Year later, LTL Prints exit gives ‘good return;’ leaves no employees in Philly

Call it a family exit.

One year ago, Kendall Schoenrock quietly sold his Old City wall graphics company LTL Prints to ScanDigital, a Los Angeles-area digitizing service cofounded by his brother, Anderson Schoenrock.

Kendall would not disclose the purchase price but said that he and his cofounder, Carsten Petzold, were “very pleased” and that they were able to deliver a “good return” to their investors.

“It was a win all around,” said Schoenrock, who was once active in Philly Startup Leaders and earlier an angel investor in Conshohocken’s TurnTide, which sold to Symantec for $28 million in 2004.

Schoenrock cofounded LTL Prints in 2008, one year after his brother cofounded ScanDigital. Last summer was the first time the brothers had explored the possibility of an exit, Schoenrock said, adding that LTL Prints had been in acquisition talks with other companies as well.

“This exit just made the most sense and was the fastest and best to execute,” said Schoenrock, who said he kept the acquisition quiet because he wanted to be able to tell all LTL Prints’ partners before it hit the news. Petzold, Schoenrock’s cofounder, handled the negotiations, Schoenrock said.

The cofounders sold the company because they felt that ScanDigital, named an Inc. 500 company last year, was in the right place to take LTL Prints to the next level, Schoenrock said.

ScanDigital purchased LTL Prints’ technology, which takes graphics and turns them into adhesive wall prints, and still uses it today, a ScanDigital spokeswoman said. LTL Prints still operates under its own name.

During sale time, LTL Prints employed 15 in Philadelphia and five in Ukraine. Though all LTL Prints’ employees had the option to move to California and continue working for the company, none did, Schoenrock said. One remained in Philadelphia working for LTL and ScanDigital out of Center City incubator Seed Philly but he left the company last month.

As for Schoenrock, he spent a few months in Los Angeles transitioning the company after the sale. He has since taken a “mini retirement,” adding that he hasn’t felt “a whole lot of pressure to jump back into the game.” He currently lives near Reading, Pa. in Wyomissing with his wife and newborn.

Cofounder Petzold moved back to Germany, Schoenrock said, and is considering different business opportunities.

When asked what he wanted his company’s lasting legacy in Philly to be, Schoenrock said he wasn’t focused on legacy.

“I’m less concerned with legacy,” he said, “I’m more concerned with making stuff people want.”