World Marketing Buys Diversified Direct
World Marketing, a direct marketing services firm in Omaha, NE, acquired Diversified Direct Inc., giving the Midwest company an important foothold on the West Coast as it expands nationwide.A 29-year-old firm in Fullerton, CA, Diversified Direct offers lettershop, data processing, list services and fulfillment. It has clients in retail, nonprofit and financial services.
"We have a long-term strategy, and we're trying to build a national network," said Lewis E. Trowbridge, president/CEO of World Marketing. "Up until last month we didn't have a West Coast presence, and this company fit our criteria."
Operating as an independent entity within World Marketing, Diversified will tap its new owner's resources. These include creative services, database management and print-on-demand. Diversified Direct keeps it name.
World Marketing last month announced the purchase of Republic Mailing and Fulfillment, Dallas. A privately held company founded in 1980, Republic has clients in cosmetics, retail, advertising and printing. It merged with World's Dallas subsidiary, Lee Marketing Services, an end-to-end DM services firm.
With Diversified Direct, World Marketing now owns nine companies. They offer advertising services, digital printing, database management, product and literature fulfillment, lettershop and rebate processing. It owns Ace Marketing, Redstone Communications and MBS Multimode, among others.
World Marketing last year posted revenue of $60 million, with projections this year of $85 million. The growth is both organic and by acquisition. Its network has more than 1,000 employees working from offices in Omaha, New York, Chicago, Phoenix, Dallas, St. Louis, Atlanta and Fullerton.
The Omaha World-Herald, a newspaper publisher, owns World Marketing.
"We're looking for companies that will add breadth to our services," Trowbridge said. "We're looking for acquisitions that will add scale to [existing] operations, and we're also looking for standalone companies that would make sense."
