Deluxe Corporation - Introduction

Introduction

3680 Victoria Street North
Shoreview, Minnesota 55126-2966
U.S.A.
Telephone: (651) 483-7111
Fax: (651) 481-4163
Web site: http://www.deluxe.com

Public Company
Incorporated: 1920 as DeLuxe Check Printers, Incorporated
Employees: 9,955
Sales: $1.57 billion (2004)
Stock Exchanges: New York
Ticker Symbol: DLX
NAIC: 323116 Manifold Business Forms Printing; 323119 Other Commercial Printing; 454111 Electronic Shopping; 454113 Mail-Order Houses; 522320 Financial Transactions Processing, Reserve, and Clearinghouse Activities; 541214 Payroll Services

Best known as a check printer, Deluxe Corporation continues to be the largest supplier of checks and check-related products and services in the United States. It has diversified its operations, however, and the company's largest unit, and the one on which it intends to base its future, is its Small Business Services unit, which was built mainly through the June 2004, $639.8 million acquisition of New England Business Services, Inc. This unit serves six million small business customers, selling business checks, business forms, stationery, and related products; offering packaging, shipping, and warehouse supplies through an office supply catalog service; and providing payroll services. The Deluxe Financial Services unit supplies checks and related products and services to financial institutions. Direct Checks is the leading direct-to-consumer supplier of checks in the United States. Operating under the Checks Unlimited and Designer Checks brand names, this unit sells personal and business checks and related products via direct response marketing and the Internet. Although the demise of the check has been consistently—and wrongly—predicted for years, its use is slowly declining, providing impetus to Deluxe's diversification efforts.