Group History

The history of Mail Solutions is one of remarkable growth and inspired innovation. Mail Solutions was originally founded by South Staffordshire Water in March 2000, when the two acquired envelope companies, Mech-Mail and Britannia Envelopes were merged under the new trading name. However, at July 2008, Mail Solutions is now a group of privately owned companies, generating a combined turnover in excess of £35million per year.

• 1987 - 1989 –Britannia Envelope, and Tradesource Limited formed. 

• 1997 – Mech-Mail Envelopes purchased by South Staffs Water
  South Staffordshire Water takes its first steps towards expanding into non-core subsidiary services, by acquiring Telford-based envelope manufacturer Mech-Mail Envelopes Ltd in 1997 for £10million.

• September 1998 – purchased by South Staffs Water
  Following the successful acquisition of Mech-Mail Envelopes, South Staffordshire Water decided to acquire a second envelope manufacturer, Stoke based Britannia Envelope Manufacturing Co. for £3.4m.

• March 2000 – Mech-Mail and Britannia merge to form Mail Solutions
  In order to maximise synergy benefits between the two acquired envelope companies, Britannia at Stoke and Mech-Mail at Telford, were integrated in March 2000 to form Mail Solutions (Envelopes) Ltd. Initially all selling, customer service and administration functions were performed at Telford with Stoke being retained purely as a production site, but eventually all operations were integrated under one roof in Telford.

• April 2000 – Acquisition of
  After the year end, the recently renamed South Staffordshire Group (to reflect the growing importance of its non-water activities), acquire Corby based printer TradeSource Ltd for £3.6m, a company which specialises in print requirements for the direct mail market, thermal ticketing and business forms.

• April 2004 – South Staffordshire Water de-merge, leaving Mail Solutions part of Homeserve Plc
  In April 2004, South Staffordshire Group plc de-merged its business into two separate entities, South Staffordshire plc and Homeserve plc. The transaction saw the group de-merge its water supply business, South Staffordshire Water, together with a number of related businesses, to operate under the name South Staffordshire plc. The remaining part of the group, which included Mail Solutions and Home Service, the domestic insurance service provider, formed Homeserve plc.

• July 2004 – MBO of Mail Solutions from Homeserve
  The Mail Solutions Division was bought in July 2004 from owner Homeserve by Longmax Industries Ltd, in a £7.4m management buyout (MBO) that was financed by HBOS.

• July 2006 – Acquisition of 
  Mail Solutions completes its first acquisition since the MBO in July 2006, by acquiring K&J Lockie, a company that was considered for many years as one of its benchmark rivals and one of the most experienced and established envelope manufacturers in the UK.

• November 2006 – Establishment of
  Mail Solutions extended its capabilities to manufacture pocket envelopes in November 2006; through the creation of a new manufacturing operation called Mail Solutions Mercia Ltd based in Wolverhampton. Mail Solutions Mercia Ltd was setup in conjunction with many of the original employees of Envoy UK Ltd, following its closure in August 2006

• April 2007 – VIMBO
  Leading advisers in corporate finance and law, together with the financial support provided by HSBC, successfully project-managed a £20 million vendor-initiated management buy-out (VIMBO) of Longmax Industries Limited, trading as Mail Solutions. The VIMBO has enabled the original MBO team to retain a stake in the business, whilst the younger, dynamic second tier of management have acquired a controlling interest.

• July 2008 – Acquisition of 
  As part of Mail Solutions’ consolidation strategy and to further diversify its already extensive product portfolio, the company successfully acquired The Yorkshire Envelope Company in July 2008. Re-established as part of the Mercia branch under a new trading name of Yorkshire Envelopes, the operation specialises in the manufacture and supply of greeting card envelopes, retail packs of commercial and stationery envelopes.