Printing World articles from January 1999

Printing World archives from January 1999

Wace damns Photobition offer as trying to `buy on the cheap'.
January 11, 1999... The battle for Wace looks set to run and run as Photobition last week published its official offer and saw it immediately condemned by Wace as an attempt to buy the group on the cheap. The takeover was launched before Christmas after...

IN plans out of town superplant for Dublin.
January 11, 1999... Independent Newspapers is planning to trade its current cramped Dublin city centre production site for a new one on the outskirts of the capital. All of the major international press manufacturers are pitching proposals to provide higher...

GPMU notches up another working time deal.
January 11, 1999... The GPMU has struck a deal on working time with the paper company Robert Horne. One of the UK's biggest paper merchants, it is based in Northampton and has 1,000 staff across a number of depots across the country. The deal covers 200...

Sky high, six high Wifag.
January 11, 1999... Wifag is boasting a first with the installation of what it claims is the world's tallest web press, a Wifag OF 370 GTD, with six couples providing 12 inking units in one tower. The press, which has just gone online at AZ Grafische...

Danka shot in the arm.
January 11, 1999... Shares in Danka Business Systems, the troubled photocopier company, received a boost last week when the supplier managed to end its financial obligations to Eastman Kodak. It is estimated this will save Danka $150m in the next three years,...

Power and good looks for new G3.
January 11, 1999... Apple last week launched the Yosemite Power Macintosh G3 computer, which it is calling the most powerful and best looking PC on the market. The workstation is related in design to the recently launched iMac, but is being aimed at the...

Big Flower UK deal completes.
January 11, 1999... Big Flower's acquisition of Colorgraphic has been completed, but is still keeping the terms of the deal a secret. The US direct mail and agency services group swooped for the UK's leading direct mail printer in December. It joins Olwen...

Porter Chadburn in #3m spend.
January 11, 1999... Customark, a division of Markem Systems, has been acquired by Porter Chadburn for some #3m. Customark is a producer of self-adhesive and thermal transfer label machinery and ribbons. It has been acquired free of debt and will operate...

Mailcom seizes Abbey National bills.
January 11, 1999... Mailcom Secure Services, Milton Keynes, has secured a contract to print and mail bank statements for Abbey National, previously done inhouse . The bank has chosen to outsource the printing of their 30 million statements a year, for 1.8...

Calcomp faces an uncertain future.
January 11, 1999... Calcomp, US manufacturer of large format printers, is facing an uncertain future as major shareholder Lockheed Martin is declining to increase its backing. At present, Calcomp has a $43m facility with Lockheed Martin and says that this...

Rexam moves out of corrugated.
January 11, 1999... Rexam is keeping its promise to sell off its printing and industrial packaging interests, starting with its corrugated packaging division. It is selling this division to SCA Packaging for #195m. SCA Packaging, a Swedish company, has...

1999 PTD is out now.
January 11, 1999... The new and updated edition of the Printing Trades Directory - the information bible for both printers and print buyers alike - is now available from Miller Freeman Information Services. The 856-page 1999 edition contains vital information...

New dawn for A3 Litho.
January 11, 1999... A3 Litho, a stationery and promotional material printer in Farnham, has been bought by director Tony Pooles and his wife Carole-Ann. Managing director Nigel Smith, who held a majority stake in the Surrey company's shares, is to retire from...

Polestar creates mag and cat super division.
January 11, 1999... Polestar has created a new super magazine division to handle long run, high pagination time sensitive services to the magazine and catalogue markets. The newly formed consumer magazine sector comprises Polestar Watford and Polestar...

Polestar commissions two major presses.
January 11, 1999... Packaging printing has moved into a new era, now that Polestar Taylowe's highly specialised #2m Roland 700 has completed its commissioning trials at Maidenhead. The trials of the nine-colour press, two of the colour units being flexo, have...

Geschke in worldwide push as `Quark Killer' readies for launch.
January 11, 1999... As Adobe prepares its new K2 publishing applications for market, GARETH WARD assesses the battle lines being drawn up between Adobe and Quark as the latter strengthens its marketing and client support. As Adobe's chairman Chuck Geschke...

#51m backs Iggesund hopes in eastern Europe.
January 11, 1999... Iggesund Paperboard is investing #51m in developing and increasing the capacity of folding box board at its Workington mill. The investment will mean that the north west of England works will increase its annual capacity from 190,000 tonnes...

Stora Enso unveils new image.
January 11, 1999... Stora Enso, the newly combined Swedish and Finnish papermaking giant, celebrated the arrival of 1999 by unveiling its new corporate identity and began trading its shares on the Helsinki and Stockholm Stock Exchanges. The company, with...

Bradley scores in China.
January 11, 1999... Huddersfield may not be the most likely location for a sale to China, but Bradley Graphics in the West Yorkshire town has sold a remanufactured scanner and proofing press to a Beijing printer. Bradley's managing director Robin Hornby...

Farrukh signs up North American distributor.
January 11, 1999... Farrukh Systems, the imposition software developer, is gearing up for a major assault on the US and Canadian markets with the signing of a North American distribution deal with Ahearn & Soper, the large format and prepress specialist which...

