PlanetArt acquires CafePress from Shutterfly

Personalized product platform PlanetArt acquired the assets of Louisville, KY-based CafePress from Shutterfly LLC’s Snapfish business unit. Based in Louisville, Kentucky CafePress is one of the first web-based printing companies, founded in 1999. The financial terms weren’t disclosed.

Snapfish acquired CafePress in 2018 for $25.3 million. In turn, Snapfish was acquired by Shutterfly earlier this year, as part of its deal to go private with Apollo Global Management. PlanetArt is a subsidiary of Claranova Group, an international technology group operating in three markets: Internet, Mobile and IoT.

PlanetArt posted annual revenue of €314 million, up 78%, which included revenue of €88 million generated by the Personal Creations personalized gift business acquired in August 2019 from FTD Companies. Claranova said the division maintained annual growth of around 30% driven by its ongoing geographical expansion and the ramp-up of its mobile offerings (FreePrints, Photo Tiles and FreePrints Cards).

“We are pleased to have had the opportunity to collaborate with our friends at Shutterfly/ Snapfish on this deal,” said Roger Bloxberg, CEO, PlanetArt. “We’re looking forward to the many synergies that will result from what is truly an outstanding complement to our existing brands. In particular, we will be the beneficiaries of an amazing group of experienced and talented team members in every area of development, marketing and merchandising.”

CafePress’ products are developed almost entirely by third-party content contributors and are sold on a combination of CafePress’ own sites, operating in the United States, Canada, the United Kingdom, and Australia, and custom stores that can be set up by any user, the company said. The acquisition adds Canada and Australia to the geographies into which PlanetArt sells and expands the product offerings. CafePress is also the licensee of high-profile creative properties, like Marvel, Hasbro and many others.

“Most importantly,” continued Bloxberg, “CafePress gives PlanetArt a battle-tested marketplace orientation and all of the exciting benefits that such a system provides, including hundreds of thousands of content contributors worldwide. Notably, CafePress comes with a best-of-breed technology toolset that will make it possible to bring a marketplace facility to many of our other brands.”