Print Week articles from August 2008

Print Week archives from August 2008

Curtis falls into administration as land and debt deals collapse.
August 1, 2008... Independent paper manufacturer Curtis Fine Papers hasstunned the industry after it called in the administrators last week, resulting in the immediate loss of 180 jobs, leaving a skeleton staff of 80. Directors at the 135-year-old...

3,000 blank passports stolen in 3M hijacking.
August 1, 2008... Security printer 3M Security Printing and Systems was at the centre of a massive security scare this week when thousands of blank passports were stolen in a raid on a delivery van sent out by the company. The Citroen van was hijacked at...

Pindar sells Screen Pages in third deal in a month.
August 1, 2008... Pindar has completed its third deal in a month with the disposal of its website programming company Screen Pages to a management team led by managing director Roger Willcocks. The deal comes hot on the heels of the sale of its Pindar Set...

Strike planned at Beano publisher.
August 1, 2008... A strike at the Glasgow print site of Beano publisher DC Thomson & Co is set to begin this Saturday following a dispute over pay. PrintWeek understands staff will take industrial action following the rejection of a 3% pay deal. It is...

Blaze destroys Nampak's Surrey site.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... A huge blaze requiring 230 firefighters broke out at Nampak's pharmaceutical division over the weekend, causing 'major disruption' to production at the plant. The fire hit MY Healthcare on the Thorpe Industrial Estate, Surrey, last...

Precision Colour Printing treats customers.
August 1, 2008... Precision Colour Printing has treated its customers to a round of golf at the company's third annual tournament at Lilleshall Golf Club Deputy managing director Richard Green, said: 'We welcomed 30 guests. Despite disappointing weather...

Xeretec reports sales from show.(Financial report)
August 1, 2008... Xeretec has reported sales of over pounds 400,000 following its latest digital print show in Basingstoke. Among the products on show was the new Xerox 700. Mike Pinson, marketing executive at Xeretec, said: 'We aim to capture the hearts and...

Appointment at Heidelberg.
August 1, 2008... Heidelberg has appointed Mark Summers as its divisional manager for MidWest and Northern Divisions. He takes over from George Moorhead who retired from the role he has held since 2003. Summers joined the Heidelberg as a salesman for the...

Death of W H Ware & Sons chairman, David Ware.(Obituary)
August 1, 2008... W H Ware & Sons chairman, David Ware, of Clevedon, North Somerset has passed away at the age of 80. During the 1960s and 1970s Ware was responsible for the company's transition into a fully mechanised bindery and increased the firm's turnover...

Express Trade Encapsulating Company launches website.(Website overview)
August 1, 2008... The Express Trade Encapsulating Company has launched a new website The specialist print finisher has said that the new site, www.expressencap.co.uk, was launched to give customers easy access to its services. The site includes information on...

Appointment at Colourgen.
August 1, 2008... Colourgen has appointed Julie Mitchell as its new internal sales manager. Mitchell, who joined from Grace Electronics, will be responsible for recruiting, training and managing Colourgen's internal sales team

Paul Parker wins APCOM Print Apprentice of the Year award.
August 1, 2008... Corporate Print Services, the in-house team of Blackpool Council, is celebrating staff-member Paul Parker winning the Danwood-sponsored APCOM Print Apprentice of the Year award. It marks the second consecutive year that the team has supplied...

TPF loses out as Sky sets up PM in-house team for marcomms.
August 1, 2008... TPF Group has lost its primary source print management contract with Sky, thought to be worth around pounds 25m a year, following the broadcaster's decision to set up an in-house print management team. A spokeswoman for Sky said: 'Further...

Collective buys Essay in turnover boost drive.(Collective UK acquires of Essay Print )(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Litho printer Collective UK is targeting a pounds 4m turnover following the acquisition of local printer Essay Print. Essay Print was bought in a pre-pack deal the day after going into administration with insolvency practitioner Geoffrey...

