St Ives PLC

Kin + Carta is an international digital transformation consultancy company with headquarters in London, UK. Originally founded in 1964 as printer St Ives, it grew to be the UK's leading print company by the 1980s. It shifted focus away from the struggling print industry during the 2010s and rebranded as Kin + Carta in 2018. In 2021 it became the first company traded on the London Stock Exchange to be certified as a B Corporation.

History

Printing company St Ives was founded in 1964 by Robert Gavron. Then a lawyer, he borrowed to purchase a failing publishing company and renamed it after the town where it was located, St Ives, Cambridgeshire. The company grew over the next 30 years to become the foremost U.K. commercial printer, acquiring Clays and other rivals along the way. It was first listed on the LSE in 1985 and reached a value of . St Ives expanded into the U.S. with the acquisition of commercial printer A.D. Weiss in 1989, and then later into European markets with German direct mail firm Johler Druck. In 1993 Gavron retired as company chairman, though he still held considerable interest, and was replaced by Miles Emley.

In the 21st century St Ives began a serious decline along with the rest of the printing industry due to the rise of digital media, reporting its first loss in 2009. It then undertook a large series of acquisitions in the digital technology space, attempting to diversify away from print. The first purchase was digital marketing and data company Occam in 2010. The 80-staff firm was acquired for about £12 million.

St Ives acquired Chicago-based software consultancy Solstice Mobile for £23 million. Solstice
had been founded in 2001 by John "J" Schwan and named to University of Illinois at Chicago’s Chicago Area Entrepreneurship Hall of Fame in 2013. Schwan became St Ives' first chief digital officer at the time of the merger and in 2018 took over the CEO position from Matt Armitage. Also in that year the firm sold all its remaining print operations and rebranded as Kin + Carta, said to represent "connection and collaboration".

As of 2023, the company holds five offices in the U.S. and four in the U.K., as well as Argentina, Colombia, the Netherlands, Greece, Kosovo, Bulgaria, North Macedonia, and Poland.

In October 2023, it was announced Kin + Carta were to be acquired by Kelvin UK Bidco, a newly-formed UK company, owned by the private equity firm, Apax Partners for £203 million.

Culture

Kin + Carta describes its purpose as "to make the world work better for everyone", and to this end has adopted a triple bottom line strategy. In 2021 it became the first company traded on the London Stock Exchange to be certified as a B Corporation, and in 2022 became one of the 50 companies participating in the environmentalism initiative Vision 2045. Kin + Carta also became a member of the MACH Alliance in 2022, advocating for accessibility, inclusivity, and sustainability in the digital space.

References

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1964 establishments in England
Companies based in London