Norton Opax
of Harrogate
1923 Norton and Wright Ltd was a small family firm designing and producing lottery tickets and other fund-raising games and employing no more than 20 to 30 people in a single premises.
Mid-1960s Brought together the family printing interests and recently acquired specialist printing and publishing businesses.
1970s it built up an overseas market using the trade name Opax.
1973 the Norton and Wright Group was floated on the Stock Exchange.
1974 Acquired Dennis Welbourn Ltd, specialist printer serving the legal and accountancy professions
1979 "Norton and Wright is the country's leading specialist in the design, promotion and printing of a wide range of lottery tickets. Expansion by means of increased trade has been dramatic in recent years as a result of the enormous growth in sporting and ..."[1]
1982 Acquired Cox Rockliff, colour printer
1983 Norton & Wright Ltd., of 67-77 Kirkstall Road, Leeds LS3 1LP, security printer[2]
1983 Name changed to Norton Opax
1983 acquired the BroadPrint Group PLC, security and cheque printer, colour printer, printer of business forms and labels. This was Norton Opax’s fifth take-over in little more than a year[3]
1983 Adelaide Publishing Company Limited was a member of the Norton Opax group[4]
1983 Norton Opax withdrew from the battle for control of John Waddington, the Monopoly games group[5]
1984 acquired Percy Lund, Humphries and Co Ltd, colour printer
1984 acquired The Manor House Press Ltd, directory publisher
1985 Bid for Sir Joseph Causton and Sons, the Yorkshire based security and specialist printer[6]
1986 Acquired the much larger McCorquodale and Co
1987 Successor in some way to E. Couchman and Co, printers.
1987 "... Publications is likely to be sold off for about £10M, Opax Publishing to go in a management buyout for about £2M, and Dennis Welbourn, the legal stationery supplier, to the Pergamon-owned Hollis for about £3M."[7]
1988 Norton Opax, the expanding printing group, which had acquired McCorquodale 18 months before, bought Interchecks, Bibby's American security printing division, for just over £21m.[8]
1989 The Eastern Press Limited, of Katesgrove Lane, Reading, was a subsidiary of Norton Opax plc[9]
1989 Bowater Industries acquired Norton Opax, the packaging and industrial products group,[10] (to prevent Norton's attempt to take over bank note printers De La Rue.[11]).
1994 Norton Opax Packaging was a dormant company in the Bowater group.
See Also
Sources of Information
- ↑ Daily Express 12 April 1979
- ↑ Daily Express 20 January 1983
- ↑ Liverpool Daily Post 18 October 1983
- ↑ Daily Express 20 July 1983
- ↑ Wolverhampton Express and Star 01 August 1983
- ↑ Bookseller 05 January 1985
- ↑ Bookseller 17 July 1987
- ↑ Bookseller 27 May 1988
- ↑ Reading Evening Post 04 May 1989
- ↑ The Scotsman 29 September 1989
- ↑ Sunday Express 03 September 1989
- [1] Monopolies and Mergers Commission