OMNI Systems Acquires ITW Labels

OMNI Systems, one of America's premier thermal label printing companies, is set to complete its acquisition of ITW Labels, a company with a 110-year history and operations in St. Charles, MO, Gardner, KS and Bogart, GA. This combination enables the delivery of a broad array of label printing needs for commercial customers, including many of the world's best-known brands.

"Unifying our companies' strengths creates powerful synergies. Together, we have an opportunity to generate amazing momentum," sad Adam DeFrancesco, CEO and founder of OMNI Systems. "ITW Labels is a legendary provider in our industry, and we are proud to welcome them into the OMNI Systems family."

ITW Labels offers nationally recognized, high-quality converting operations, producing custom and stock labels for the consumer packaged goods, durable and retail markets. The company serves more than 4,000 customers worldwide and helps present well-known brands such as Husqvarna Group, General Mills Corporate (Parent), PepsiCo Inc (Corporate) and many others with vivid, brand-true colors and durable printing that stands up to heavy use.

OMNI Systems is purchasing ITW Labels from Illinois Tool Works, a global industrial company with seven key business segments: automotive OEM, construction products, food equipment, polymers and fluids, test and measurement and electronics, specialty products and welding.

OMNI Systems, founded in 1990, is headquartered in Cleveland. Prior to its acquisition of ITW Labels, OMNI Systems was already the largest privately owned label converter in the US, serving as thermal media supplier to many of the world's largest brands, including Amazon.com, Tyson and leading Fortune 500 companies. They produce thermal labels, top- coated direct thermal labels, thermal transfer labels, barcodes, custom labels and other label products for a broad array of industries. The company delivers industry leadership in quality and service and guarantees the lowest prices and longest fixed pricing on all labels.

"We are in a prime position, being privately held, debt-free and our own platform company," said DeFrancesco. "We are pursuing long-term legacy growth of $300MM+ in 5-7 years as a full product line provider of intellectual property and resources. We can deliver exceptional quality and price in labels for industrial, medical packaging, membrane switches, front panel overlays, merchandise, prime, security and countless other needs.

“The expansion quadruples OMNI Systems' geographical footprint and adds highly skilled employees and advanced equipment with new printing capabilities. "This move expands our capacity dramatically," said DeFrancesco. "We can now reach new industries and markets and achieve deeper penetration into existing markets.

"Keeping the two companies' plants in their locations and protecting the employees was key for us, because in this case, it makes the best business sense," said DeFrancesco. "OMNI Systems and ITW Labels had practically no customer overlap. The types of printing media and applications are completely different. Customers from both sides can benefit from a new, larger organization with more capacity and expertise than ever before."

"This move aligns our companies—ITW Labels and OMNI Systems—for success for years to come," said Dean Ketchum, business unit manager of ITW Labels. "This is a great day for both of our companies—and it is a credit to years of strong performance by both sides to reach this point."

OMNI Systems was represented in the transaction by Peter Schaefer of New Direction Partners, based in Valley Forge, PA, and Melanie Yermack, managing director of the Packaging Investment Banking Group of Mesirow, based in Chicago, IL.