Printing World articles from April 2004

Printing World archives from April 2004

Luscher buys Zed to bed into ctp for flexo.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Luscher has bought UK technology company Zed Instruments to move beyond its traditional strengths in ctp for offset into ctp for flexo. The firm is also moving into VLF inkjet printing with a product ready to launch at Drupa. It has...

Post Office consults on size issue.(size based pricing of magazines)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Post Office is to consult the industry before introducing size- based pricing, a move that has provoked widespread anxiety among publishers. Had the step been introduced, non-standard packages - magazines larger than A4 and magazines...

Shooting for the stars.(Printing World Awards)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... This year's Printing World Awards could provide the most exciting opportunity to see England in action in Euro 2004 short of actually travelling to Portugal. The Awards will be given a strong football branding because they fall on July 1...

Bezier ISO standard.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Bezier's Wakefield site has retained its international recognised ISO 9001-2000 quality standard status after an earlier inspection this month. The Wakefield site has now held ISO status since 1994 but changed to ISO 9001-2000 last year....

Polestar brochure.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Polestar was delighted to print the commemorative brochure for the third year running at the Daily Mirror's Pride of Britain Awards last week. The awards recognise the UK's most courageous adults and children. The highlight of the evening...

Valuations encouraged.(Plimsoll Publishing )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Plimsoll Publishing in Stockton, a valuations company for the newspaper and magazine publishers industry, is encouraging companies to get businesses valued to give them a realistic indication of how much their businesses are worth. According to...

Waltham Forest closes inplant.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Waltham Forest Council in north-east London has closed its offset print inplant with the loss of four jobs. Councillors approved the move at a council meeting last month and the print room closed its doors yesterday (March 31). Like other...

Mitchell spearheads Fresh strategy.(Fresh Media )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... David Mitchell has joined Fresh Media as group sales director, leaving Turning Point Technologies to join the north London company. He will spearhead the strategy of marketing the product solutions that have been developed within Fresh...

NexPress pioneer VLM switches to HP.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... VLM, the Birmingham digital print specialist, has switched to HP Indigo as the preferred supplier of its digital press technology. The company had been one of the first to endorse the Heidelberg NexPress announcing it had bought four then...

MAN takes steps to create platform for profit.(MAN Roland Druckmaschinen AG)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... MAN has it says "taken the necessary measures" to reorganise its printing machinery business, group chairman Rupert Rupprecht told financial journalists this week. Speaking to the annual financial press conference, Dr Rupprecht said that...

Statex appointment.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Richard Barksby will join the sales team at Statex Colour Print in Newcastle-upon-Tyne. Mr Barksby will be responsible for developing and maintaining new and existing business. Last year the company, which will soon celebrate ten years in...

4imprint loss.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Direct marketing and promotions products group 4imprint, has experienced problems at its US division, resulting in an operating loss there of more than #12m. The group has rectified the situation and now has a net cash balance of #7.7m, up from...

Tax stamps on spirits bottles.(Distilled Spirits Council )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... A group from the Distilled Spirits Council in the US warned MPs on March 29 that the Chancellor's budget decision to introduce tax stamps on spirits bottles will harm the international drinks trade. Peter Cressy, head of the DSC pointed out...

Census proposals.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Barcodes could be used on the next census forms to enable officials to check on completed returns. This, together with other proposals from the Office for National Statistics, aims to increase the accuracy of the 2011 census. In the 2001 census...

Creo partnership.(Sichuan Juguang Printing Apparatus)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Creo has announced a partnership with Sichuan Juguang Printing Apparatus, one of the largest plate manufacturers in China. Under the agreement, Juguang will manufacture and sell the jointly developed Juguang JPT-1 positive thermal plate. Creo...

Rebranded The Max takes J Howitt's mini.(purchase of 8pp Heidelberg miniweb press)(The Max Design and Print Company)(J Howitt and Sons)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... A two-year-old 8pp Heidelberg miniweb press from J Howitt and Sons has been bought by The Max Design and Print Company, a newly-rebranded printer in York that is branching into web printing for the first time. The Max is the new name for...