New company Cervidae buys Yellow Printing Co.(Yellow Printing Company )(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Yellow Printing Company has been bought out of administration in what appears to be a management buy-out led by former salesman John Freeman. Insolvency practitioners Harrisons were appointed to the east London-based company on 17 July....

Cameron calls for 'revolution' in 'archaic' skills provision.(Train to Gain scheme)
August 1, 2008... Train to Gain is 'archaic' and should be reviewed, according to Conservative leader David Cameron in the latest attack on the controversial training programme. Cameron slammed the scheme as part of his call for a 'training revolution'. He...

As Conservatives and students join forces to fight ID card scheme.
August 1, 2008... Plans to introduce ID cards across the whole of the UK are under threat following criticism from the Conservative Party and the public as proposals for the compulsory first phase of the rollout are announced. The scheme, which could...

Emap staff sign on iPod course.
August 1, 2008... Evolve, Polestar's six-month print diploma designed to give production staff at Bauer and Emap an insight into the print industry, has got off to a strong start. So far, 14 of Emap's production staff have signed up to Evolve, a course...

Next generation.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Paper giant UPM has hosted an apprentice day for newly recruited engineering apprentices at its Shotton, Wales site. Apprentices and staff toured the mill's new renewable energy boiler and discovered how it recycles 700,000 tonnes of paper per...

Danwood takes steps to conquer Scottish market.
August 1, 2008... Danwood Group has said that it is looking to move into high-end production kit following the acquisition of Well Connected Scotland and Well Finished, through its subsidiary Danwood Scotland. The latest acquisitions by the fast-growing...

Esquire to hand-finish front cover.
August 1, 2008... The US edition of Men's magazine Esquire will publish a special edition front cover, a move its editor claims is because of the print industry's 'lack of progress' since the 19th century. The September issue will incorporate a built-in...

Nintendo ties up with Fujifilm.
August 1, 2008... Fujifilm has tied with gaming giant Nintendo to offer a new service that will allow users of the Wii gaming console to upload pictures to be printed and delivered to their house. The Digicam Print Channel which launched in Japan this week,...

Reader Reaction: Is there enough competition in UK paper merchanting?
August 1, 2008... In a market dominated by big players, we ask if there is enough choice for the UK printer. TRADE STATIONERY PRINTER - Alasdair Browne, director, Abbot Print Ltd 'Market forces will take care of the amount of competition in the sector....

B&B double celebration with pounds 1m Sakurai spend.
August 1, 2008... B&B Press has celebrated a pounds 1m twin B2 Sakurai press upgrade in its 50th anniversary year with a sake drum ceremony attended by Ryuta Sakurai, the Japanese manufacturer's president. The deal marks the printer's second investment in...

D2 says Speedmaster XL gives 'higher margins'.
August 1, 2008... High-end printer D2 has said Heidelberg's Speedmaster XL 75 'wipes out the potential for digital' with its faster makereadies and quality. The West Molesey-based company bought the 'clean, lean and green' five-colour press at Drupa and...

Headleys buys top-end stitcher.(BravoPlus AMRYS)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Headley Brothers has bolstered its finishing and fulfilment services by investing in a Muller Martini BravoPlus AMRYS saddlestitcher for an undisclosed sum. The Ashford-based magazine and journal printer said the kit is the world's first...

Legal Notices.(Public notice)
August 1, 2008... This information is extracted from the print- and publishing-related notices that appear in the London Gazette. Further Information is available from its website at www.gazettes-online.co.uk APPOINTMENT OF ADMINISTRATORS The Yellow...

Tangent expecting profits to be hit by falling property market.
August 1, 2008... Tangent Communications is preparing for a decline in profits in the face of further deterioration in the property market, but anticipates continued growth in its digital printing and marketing operations. With Home Information Packs (HIPs)...

