The story of Quad's Latin American platform is a story of strategic partnerships and acquisitions featuring leading printers in Argentina, Brazil, Chile,
Colombia, Perú and México as well as North American printers such as Transcontinental Inc., Quebecor Printing, which later became Quebecor World, and World Color
Press (aka Worldcolor). Although Quad first entered the Latin American print marketplace in the 1990s, it was our 2010 acquisition of Montréal-based
Worldcolor, followed by our 2011 acquisition of Transcontinental's Mexican operations that firmly established us as Latin America's largest commercial printer.
Founded in Sussex, Wisconsin, U.S.A., in 1971, Quad had grown into the Western Hemisphere's largest privately held printer by 1996 when we purchased a major interest
in Anselmo L. Morvillo S.A., a prominent web offset and sheetfed printer in Buenos Aires. A joint venture with Brazil's Folha Group – Plural Indústria Gráfica in São Paulo – followed
in 1997. That same year Canada's Quebecor Printing forged an alliance with Chile's Aguirre family and launched a series of Latin American acquisitions that continued into
the new century. To start, Quebecor acquired a major interest in the Aguirre family's Editorial Antartica, which had plants in Chile and
Buenos Aires. These plants complemented Quebecor's existing Mexico-based book printing operation, Graficas Monte Alban
, which it had acquired in 1992.
In a 1998 joint venture with the Aguirre group, Quebecor acquired Asociacion Editorial Stella, Perú's largest printer (now Quad-Lima). This further strengthened the
printer's position in Latin America's growing book and magazine markets while establishing an important foothold in the directory market.
Also in 1998, Quebecor and the Aguirre group purchased a majority interest in Impreandes Presencia in Bogotá, Colombia (now Quad-Bogotá), a leading book and Bible printer.
In 1999, the Quebecor/Aguirre partnership purchased a Buenos Aires printing plant operated by newspaper and magazine publisher Editorial Perfil. The acquisition included a multi-year,
multimillion-dollar contract to print Perfil's magazines.
More growth followed in 2001 and 2002, including:
- The purchase of the manufacturing assets of México City-based Grupo Serla, a textbook and directory printer.
- An investment in the Grafica Melhoramentos plant in São Paulo, Brazil.
- The construction of new plant in Recife to print magazines for Editora Abril,
Latin America's largest publisher, and directories for BellSouth subsidiary Listel, one of the region's largest directory publishers.
- A multi-year agreement with Argentina's Editorial Estrada, a leading school textbook publisher that included Editoria Estrada's printing assets.
In July 2009, the company changed its name to World Color Press Inc. and rebranding itself in the marketplace as Worldcolor. Meanwhile operations and expansion continued uninterrupted – a new manroland Lithoman web offset press was installed in Santiago in 2009, for example.
In January 2010, Quad announced it would acquire Worldcolor and become a publicly traded company to finance the transaction. The acquisition was finalized on July 2, 2010.
It was the dawn of a new era for the global printing industry, and Worldcolor's Latin American printing plants proudly announced it by displaying Quad banners and flags.
Quad further demonstrated its commitment to Latin America one year later when we announced an agreement to acquire Canadian printer Transcontinental Inc.'s Mexican operations
in exchange for the former Worldcolor operations in Canada. Transcontinental's three plants officially joined the Quad
family on September 8, 2011.
Today we are better positioned than any other commercial printer in Latin America to deliver value throughout the region. We have the talent, technology and innovative
solutions to help our clients achieve their business goals through the power of print. Partner with us for your printing needs, and become part of our successful, storied history!