Ex Perivan staff take tribunal route.(Perivan White Dove Press)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Former staff from Perivan White Dove in Southend are taking the DTI and the factory's new owner to an employment tribunal for their redundancy pay, with GPMU backing. Thirty staff were made redundant on November 27 and 28 last year, days...

ESP to shift.(East Sussex Press)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... East Sussex Press is moving to a single factory unit, almost certainly necessitating a move from Crowborough. The firm is spread across three units and wants to move into a single larger space due to new investment. Md Mark Handford says...

MAN Roland GB appointment.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... MAN Roland GB has appointed two new consumables specialists. Joe McDonald has been taken on to cover Scotland and the north-east of England and Steve Kenefick joins the company to cover the south-west of England. Both have considerable...

Wyndeham Press forecast.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Teather & Greenwood has upgraded its figures for Wyndeham Press for the year to March 2005, having previously almost halved its forecast for the year following a profit warning. It has raised its pre-tax profit estimate more than 30% to #7.5m....

Guardian stake.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Guardian Media Group has taken a 27% stake in Seven Publishing. The company is believed to be planning to set up a new title this year as well as expand its glossy food title, Delicious. Seamus Geoghegan, managing director at Seven and former...

Hollinger shortlist.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Bidders for Hollinger International's assets will be narrowed to a shortlist of around six over the next week when bidders will find out if bids have been successful enough to keep them in the running. Some companies have pulled out as the...

Hexafoo a hot pick solution.(NetXposure )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... NetXposure has announced that Hexafoo, the image portal family's entry level digital asset management solution, has been ranked first as a `hot pick' on Apple.com. Hexafoo enables companies to smartly store, organise and distribute value...

Grgprint invests again.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Following a big spend at Northprint it might have been timely for Grgprint of Leeds to stand back and consolidate but managing director John Grogan certainly doesn't think so. He says: "We are now going for a third Mitsubishi press. This...

York's CDI first.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... York Repro, a long time convert to the benefits of direct imaging Cyrel flexo plates, has installed the first Esko-Graphics CDI Advance high performance flexosetter in the UK. It is installed in a new factory at the company's Manchester...

Senator extends empire.(Senator Print Finishers )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Senator Print Finishers in Leicester has extended its floor space by 50% by buying an adjacent building which it will use to house direct mail operations and develop bespoke equipment. It is now a 30,000sq ft operation across two sites,...

Adare relies on Muller.(Adare Halcyon )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Adare Halcyon is to install a #1.5m ten-colour Muller Martini press with uv drying and remoist finishing options. The Huddersfield company has a large print production facility with ten presses and Agfa Xcalibur 45 ctp system. It has a...

Hungarian conference.(Hungarian Screen Printing Association)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Bill Appleton, consultant screen printing specialist with Autotype International, will be the guest speaker at the Hungarian Screen Printing Association's conference on April 23 and 24. Mr Appleton has more than 47 years' experience in the...

Filtering tool innovation.(Intelligence Online)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Intelligence Online has selected the UK's print profession as one of its initial target markets for PreCV, its innovative online applicant filtering tool. PreCV automatically processes job applicants through the employer's own customised online...

Painter-Printmakers annual exhibition.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The Royal Society of Painter-Printmakers annual exhibition will be held between April 29 and May 23. The exhibition will showcase prints by Paula Rego, together with new works by members of the society using a variety of printmaking techniques....

Synthetic Emulsion Polymers study.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... IAL has published the second edition of its study covering the market for Synthetic Emulsion Polymers in Europe. The study is presented in four volumes and covers the end use of sectors of paints and inks, paper and packaging, adhesives and...

Inkjet technology.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Recent statistics from Pira International show that position inkjet is the fastest growing printing process with an expected market growth of 100% to 2007 for labelling and packaging. A two-day conference on inkjet technology is scheduled to...

Wheatons dances to tune of Muller Bolero.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Polestar Wheatons in Exeter is to replace all its binders with the brand new Bolero from Muller Martini, a machine officially under wraps until it is launched at Drupa. It makes Wheatons the first company in the country to buy a Bolero, a...

TripleArc signs with BMI.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The TripleArc Group and its new print management arm, AccessPlus has signed a contract with BMI Healthcare. The contract was awarded in February and covers all print requirements for BMI Healthcare's 47 private hospitals in the UK. The...