De La Rue makes growth pledge.
August 1, 2008... Continued strong demand for banknotes has boosted De La Rue as it shrugs off the credit crunch and predicts continued growth. In a statement to the stock exchange last week, Nicholas Brookes, chairman of the security printer, said the...

DMGT announces advertising fall and predicts subdued 12 months.
August 1, 2008... Advertising spend in the newspaper sector is likely to be subdued for at least the next twelve months, according to Daily Mail & General Trust (DMGT) finance director Peter Williams. The Daily Mail owner revealed a fall in advertising...

Reed trade magazines arm attracts interest.
August 1, 2008... Speculation is growing over a proposed sale of Reed Elsevier's trade magazine arm, with The Daily Telegraph reporting that US publisher McGraw Hill and private equity firms Bain and TPG are among two dozen companies to express their interest....

InterTech celebrates pre-press innovators and technologies.
August 1, 2008... Pre-press technologies dominated at this year's InterTech Technology Awards, where Alwan, HiFlex and Kodak all received recognition. Awards went to Alwan's Dynamic DeviceLinks, EskoArtwork's Neo, HiFlex's MIS and web-to-print software, and...

Monotype puts out fresh faces.(Monotype Imaging)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Monotype Imaging has added more than 100 new typefaces to its Monotype, Linotype and ITC collections. The new typefaces range from modern, functional, script and handwriting designs to retro 1950s-inspired faces, highly legible typefaces...

Outdoor Partners opts for Fujifilm XMF workflow to boost flexibility.
August 1, 2008... Large-format poster and point-of-sale specialist Outdoor Partners has upgraded its pre-press offering with the installation of Fujifilm's XMF workflow. John Chandler, operations director at Outdoor Partners, said XMF's support for...

PDF 1.7 specification is made an ISO standard.
August 1, 2008... Adobe's Portable Document Format (PDF), has become an ISO standard, some 18 months after Adobe released its PDF 1.7 specification to AIIM, the enterprise content management association. Adobe released its PDF 1.7 specification to AIIM in...

Gemini targets 92% capacity boost with Indigo 5500 buy.
August 1, 2008... Gemini Digital Colour is aiming for a near 100% increase in capacity after taking delivery of a new HP Indigo 5500 digital press. The Bridgend printer was the first commercial UK customer to invest in Indigo technology in 1995 and it said...

Sojern sells air tickets space.
August 1, 2008... Six airlines have signed up to a new initiative that will mean tailored content can be printed on customer's boarding passes. The programme is supplied by travel content provider Sojern, with carriers such as American Airlines, Delta Air...

Xerox second-quarter profits hit by dollars 63m restructuring charges.(Financial report)
August 1, 2008... Xerox's second-quarter profits dropped by 19% from dollars 266m (pounds 133.4m) in 2007 to dollars 215m, but remained inline with expectations, the company said. Earnings for the April-June period were down due to restructuring charges...

Ricoh to show Pro C900 in UK for the first time.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Ricoh will give its high-volume Pro C900 digital printer its UK debut at Total Print! Expo 2008. The kit manufacturer is set to be the largest exhibitor at this year's show, which runs from 14-16 October at Earls Court 2 in London. ...

Eclipse Colour invests pounds 750k in kit to reduce outsourcing costs.
August 1, 2008... Commercial printer Eclipse Colour Print has invested pounds 750,000 in its bindery and pre-press departments as part of a bid to reduce outsourcing costs and make its factory JDF compliant. The Kettering-based company has boosted its...

Ashgate reveals its Expo line-up.(Ashgate Print Finishing Equipment)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Finishing equipment distributor Ashgate has announced its line-up for October's Total Print! Expo, where it will showcase the new KAS Crease Fold machine. The machine, which works inline with the Crease Matic range of programmable card...

Simply Print slashes outsourcing bill after booklet-making spend.
August 1, 2008... Simply Print is anticipating savings of around pounds 30,000 a year after bringing its booklet-making and perfect binding in-house with an investment in two Horizon machines. The Loughborough-based company signed for the StitchLiner booklet...

