ONE of Worcester's oldest printing firms has been taken over by a Birmingham-based company.

Ebenezer Baylis & Sons, based in London Road, has been acquired by John Goodman & Sons, which now holds the share capital.

The Worcester-based company - known for generations as "Ebby's" and part of GUS PLC, formerly The Great Universal Stores PLC - was established in 1858 and is renowned for its printing and binding of books and catalogues.

The new group will have a combined workforce of around 150 people, creating a unique opportunity of offering a full service package from computer to plate reprographics through to advanced perfect binding and inline mailing.

Ebenezer Baylis's manager director Ian Cranston will continue to run the operation in Worcester.

"We will continue as two companies and there are no plans for redundancies," he said.

Clive Parkes managing director of John Goodman, said: "This acquisition gives us the firepower, the capacity and the breadth of expertise we need to take the business forward.

"It's a vital move for us as we look to grow the business and meet our customers increasingly specialist needs.

"With seven B1 size presses running 24-hours-a-day, the company will be better placed to compete with other regional ventures and will have an in-house capability that can only rivalled by larger web houses."

A print worker, who does not want to be named, said the move had been expected by employees.

"We aren't anticipating any redundancies but just hope the new company will honour our pensions," he said.

Simon Hill, senior corporate finance manager at Grant Thornton which led the deal, said this was a perfect example of two companies with complementary expertise, experience and client bases forming a combined entity that is now in a unique position to capitalise on the opportunities ahead.

"It's great news for the print sector," he said.