ERA's new venture in Turkey.(European Rotogravure Association )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The European Rotogravure Association this week staged its first conference in Turkey to tap into the potential for gravure in the Turkish packaging market. The conference drew 100 delegates to the Izmir Hilton where ERA secretary general...

Fire plays havoc with Manchester lines.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Printers in Manchester and Cheshire have found themselves unobtainable by phone or having to route calls to their mobiles after a serious fire under the main telephone exchange in Manchester on Sunday night. An estimated 130,000 phone...

Fuji Hunt appointment.(Fuji Hunt Digital Solutions )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Steven Moore has joined Fuji Hunt Digital Solutions to cover digital sales and marketing in the region while Ruth Hurley is on maternity leave. Mr Moore has many years of experience and represented the company on its stand at the Focus on...

Magazines conference.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... PPA's Magazines 2004 conference will be held on May 4 and 5 at the Grosvenor House Hotel, Park Lane, London. This will be the conference's 15th year and last year more than 3,000 attendees took part. The presentation of the 24th PPA awards will...

Carton conference.(BPIF British Carton Association )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Sir Ranulph Fiennes recently delivered a motivational speech to delegates at the BPIF British Carton Association conference on March 11. Also speaking was Helen Potter, brands packaging manager for the Edrington Group whose signature product is...

Oce appointments.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Oce has appointed Joseph R Marciano as president and ceo of Oce's Business Services and Patrick Chapuis as president of the wide format printing systems division of Oce North America. Both men had previously been working at Oce and the...

Action on upper limb injuries urged by HSE.(Health and Safety Executive)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The industry is being urged to tackle its poor record on Work Related Upper Limb Disorders (WRULDs) with a two-year health and safety initiative designed to encourage best practice which is set to be followed by heavier punishment for those...

Wright gets fifth.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Rotherham printer Wright Printing Services has just ordered its fifth Edelmann Web Print 48 five-colour, a press which can print reel to reel or reel to sheet. This is the fifth Edelmann to be installed at WPS and this machine will be...

Good vibrations.(Tullis Russell Papermakers Ltd)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Tullis Russell's team celebrates collecting a commendation from Vibes, (Vision in Business for the Environment of Scotland). The award recognises the innovation in the use of membrane technology to virtually eliminate waste from its coating...

Charterhouse secures #5m Powergen DM contract.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Charterhouse has secured a new direct marketing account worth #5m per year. Powergen appointed the Hatfield company after a short tender process at the end of last year. The energy company's marketing print had previously been handled...

BASF wins silver.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... BASF Printing Systems won silver in the Supplier of the Year category at the well attended 2004 European Flexographic Technical Association awards ceremony. This is the third consecutive year that BASF Printing Systems has received the...

Printmark press.(installs Speedmaster SM52 two-colour press)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Since Printmark in East Grinstead took delivery of a Speedmaster SM52 two-colour press two weeks ago, it has been able to print 27 jobs that it would have had to put out. The company has replaced a single-colour Oliver press. Director Mark...

Alamy offer.(Alamy Images)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Alamy Images, a provider of specialist, rare and leading brand royalty free and traditionally licensed photography, now offers more than 1 million images from 175 agencies and 2,500 plus photographers worldwide. This represents a 330% growth in...

Wet End Chemistry conference.
April 1, 2004... Pira 4th International Scientific and Technical Advances in Wet End Chemistry conference will be held on May 11 and 12 at the Radisson SAS Hotel in Nice, France. A total of 21 presentations from companies are included in the programme. For...

BAPC report stresses digital impact on plans.(British Association of Print and Copyshops)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Fast changing digital technology is eliminating long term planning in many small businesses, according to the latest research from the BAPC. It has just published a major report, Researching the Power of Print, drawing conclusions from a...

Vertis software has customers in mind.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Software which could prove an important plank in customer relations management is now available in the UK from Vertis Marketing Technology, London NW1 Vertis has formed a partnership with Dutch software company Tevreden to market its...

Total team happy with show.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Organisers of this week's Total Processing and Packaging show at the NEC say they were happy with the event, which attracted over 2,000 exhibitors. It is the first show formed from an amalgamation of four traditional shows, Pakex, PPMA,...