Clinical invest in secret kit to break markets.
August 1, 2008... Miniature folding specialist Clinical Print Finishers (CPF) has invested in two machines, which it says will help it break into new markets. While the Leicester-based company described the new products as 'innovative', it is unwilling to...

Paper giants plan price increase after year-on-year profits fall.(Financial report)
August 1, 2008... Europe's largest paper manufacturers have posted weak second quarter profits due to the rising costs of raw material and a strong euro. Stora Enso's profits nose-dived by 84% year-on-year to EUR30.4m (pounds 23.9m), while UPM's profits...

PWC conducts forest survey.
August 1, 2008... Latin America has the strongest forest products market in the world in terms of return on capital employed (ROCE), according to a new report. PricewaterhouseCoopers' Global Forest, Paper and Packaging Industry Survey found the emerging...

Sappi Fine Paper latest to announce price hike.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Coated woodfree paper producer Sappi Fine Paper Europe has become the latest manufacturer to announce price increases as profitability for the industry reaches 'unacceptably low levels'. The news comes as major paper producers announced a...

Gone fishing.
August 1, 2008... The Antalis Fishing Challenge 2008 was held earlier this month for the 24th year running. One of the winners of the biggest fish challenge was Unique Forms' production manager Steve Lambley, who caught his 11lb-8oz fish at Hayfield Lakes in...

Contract update.(Van Mark Food's contracts with Alcan Packaging )
August 1, 2008... Polestar Applied Solutions has strengthened its position in the travel sector after being selected as preferred supplier to Stella Travel Services The travel group produces a host of brochures and marketing material across a number of...

Client Audit: IDG communications.(Company overview)
August 1, 2008... Sometimes referred to as 'the biggest company you've never heard of', IDG Communications' head office is situated opposite the British Library and has revenues of more than pounds 3bn per year. It publishes more than 300 magazines and 450...

Editorial: Recession will come but upturn is not far behind.(Editorial)
August 1, 2008... Recession is now all but certain. GDP growth in the last quarter was 0.2% with a significant decline in output towards the end of the quarter. On current projections negative growth could already be upon us. The shock collapse of Curtis...

Comment: Wise forger proves crime does pay.(Viewpoint essay)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Counterfeiting cells, busily forging currency notes, arouse much interest when unearthed. Another popular target for fakery is statutory documents. One of the most notorious acts of forgery involved neither of these products, but rather...

Comment: Technically speaking - Digital newspaper printing becomes viable with high-speed colour presses.
August 1, 2008... Among the more interesting demonstrations at the recent Drupa exhibition was the digital printing of newspapers on newsprint substrates using high-speed inkjet colour presses by HP, Oce and Screen. Xerox also showed newspaper printing on...

Comment: Talking business - PAS 2020 move to ban polywrapping ignores real environmental threats.
August 1, 2008... Plans to regulate the direct mail industry through the new PAS 2020 standard don't seem to have been thought through, particularly the move to outlaw the use of polywrapping and poly-bagging. According to the Royal Mail, around 1.9 billion...

Analysis: Doubters could scupper ID card scheme.
August 1, 2008... If the government's plans for ID cards go ahead 60 million will need to be printed, but with so much opposition, Tom Hall asks if it will be the biggest printing contract never to happen Sixty million printed items - the potential scale of the...

Product Portfolio: Product of the week - HP SmartStream Director.(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... HP may be a latecomer with its SmartStream digital print workflow family but it believes that Director puts it ahead of its competitors, finds Barney Cox. Workflow was centre stage for HP at Drupa. It had to be to ensure the company's...

Product Portfolio: Me & My ... Oce VarioPrint 6150.(Interview)
August 1, 2008... David Kirkup of DPS Partnership likes the VarioPrint's environmentally friendly credentials and says his firm has secured work because of it. What does the machine do? It's a high-performance press that prints all our digital work...

