By Ed Avis
It’s been a big year for Tony Militano. Since January his Calgary-based company has integrated two acquisitions, celebrated 40 years in business, and rebranded.
“Yeah, there’s been a lot going on here,” says Militano, who was president of APDSP (then IRgA) in 2015-16. “Some good opportunities have come our way.”
Smart Additions
Militano bought Carbon Copy Digital in 2000, and in the subsequent years the company added a location in Edmonton and acquired a couple of competitors (click here to read more of his history). The economy in his part of Canada, which depends largely on the energy industry, is in a downturn at the moment, and that presents opportunities.
“The economy here has been going through a rough patch since 2014, and it’s difficult to grow organically,” Militano explains. “In addition, our industry has been impacted by technology and we have had to diversify our services.”
In 2018, Carbon Copy Digital acquired Western Sky Creative, a local creative design firm. Militano knew the owner of that company, Tim Flaman, from past mutual business opportunities, and knew he and his firm would make great additions to Carbon Copy Digital.
“There were really two factors in our interest in Western Sky Creative: We knew we could bring Tim on board here, and the design portion of his business could lead to other opportunities for us,” Militano says. “When you do design, it can ultimately lead to more print work.”
Western Sky Creative was fully integrated into Carbon Copy in January of this year, and Flaman has become executive vice president, Calgary, responsible for running all the Calgary operations.
“Tim has been taking over more of my day-to-day work,” Militano says. “I’m still involved, but I’m trying to get less involved in the day-to-day.”
Militano’s appetite for growth didn’t end with Western Sky Creative. About six months ago the parent company of Petro-Tech, a local printing company, contacted him to discuss a sale. It appeared to be a good opportunity for growth in a related, but slightly different, market.
“Their company has been around 50 years, and has a great reputation,” Militano says. “They offer some large-format services, though very little to the AEC industry, and are predominantly a small-format printer, about 60 percent digital and 40 percent offset. And they have a strong presence in the corporate core of downtown of Calgary. For us the attraction was a strong customer base, a great history, and a lot of experienced people, especially in color management.”
So Militano made the deal and is now merging the two firms. They still operate separately, but over the next two or three months Petro-Tech will move under Carbon’s roof. The general manager of Petro-Tech, Derek Costea, will join Militano’s leadership team.
“Now we are working on merging the two cultures properly,” Militano says. “We think it’s a great fit.”
New Name
“We’ve diversified our business so much, it became apparent that we needed to do something that better reflects what we do now,” Militano says.
So the company embarked on a process to find a new name, tapping Flaman’s experience in that area and some external help. They looked at the company’s strengths and the value of the existing name. At one point they considered a totally different name, but eventually decided that the history and continued value in the word “carbon” made it worth keeping.
The new name: Carbon Graphics Group.
“It took a number of months to work through the process,” Militano says. “But we’re all quite happy with the result. Our color scheme is similar to what it was before, and since we kept the word ‘carbon,’ from the customer perspective it’s still familiar. But the word ‘graphics’ better represents what we do.”
The new name and two new acquisitions have been a lot for Militano’s company to absorb this year, but so far it all has gone smoothly, Militano says: “Every day is getting better.”