Oppolis gets WoodWing.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Oppolis, a software development house in Telford, has become the UK Value Added Reseller for WoodWing software in the UK. WoodWing provides plug-ins which enhance the core of Adobe InDesign software for newspapers, magazines and catalogue...

Watkiss beefs up stable stars.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Watkiss will be introducing a number of enhancements to its product line up at the show, both for its offset and digital operations. Its DigiVac collating system is going to be equipped with an increased loaded bin capacity and performance...

Q1 adopts Intelligent approach to colour.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Belgian quality controls specialist QI Press Controls is bringing a closed loop colour control system to Drupa which eliminates the need to print colour bars or control patches. Instead the company has a high definition CCD camera which...

Baumann sharpens its offering for Print City.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Baumann is exhibiting as part of the Print City collective and will be demonstrating three cutting lines showing how guillotines can be made more productive and profitable with ancillary equipment. Firstly, there is the standard cutting...

CP blows trumpet for Welbound in UK.(CP Graphics )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... CP Graphics has secured the UK agency for the Indian manufactured Welbound range of perfecting binding machines. Chris Davis, sales manager for CP Graphics, says: "Welbound machines will be on show at Drupa at the Welbound stand and we...

IN MY OPINION: Beware the cries of JDF.(job definition format)
April 1, 2004... Henny van Esch warns that no manufacturer has yet developed its products to meet all the requirements of the JDF specification Well, that's got you reading... if you're not already overloaded with the subject. There has been a huge...

Drupa News - In brief: Flint Ink.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Flint Ink will be using Drupa to show off the advantages of a number of technological developments relating to uv, inks that are suitable for radio transmission and brand protection. Included in the demonstrations will be associated hardware...

Drupa News - In brief: Oxy-Dry.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Washing up systems are not likely to stimulate the full attention of many Drupa visitors but production managers who are well aware of the importance of reducing downtime may be well advised to beat a path to the Oxy-Dry stand. The German...

Drupa News - In brief: Goss Graphic Systems.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Today, tomorrow and the future: Who has the questions? Who has the answers? One manufacturer willing to throw its hat into the ring is Goss. Apart from putting down a series of four-high towers to be used as discussion points, Goss will be...

Drupa News - In brief: MAN Roland.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Networking and workflow will be common threads linking many of the exhibits and technology across Print City, and nowhere will this be more in evidence than on the MAN Roland stand. But the German giant will also be adding an extra dimension,...

Drupa News - In brief: BHS.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... BHS, the German flexo and converting manufacturer, is to show off the benefits of its Auto Set Pro, an automatic flatbed die cutter that offers the capability of taking corrugated board from the web and die cutting blanks 350 cycles per minute...

Drupa News - In brief: Asahi Photoproducts.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Direct engraving using sleeve technology is gaining converts year on year and Asahi Photoproducts is addressing the challenges with a new range of plate materials which are to be exhibited at this year's Drupa. For corrugated printing Asahi...

KBA realigns 105 to improve performance.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... This Drupa will see the launch of several new variants of presses in the B1 format, and KBA is expecting big things from its extensively revamped Rapida 105 models. Two features on the new Rapida 105 stand out. The transfer drums have been...

74G strikes chord.(KBA UK)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Last week KBA flew around 120 UK and Ireland printers to Dresden where it held a three-day open house. Competing manufacturers will be hoping that KBA has made a mistake in placing so much emphasis on waterless presses for it was the Rapida 74G...

Packaging ripe for 205.(KBA UK)(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... The largest sheetfed press to be in commercial production got an airing at last week's open day held by KBA at Dresden. Printing a massive 2mx1.5m sheet which is the equivalent of 36 A4 pages to view at around 9,000iph the quality coming off...

Technotrans has new Spin.(Spinclean ctp)(cleaning and filtration system )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Technotrans is turning its eye further afield from its customary press room ancillaries and products this Drupa with the launch of Spinclean ctp. This is a cleaning and filtration system for ctp developer solution. When questioned about...

COMMENT: Show that will show the future.
April 1, 2004... Drupa starts here. Not for exhibitors who are already building their stands. Nor indeed for journalists who have already yawned through a number of presentations on what may or may not become the key products launched at the show. But for the...