Product Portfolio: Buyers' Guide - Newsprint.(Buyers guide)
August 1, 2008... Difficult times have led to reduced profitability for major newsprint firms, who are looking to green solutions to keep costs down, finds Philip Chadwick. The paper sector has experienced choppy waters of late and newsprint has not been...

Product Portfolio: Joanne's help line - Trim confusion & printing pesto.(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... Joanne Gardner tracks down the solutions to your technical troubles. Q: I have just received from a printer the front and back of a folder that is to be bound in-house by a client. I set the trims to 303^x216mm and there is a folder pocket...

Technical Tutorial - Asset Management.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Print companies have gone through tremendous change in recent years to adapt to new customer requirements, streamline the workflow and improve flexibility. As a mature industry, the focus in the future will be on further cost reduction to...

Diary.
August 1, 2008... SEPTEMBER The Print for business 2008 exhibition Date: 16-18 September Venue: NEC Birmingham Price: free Contact: www.ipia.org.uk BPIF's 3RD national finance and investment conference Date: 18 September Venue: London Price: To...

Product Portfolio: Tried & Tested - DuPont Digital Cromalin AQ.(Product/service evaluation)
August 1, 2008... Although DuPont has stopped manufacturing Cromalins, they remain popular, effective and increasingly affordable, finds Philip Chadwick. For more than three decades the DuPont name has been synonymous with proofing - its Cromalin brand has...

Post script: Sun Chemical and Trinity Mirror are dream team.
August 1, 2008... If you were to draw up a list of potential outcomes from a meeting between Sun Chemical and Trinity Mirror, low on the list would surely be the sponsorship of the Welsh under-16 basketball team. But that was what happened when Alan Gaymer...

Post script: Memory Lane.
August 1, 2008... ONE YEAR AGO: RR Donnelley confirmed plans to make 110 redundancies at its site in Flaxby Moor, Yorkshire amid speculation that a number of contract losses were to blame... St Ives reshuffled its top management team in a move seen by some as...

Post script: Print's Past - Flock of words.
August 1, 2008... Last week I mentioned my visit to Morecambe and the Midland Hotel Well, the other surprising aspect of this seaside town is it is absolutely covered in letterforms. 'Flock of Words' is a path of bird poems, traditional sayings, jokes and...

Post script: Q & A - Tony Matless.(Interview)(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Tony Matless is the manager of Interprint, part of Norfolk County Services. Married for 14 years and a father-of-two, Tony's greatest luxury in life is holidaying abroad, his ambition is to live abroad and if he could time-travel, would go back...

Finishing report.(Brief article)
August 1, 2008... Welcome to the inaugural PrintWeek Finishing Report. The thinking behind pulling this post-press special together was to celebrate and highlight some of the possibilities of what is often dubbed the 'Cinderella sector' of print. ...

Finishing Report: Trade finishers - Get in shape to stay the distance.(Company overview)
August 1, 2008... Times are tough and the past five years have seen many general finishers go to the wall, but finding a niche can be a better route to success than trying to be all things to all printers, finds Philip Chadwick. It's tricky to judge exactly...

Finishing Report: Die-cutters - Evolution.
August 1, 2008... Die-cutting is having its day and making moves into commercial printing, but how long will UK manufacturers be able to compete with cheap Asian imports, asks Karen Charlesworth. Print is beginning to think outside of the box. Or rather,...

Finishing Report: In-house - One-stop shops.
August 1, 2008... Bringing finishing work in-house can deliver a number of benefits, but it is not to be entered into lightly as rapidly changing markets can leave you high and dry, says Simon Creasey. Precision Colour Printing's (PCP) story is one that will...

Finishing Report: Adding value - Buyers learn to connect direct.
August 1, 2008... While the range of finishes available continues to grow, printers are apparently in no great hurry to offer them to end-user, causing buyers to go straight to the source, by Simon Nias. Many buyers are oblivious to the advantages that...

