Transcontinental (company)

Transcontinental Inc., operating as TC Transcontinental, is a Montreal-based packaging, commercial printing and specialty media company.

Transcontinental is publicly-traded on the Toronto Stock Exchange, and has over 8,000 employees—the majority of which are based in Canada, the United States and Latin America.

History
The company was founded in 1976 by Rémi Marcoux and partners Claude Dubois and André Kingsley as a flyer-printing business. It generated $2.9 million in revenue in its first year of operations. In 1978, the company was renamed GTC Transcontinental Group Ltd., and it established a Door-to-door flyer distribution division known as Publi-Home Distributors.

In 1979, the company entered the publishing industry after acquiring Les Affaires and SIC. It also purchased the Imprimerie Chartier (now Transcontinental Saint-Hyacinthe) printing plant.

In 1984, the company went public on the Montreal Exchange, and later the Toronto Stock Exchange.

Transcontinental subsequently performed a number of acquisitions over the decade that followed, including 20 Telemedia-owned community newspapers in the Montreal area, The Hockey News, and a number of commercial printing companies (including Southam Inc.'s plants and printing division), among others.

On January 29, 2000, GTC Transcontinental announced its acquisition of the publishing business of Telemedia for $150 million, including Canadian Living, Homemakers, and the Canadian editions of Elle and TV Guide. In 2002, Transcontinental acquired 12 newspapers and two printing plants in Atlantic Canada and Saskatchewan from CanWest Global for $255 million, in what was one of the company's largest transactions to date.

In 2003, after receiving the contract to print La Presse, the company established its new Transcontinental Métropolitain printing plant.

In 2006, the company enters a segment offering strong growth potential in the publishing market by acquiring Chenelière Éducation, the leading publisher of French-language educational resources in Canada.

In 2011, Transcontinental reached an agreement to exchange assets with the U.S. printer Quad/Graphics, acquiring six of its Canadian plants (dating back to its predecessor Quebecor World) and a prepress in Markham, Ontario, in exchange for Transcontinental's Mexican operations, and a stake in a black-and-white book printing operation owned by the company.

In 2012, Rémi Marcoux stepped down as chair of the board, and was succeeded by his daughter Isabelle Marcoux.

In December 2013, Quebecor Media subsidiary Sun Media announced that it would sell 74 of its community newspapers in Quebec to Transcontinental in a deal valued at $75 million. The Competition Bureau approved the sale in May 2014, under the condition that Transcontinental divest 34 of its Quebec newspapers for competition reasons.

In March 2014, Transcontinental acquired U.S.-based Capri Packaging to expand into the flexible packaging market. The company described it as a "new promising growth area", amidst softening revenue in advertising, and decreases in its core printing businesses. In November 2014, Transcontinental sold 15 of its consumer magazines, including Canadian Living and The Hockey News, to Quebecor's Groupe TVA for $55.5 million. Transcontinental also received a contract to print magazines and marketing materials for TVA through 2021.

In May 2016, Transcontinental sold its 13 newspapers in Saskatchewan to Star News Publishing of Alberta. As a result, a Transcontinental plant in Saskatoon was also shut down. On December 1, 2016, Transcontinental Media acquired Rogers Media's financial industry publications, including Advisor's Edge, Avantages, Benefits Canada, and Conseiller.

On April 13, 2017, Transcontinental announced that it had divested media assets in Atlantic Canada to SaltWire Network.

On April 18, 2017, Transcontinental announced that it planned to place 93 of its remaining newspapers in Ontario and Quebec (including Montreal's Métro) for sale, in order to "contribute to the continued sustainability of local media and to foster greater connections with the advertisers and communities they serve", and to focus more on its educational publishing and specialty media operations.

In April 2018, Transcontinental announced that it would acquire Coveris Americas for US$1.3 billion, its largest acquisition to-date, as part of an effort to bolster its flexible packaging business. Isabelle described the proposed purchase as one that would "[crystalize] our strategic shift toward flexible packaging and solidifies our commitment to profitable growth". The purchase would make Transcontinental the seventh-largest packaging company in North America.

On September 19, 2019, Transcontinental divested its financial industry publications between Contex Media and Newcom Media.

On December 9, 2021, Francois Olivier retires after 28 years with TC Transcontinental, the last 13 as President and Chief Executive Officer.

On December 10, 2021, Peter Brues. A member of the Board of Directors of Transcontinental Inc. since 2018, succeeds him as President and Chief Executive Officer.

On June 7, 2023, Thomas Morin was named TC Transcontinental's President and Chief Executive Officer. He previously served as President of TC Transcontinental Packaging, beginning in 2019, and has been a member of TC Transcontinental’s Executive Management Committee since then.

TC Transcontinental Packaging
Transcontinental established its packaging business in 2014 with the purchase of Capri Packaging, as part of a move to diversify its business activities.

The division focuses primarily on the production of flexible packaging, such as bags, pouches, rollstocks, labels, die cut lids, shrink films and advanced coatings.The division has grown primarily via the acquisitions of other vendors, having consolidated into one of the largest converters of flexible packaging in North America.

TC Transcontinental Packaging has operations in the United States, Canada, Guatemala, Ecuador, Colombia, the United Kingdom and New Zealand.

TC Transcontinental Printing
Transcontinental Printing is the largest commercial printing company in Canada, and one of the largest in North America.

In January 2016, the Toronto Star announced it would outsource its newspaper printing to Transcontinental with a five-year contract beginning in July 2016, and the contract has been extended to the end of 2027. The operations were shifted to its Vaughan plant.

This was followed in November 2017 by the announced closure of its Métropolitain plant, primarily due to the La Presse newspaper ceasing print and moving to a digital-only model.

In May 2019, Transcontinental announced that it would close its Brampton plant by the end of 2019.

TC Media
The Media Sector of TC Transcontinental is composed of TC Media Books and Groupe Constructo. TC Media Books is the leading Canadian French-language educational publishing group as well as a trade book publisher, the leader in the supplemental educational material market in Québec and the leading distributor of French-language specialized books in Canada.

TC Media Books publishes for all levels of instruction in print and digital formats, mainly under the Chenelière Éducation, Gaëtan Morin Éditeur, Beauchemin, Modulo, Graficor and Édisem brands.

TC Media Books is also being active in general interest publishing mainly under the Éditions Caractère and Éditions Transcontinental brands.

Groupe Constructo is the leader un strategic information for Québec’s construction industry and is also a partner of CGI Inc. in operating Québec’s electronic tendering system (“SEAO”).

During decades, TC Media was a leading provider of media solutions in Canada.

The sector reached Canadian consumers and professionals through a wide rang of print and digital publishing products in French and English: newspapers, magazines, trade publications, mass marketing tools, etc.