Passionate About Books
Elcograf S.p.A. (a member of the Italian Gruppo Pozzoni) is proud to announce the acquisition of Clays Ltd. based in Bungay, Suffolk
Elcograf S.p.A. is the leader in the Italian Market for the production of monochrome and colour books, Catalogues and Magazines. With the addition of Clays, the largest single-site manufacturer of printed monochrome books for the UK publishing industry, Elcograf cements its status as a leading European print provider.
Elcograf S.p.A. was formed out of Pozzoni S.p.A’s 2008 takeover of Mondadori Printing S.p.A. Both Companies, Pozzoni founded in 1913 and Mondadori founded in 1907, have a long and successful heritage in print and provide a perfect fusion of skills, knowledge, innovation and tradition.
On October 2014, Elcograf acquired the operations of Roto 2000 in Casarile and its subsidiary, Europrinting, enhancing Elcograf’s production capacity and geographical presence.
On March 2015, Elcograf S.p.A. completed the acquisition of Amilcare Pizzi S.p.A. in Cinisello Balsamo, with its one hundred year history in high quality offset printing, increasing Elcograf’s web offset fleet capacity to a total 12 machines.
Today Elcograf is the absolute market leader in Italy and the third largest player in Europe. Its facilities cover gravure, web offset, offset printing and the 900 people working in its 6 Italian sites can satisfy the most demanding customers.
Elcograf S.p.A. is the first Italian Company to obtain the EU Ecolabel.
The EU Ecolabel is the European Union’s environmental quality label that certifies and guarantees respect for environmental criteria and low environmental impact throughout the product’s full life cycle. For further information: www.ecolabel.eu
In January 2017 Elcograf took the decision to purchase ONLY CLEAN ENERGY, coming exclusively from renewable sources with zero CO2 emissions. Following this decision Ikea awarded Elcograf the prestigious Tulip Awards 2017 for environmental sustainability, an important recognition for achieving the best result in CO2 emission reduction using 100% energy from renewable sources.
Clays Ltd
Established 200 years ago, Clays specialises in the production of monochrome paperbacks and hardback books in any quantity and in a wide range of sizes, working alongside the major UK publishers in the trade and academic markets. The company produces 150 million books a year, all of which are printed and bound at the company’s production site in Suffolk, England.
Starting life as a family owned business in London, Clays moved to Bungay, Suffolk, with the acquisition of the print business of Charles Child in 1876. Clays commenced printing mass market paperback books in the 1930’s and thereafter was at the forefront of technological innovation for the trade publishing market. In 1986 Clays was acquired by St Ives plc, then the leading print company in the UK, and went on to establish its position as the leading book printer for the trade market in the UK.
In 2009 Clays opened an automated high-bay warehouse on its Bungay site in Suffolk, a major investment supporting a service driven logistics operation for book distribution. Clays has actively embraced new digital print technologies and continued manufacturing investment has delivered a significant growth in product range, enabling a strong presence in the non-trade and academic markets.
Today, Clays’ strategic focus on delivering efficiencies in the UK publishing supply chain supports a broad range of services including single copy POD and Auto Stock Replenishment alongside print management, pre-retail, distribution and logistics.