defining-moments-of-2018-5337

Marquis Book Printing of Montmagny, Que., in October acquired Webcom, creating one of Canada’s largest printing companies with an annual production capacity of over 100 million books produced in three plants. As a result of the deal, the Marquis team grew from 400 to 600 employees. The purchase comes after the partnership agreement with EPAC in June, which involved a C$9-million investment to install three inkjet production lines in Montmagny.