Finishing Report: Environment - Kit worthy of the green flag.
August 1, 2008... Environmentally friendly practices in printing have long focused on paper and inks but, says Tom Hall, now is the time for the eco-conscious finisher. All too often alcohol-free printing, vegetable-based inks and recycled paper grades hog...

Finishing Report: Secondhand kit - Second coming.
August 1, 2008... As printers feel the effects of the credit-crunch, Nosmot Gbadamosi finds that secondhand kit is proving an attractive alternative to buying new. An automated perfect binder with a high-end signature recognition system, barely two years...

Finishing Report: Collators - Horizontal versus Vertical.
August 1, 2008... Vertical collators were initially met with suspicion, but added value and a small footprint has helped them fend off their horizontal rivals, finds Karen Charlesworth. It's hard to imagine, but just 25 years ago there was no such thing as...

Proskills calls for sector backing as academy scheme is deferred.
August 8, 2008... Proskills has called for solidarity as it reassess its bid for a print National Skills Academy (NSA) after the initial application was deferred by the Learning and Skills Council (LSC). The sector skills council failed to make the fourth...

BemroseBooth sold to US venture capitalist.(Brief article)
August 8, 2008... Security and transactional print giant BemroseBooth has been sold to American Industrial Acquisition Corporation (AIAC), a US private equity house. Former owner, US-based Appleton, said in January that it intended to sell its UK division,...

Prontaprint accused of supplier 'kickbacks'.(Brief article)
August 8, 2008... On Demand Communications' (ODC) rocky relationship with its franchisees has taken another bashing after a webchat between Prontaprint franchisees and management exposed criticisms of levies and cost cutting. The webchat appeared...

Printer 'held for insider trading'.
August 8, 2008... At least one printer is believed to have been arrested in the high-profile FSA investigation into insider trading. News broke last week (30 July) that eight people in London and the South East had been held on suspicion of trading stocks...

Entrust urges passport vigilance.
August 8, 2008... Entrust, the company responsible for the digital signatures on UK passports, has warned banks to be vigilant when checking documents following the theft of 3,000 blank passports from a delivery van in Manchester last week. The pounds 2.5m...

In brief: Former EMAP director realises publishing ambition.
August 8, 2008... EMAP's former group production director Andy Franks has realised a long-held publishing ambition. Described as '25 years in the planning', Sussex-based independent publisher Soul Bay Press has now launched its first two titles: Estrella Damn by...

In brief: MY Healthcare in process of relocating after blaze.
August 8, 2008... Nampak division MY Healthcare is in the process of relocating almost 100% of its work in progress following a huge blaze that broke out at its Thorpe site in Surrey at the end of last month. The company has been unable to salvage anything from...

In brief: H.W. Owen & Co celebrates 60 years in print.
August 8, 2008... H.W.Owen & Co, the print and packaging firm, is celebrating 60 years in print. Stan Owen, pictured second left with his four sons Antony, Ian, Pete and Richard joined his parents' company from school soon after it started in 1948. The...

In brief: TSB set to begin production of new catalogue for Asda.
August 8, 2008... Tiefdruck Schwann-Bagel (TSB) is set to begin production of Asda's new catalogue this week. In April this year, Asda commissioned print management company JPS to buy print for its 1,000pp catalogue, which will take place at the 900-staff German...

In brief: Appointment at Canon UK & Ireland.(appointment of Want, Clare)(Brief article)
August 8, 2008... Canon UK & Ireland has appointed Clare Want as its new Canon Business Solutions (CBS) marketing director. Want will head up a team of approximately 50 marketing staff and will report directly to the UK & Ireland managing director, Andy Vickers....

In brief: Manroland offers UK printers chance to see press.(Brief article)
August 8, 2008... Manroland is offering UK printers the chance to take a trip to Offenbach to take a closer look at one of its B2 offerings, the Roland 200 Hi Pile, which was introduced at Drupa. The press, equipped with five-printing units, will be on show at...