Haynes Announces UK Acquisition; All Haynes Manuals to Be Manufactured in U.S.

8 March 2000

Haynes Announces UK Acquisition; All Haynes Manuals to Be Manufactured in U.S.

    LOS ANGELES--March 7, 2000--Haynes Publishing Group P.L.C., the worldwide leader in the supply of repair and maintenance information for automobiles and motorcycles, today announced that it had acquired all of the issued share capital of Sutton Publishing Ltd.
    Haynes is the publisher of the world-famous Haynes Manual, which, for 40 years, has been the bible of automobile and motorcycle do-it-yourselfers around the world. Haynes Manuals are market leaders in the United States, the United Kingdom, Canada, Ireland, Scandinavia, New Zealand and South Africa, and enjoy strong double-digit shares in France, Australia, India and Russia, as well as in many other countries.
    Haynes Manuals can even be found on display in specialty stores in Beijing.
    Sutton Publishing is the largest independent history publisher in the United Kingdom with turnover approaching $9 million, a backlist of 2,000 titles and a new title program that typically publishes 300 titles a year. In the last five years, sales growth in the United States has been strong. It has sales offices in New York City.
    By bringing the printing and distribution of Sutton titles into its existing facilities in Sparkford, Somerset (United Kingdom), Haynes will broaden the base of its UK business and optimize the operations of its UK printing and distribution facilities on a long-term basis.
    Together with this acquisition, the announcement was made that printing of all Haynes Manuals will be centralized in the Haynes Nashville, Tenn., facility. This will enable all Haynes Manual production to benefit from the large-scale economies that have already been achieved in the Nashville plant. The Nashville plant was developed specifically for production of Haynes Manuals. The move means that all Haynes Manuals will be produced in Nashville regardless of where they are sold in the world.
    Overall the two moves will strengthen the group of companies. No changes will be made to Haynes Manuals or the output targets for new Haynes Manuals as a result of these developments. It is anticipated that all current UK production of manuals will have been transferred by early Fall 2000.