Takeover makes board supplier Ireland’s largest merchant at £43m turnover
Paper and board company EBB, which supplies many publishers and printers, has acquired all the shares in Realt Paper in Dublin in a deal that makes the company the largest merchant in the Irish market, with a £43million (€50m) turnover.
“Since we entered the Irish market with our acquisition of UniBoard back in 2019, Realt has always been on our radar due to the excellent reputation they have,” Elliott Baxter & Company (EBB) group md Matt Elliott said. “As a competitor, we have admired their professionalism in everything they do.”
Both are family-run businesses and during 2024 EBB, which is a long-time sponsor of The Henries awards, plans to integrate sales within its logistics network offering an enhanced service and product offer to the Irish market.
The company has said the combined strength will see a larger product portfolio and commitment to keeping high stocks locally to serve the country’s print, paper and packaging community, while continuing to trade from Realt’s Swords premises and its own bases in Rathcoole and Belfast.
“Realt is a successful and profitable company that has been in business for 43 years,” Realt md Ger Barron explained. “Our success is attributed to our talented team’s determination, focus, and skills.
“We are a family-run business that holds on to our humble beginnings when my dad bought our first company van for 300 Irish punts and, after a substantial bad debt, remortgaged our family home in the third year of business to keep the company running.
“We’re excited to join EBB Ireland, a 100-year-old family business with a similar culture. We look forward to developing new products and business areas and constantly improving our offering to the Irish market.”
Matt added: “Ger and his family, together with the Realt team have built a fantastic business, with great staff, loyal customers, and excellent mill partners. Our new combined strength, backed up by our UK stock and resources, will see improved choice and better service to all our Irish customers.”
With the paper and board market constantly changing, EBB’s sales and marketing director Chris Sandwell believes that offers “challenge and opportunity” and said: “The combined entity offers the best chance for EBB to support all of the local markets.”
EBB was founded in 1922 by Alan Elliott with his partner Baxter who left the company the same year, and its original offices were in London’s Farringdon Street. His son John joined the business in 1948, becoming chairman in 1985 when his own son Tim became md.
John retired in 1991 then, 25 years to the day his father Tim joined, the founder’s great-grandson Matt came into the business in 2005, becoming md in 2012.
In 1999 the company acquired Howard Davies Paper in Southampton, and 2004 saw it buy York & Ford Southern and HV Beever, then Moorgate Paper’s west country operations in two years later. In 2014 EBB took over Cell Limited, then UniBoard in Ireland in 2019, followed by Warren Board in 2020.
A commemorative coin struck to mark EBB’s 75th anniversary is now stored in the British Museum archives, and an 100th birthday party was held in London in 2022 close to the original office, with the company now having its hq in Farnborough and sites at Bristol, Manchester, Sheffield and Thurrock along with warehouses in Birmingham and Newcastle, as well as the Irish operation.
