Transcontinental

The company was founded in 1976 by Rémi Marcoux and partners Claude Dubois and André Kingsley as a flyer-printing business. It generated $2.9 million in revenue in its first year of operations. In 1978, the company was renamed GTC Transcontinental Group, and it established a Door-to-door distribution division known as Publi-Home Distributors.In 1979, the company entered the publishing industry after acquiring Les Journal des Affaires and SIC. It also purchased the Imprimerie Chartier printing plant. In 1984, the company went public on the Montreal Exchange, and later the Toronto Stock Exchange. Transcontinental subsequently performed a number of acquisitions over the decade that followed, including 20 Telemedia-owned community newspapers in the Montreal area, The Hockey News, and a number of commercial printing companies , among others. In November 1999 Transcontinental acquired Canada's Information Technology publishing house Plesman Communications Inc., publishers of Computing Canada, CDN Computer Dealer News and Direction Informatique, among others. On January 29, 2000, GTC Transcontinental announced its acquisition of the publishing business of Telemedia for $150 million, including Canadian Living, Homemakers, and the Canadian editions of Elle and TV Guide. In 2002, Transcontinental acquired 12 newspapers and two printing plants in Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan from CanWest Global for $255 million, in what was one of the company's largest transactions to date. In 2003, after receiving the contract to print La Presse, the company established its new Transcontinental Métropolitain printing plant.In 2011, Transcontinental reached an agreement to exchange assets with the U.S. printer Quad/Graphics, acquiring six of its Canadian plants and a prepress in Markham, Ontario, in exchange for Transcontinental's Mexican operations, and a stake in a black-and-white book printing operation owned by the company. In 2012, Rémi Marcoux stepped down as chair of the board, and was succeeded by his daughter Isabelle Marcoux.In December 2013, Quebecor Media subsidiary Sun Media announced that it would sell 74 of its community newspapers in Quebec to Transcontinental in a deal valued at $75 million. The Competition Bureau approved the sale in May 2014, under the condition that Transcontinental divest 34 of its Quebec newspapers for competition reasons. To comply with the conditions, Transcontinental sold 14 newspapers to other parties , and shut down 20 of them entirely.In March 2014, Transcontinental acquired U.S.-based Capri Packaging to expand into the flexible packaging market. The company described it as a "new promising growth area", amidst softening revenue in advertising, and decreases in its core printing businesses. In November 2014, Transcontinental sold 15 of its consumer magazines, including Canadian Living and The Hockey News, to Quebecor's Groupe TVA for $55.5 million. Transcontinental also received a contract to print magazines and marketing materials for TVA through 2021. The company stated that it wanted to focus more on its local properties.In May 2016, Transcontinental sold its 13 newspapers in Saskatchewan to Star News Publishing of Alberta. As a result, a Transcontinental plant in Saskatoon was also shut down. On December 1, 2016, Transcontinental Media acquired Rogers Media's financial industry publications, including Advisor's Edge, Avantages, Benefits Canada, Canadian Insurance Top Broker, Conseiller, Canadian Investment Review and the Canadian Institutional Investment Network. Rogers intended to focus more on its consumer publications.On April 13, 2017, Transcontinental announced that it had sold all of its properties and four printing plants in Atlantic Canada to SaltWire Network, a newly formed parent company of The Chronicle Herald. On April 18, 2017, Transcontinental announced that it planned to place 93 of its remaining newspapers in Ontario and Quebec for sale, in order to "contribute to the continued sustainability of local media and to foster greater connections with the advertisers and communities they serve", and to focus more on its educational publishing and specialty media operations.In April 2018, Transcontinental announced that it would acquire Coveris Americas for US$1.3 billion, its largest acquisition to-date, as part of an effort to bolster its flexible packaging business. Isabelle described the proposed purchase as one that would " our strategic shift toward flexible packaging and solidifies our commitment to profitable growth". The purchase would make Transcontinental the seventh-largest packaging company in North America.On September 19, 2019, Transcontinental divested its financial industry publications between Contex Media and Newcom Media.On September 24, 2021, Francois Olivier announced that he would retire and step down as CEO on December 10, after 13 years in the position and 28 years with the company overall. Board member Peter Brues was named the new CEO of Transcontinental.