UK's St. Ives Buys Insight Firm Pragma

In the UK, marketing services and print group St. Ives Plc has acquired Twickenham-based retail and consumer consultancy Pragma for an initial £3.3m, rising to a maximum of £6m with payments based on current-year performance.

The deal comes hard on the heels of the acquisition of direct marketing and analytics company Response One, announced last week, for a minimum of £16.25m. St. Ives says it intends to 'create a complementary range of marketing services, whilst reducing exposure to commoditised print markets'.

Pragma was established in 1988, employs around seventeen people and works for major retailers, financial institutions and other consumer-facing organisations. In the financial year ending 31 March 2012 it says it expects revenue and underlying EBITDA up around 15-20% apiece to £3.0m and £0.7m respectively.

Pragma will operate as a subsidiary of St Ives and will continue to be managed from its current premises by the existing management team, including co-founders Monica Lucas and Roy Palmer, and CEO Patrick Woodall. Woodall says the sale 'marks the beginning of a new and exciting chapter in the development of the business'.

St. Ives CEO Patrick Martell says Pragma is 'another excellent fit with our growing portfolio of marketing services offerings and will give us further opportunity to sell a wider range of higher value added services across a broader customer group.' In particular, Pragma is expected to enhance St. Ives' existing expertise in data marketing, direct marketing, field marketing, POS and print.

Web sites: www.st-ives.co.uk , www.responseone.co.uk and www.pragmauk.com .