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1 September 2020
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PlanetArt acquires CafePress from Shutterfly

PlanetArt®, a subsidiary of Claranova Group, announced today that it has acquired the assets of CafePress® from Shutterfly® LLC’s Snapfish® business unit. Based in Louisville, Kentucky and developer of one of the world’s best known ecommerce creation platforms, CafePress brings a new growth engine to PlanetArt, already one of the fastest growing businesses in the personalized products space.

“We are pleased to have had the opportunity to collaborate with our friends at Shutterfly/ Snapfish on this deal”, said Roger Bloxberg, PlanetArt’s Chief Executive Officer. “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”.

While a modern technology stack with numerous unique characteristics, the CafePress brand itself dates back all the way to 1999, making it one of the earliest companies in the personalized products space. From T-shirts to mugs to tote bags, 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 acquisition adds Canada and Australia to the geographies into which PlanetArt sells, as well as a host of product categories in which the company’s brands have only dabbled until now, notably many categories in the apparel space.

“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”.

We are pleased to have closed this acquisition”, said Jim Hilt, President of Shutterfly, “as we believe PlanetArt is uniquely positioned to offer the focus and investment that can return the CafePress brand to sustained growth. PlanetArt has strong capabilities and a long track record of success in the personalized products market. We believe that the combination of CafePress’ talented team and PlanetArt’s infrastructure and experience will drive strong performance”.

In addition to product diversification and geographical expansion, the CafePress acquisition will accrue a third advantage to PlanetArt, putting the company in an enviable position as licensee of hundreds of high-profile properties. CafePress has been the licensee of properties from Marvel, Hasbro and many others. These properties are used to create unique content that is easily applied to a large assortment of engaging merchandise.

The financial aspects of the deal will remain private.

For more information, visit CafePress.comCafePress.caCafePress.co.uk or CafePress.com.au.

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