Letter: Taking control.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... I am surprised by the comments made by Greg Smith, managing director of Cats Solutions about Danka's recent research into uncontrolled document production (Printing World, March 11) on document control. The report did not "limit itself to...

Letter: People not presentation.(Letter to the Editor)
April 1, 2004... On reading your article `For those in peril' (Printing World, March 25) it seems odd that the BPIF needed to visit California to find out that close collaboration with customers, and understanding what the printed product means to them was of...

Barclays increases holdings in Johnston Press.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Barclays has increased its holdings in Johnston Press to 4%, in the wake of the newspaper publisher's positive results in March. Barclays' group of companies now own 11.3 million shares or 4% of the issued share capital of Johnston Press, up...

Bloomsbury profits.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Bloomsbury, publisher of the Harry Potter novels, saw a continued rise in sales and profits in 2003, but is looking to `identify the global bestselling books of the future' to avoid overdependence on the JK Rowling series. In the meantime,...

Business investment.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Total business investment was up 1.9% to #28.8bn in the fourth quarter of 2003, says the Office of National Statistics. Manufacturing industry saw one of the largest rises in investment, from #3.119bn in the third quarter to #3.29bn in the...

Transcontinental Management.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Transcontinental, the US-Canadian publishing and printing group, will now be run by someone from outside its controlling Marcoux family for the first time in its history. Remi Marcoux has resigned as chief executive officer and passed the reins...

SCA buys CHH.(Carter Holt Harvey )(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... As rumoured, the Swedish tissue and paper company SCA has bought the New Zealand tissue company Carter Holt Harvey for A$890m. SCA will also take over CHH's 50% stake in Sancella, a sanitary products supplier in New Zealand and Australia. ...

Print Inc funding.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Print Inc, the `document convergence' software and outsourcing company, has secured a further $11.4m in funding. The American company has won backing from ABS Capital Partners and Concert Capital Partners, who are putting in $7.4m of private...

Independent's profits rise in spite of UK slip.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Independent News and Media's pre-tax profits increased more than fivefold to #122m last year after exceptional costs, though total sales were flat in the UK despite the much hyped launch of a tabloid edition of the Independent. ...

Wyndeham shares out.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Wyndeham Press Group has placed 3.64 million new shares at 110p to raise about #4m for its takeover of the Graphic Facilities Group, announced last week. The takeover consists of #4.62m up front, #1.9m in cash and the rest shares and a...

Coutts on a high.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... CA Coutts, the retail interiors group, says its concentration on higher margin areas have helped its profits more than double to #2.26m in 2003. With turnover up 7.3% to #35.35m, Coutts's margins have improved and it says most of this is...

Emap expresses confidence in stable despite demise of The Face and J17.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... Despite announcing last week that it plans to close J17 and The Face, Emap sounds very confident about most of its other titles. In a pre-closed period trading update, Emap says that underlying sales are up 3%, leaving out acquisitions. Ad...

API issues further warning.(Brief Article)
April 1, 2004... API, the maker of foils and laminates for luxury product packaging, has issued yet another profit warning. API warned last October that profits for 2002-03 were below expectations and would be as bad as 2001-02. In fact they were...

Compulsory winding up.
April 1, 2004... The following case is due to be heard at Reading County Court, 160-163 Friar Street, Reading, Berkshire RG1 1HE * Square Back Binders Ltd Thruxton Down House, Thruxton Down, Andover, Hampshire SP11 8PR on May 24 at 12 noon. Petition by BE...

Appointment of receivers.
April 1, 2004... * York and Ford Paper Ltd Previous company name Quadstone Ltd Manufacture of paper and paper board. Receivers: SD Maddison and RJ Hunt, PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, Donington Court, Pegasus Business Park, Castle Donington, East Midlands DE74 2UZ...

Meetings of creditors.
April 1, 2004... * Riverline Reprographics Ltd at Hurst Morrison Thomson Corporate Recovery LLP, 5 Fairmile, Henley on Thames, Oxfordshire RG9 2JR on March 10 * Printwise (Orpington) Ltd at 2 AC Court, High Street, Thames Ditton, Surrey KT7 0SR on March 30...