Spanish bonanza for Ferag.
January 11, 1999... Spain has a low newspaper readership, so it is a difficult market in which to sell newspaper press equipment. However, Ferag has just won an order for five postpress equipment lines. It came from Barcelona company Ediciones Primera Plana,...

Scitex sells its Digital Video arm.
January 11, 1999... Scitex has sold its Digital Video business to Accom, a Californian professional television equipment manufacturer, for around $10m. As part of the deal, Scitex has also been given warrants to buy a 10% stake in Accom. Scitex Digital Video...

UK Paper boxes clever over '98 Christmas cards.
January 11, 1999... UK Paper is working with the Post Office in its annual Christmas card collection scheme by providing it with 15,000 large white collection boxes branded with the Post Office logo. The boxes will appear in 10,000 Post Offices until the end...

Brighton 'Brickmanship'.
January 11, 1999... Brighton printer Newman Thomson has installed a Brickman 300 Briquetter, supplied by KK Balers, to compact the waste paper it produces which has served to free up storage space and eliminate the cost of disposing of bagged waste paper. ...

Better water at Severnprint.
January 11, 1999... Severnprint, Gloucester, has introduced a reverse osmosis system to its water supply, with the intention of improving print consistency. The company is a printer of brochures and promotional material which runs six sheetfed presses...

Cleaner dust free life at Woolnough's.
January 11, 1999... Woolnough's, the Northamptonshire printer and bookbinder, claims to have received environmental and cost benefits as a result of fitting a pneumatic conveying/dust extraction system. The system was installed by Nicholls & Alibones...

Is UK print ready for the euro?
January 11, 1999... SANDRINE BRADLEY talks to a wide selection of companies and finds a lot of preparedness, but also a lot of indifference for the new currency. As we enter the age of the euro, is it time for the industry to readjust to a changing economic...

TAKE GOOD CARE OF YOURSELF.
January 11, 1999... Are you one of the old school who believes that you do not reach the pinnacle of a career in print without losing a finger or two? Then read on. AVELEINE BYRD looks into the work of the Health & Safety Executive's Paper & Printing Group. ...

GREEN UP YOUR ACT.
January 11, 1999... Environmental inspections should not be feared, but welcomed and even used as a promotional tool, says ALEX GRANT, who discovers that actions can sometimes speak louder than audits. There are a number of sure-fire ways to tell when an...

Ones to Watch.
January 11, 1999... Pira International's Basics of Printing & Finishing, Leatherhead January 26-28 Pira's three day course is designed for newcomers to the industry who need to be given insights into print processes ranging from text setting, repro and...

Spema adds the Abbey habit.
January 11, 1999... Spema, the Wembley print finishing house, is one of the many companies to benefit from Abbey National's decision to contract out its printing, which was done inhouse until last summer. Adare has signed a five-year agreement to become the...

This year should be the year of the foil.
January 11, 1999... Foilblockers are throwing caution to the wind and predicting a bumper 1999 in the run-up to the Millennium. Printafoil, Mitcham, bought a new Stauer PZ 82 at Ipex, replacing a platen and installed it alongside two Stauers. The company...

Set & Match wins the computer to plate game.
January 11, 1999... Set & Match, a prepress bureau in Birmingham, is keeping its options open with its latest equipment purchase, a Highwater Platinum 2230 ctp system that can handle both film and plates. Installed last year, the Platinum was chosen over a...

Spend on holograms now.
January 11, 1999... Foil Impressions, the specialist in foil blocking and embossing, has a simple message to customers: splash out now or spend 1,000 years regretting a chance missed. "The Millennium is sparking a lot more interest, particularly in...

Better pressroom phone calls.
January 11, 1999... West Ferry Printers, the printer of a number of national newspapers, has overcome the problems of phoning to and from noisy press halls, by installing a Pro700 phone system from Stentofon, Crawley. The system, containing seven phones on...

MAN Roland up 22%.
January 18, 1999... MAN Roland, the world's second largest press manufacturer, which restructured and returned to profit last year, is reporting continuing success in the first five months of its 1998/99 financial year. Orders booked increased by 22% over the...

`Talks' lift Field shares.
January 18, 1999... Field Packaging has disclosed that it is in talks which may, or may not, lead to a formal offer for the company. The surprise announcement came after the Field share price began rising steeply. Shares gained 24% to stand at 281p on the...

Goss wins bank backing.
January 18, 1999... Goss Graphic Systems has completed negotiations with its financial backers and emerged with a new agreement on repaying its debts incurred when the company staged a management buyout from Rockwell. The banks have agreed to amend the $200m...

Heat is on for St Ives.
January 18, 1999... Emap Metro, the home of Q, Empire and FHM, is to add another magazine, Heat, to its stable. The entertainment magazine is to be launched on February 2. It will be printed by St Ives in Peterborough, and will have a 380,000 a week...

Minton's `clear vision' in Arjo's global reshuffle.
January 18, 1999... Philippe Beylier has lost his job as chief executive of papermaker Arjo Wiggins Appleton following a strategic business review led by Ken Minton, who is to step up from non-executive chairman to chairman. It has been decided that the group...

Cascade names new ceo.
January 18, 1999... Cascade Systems, the US based software developer has a new chief executive officer. Robert Angelo has become ceo and president of the Massachusetts company, replacing Malcolm McGrory who becomes vice chairman and executive vice president....

Highwater adds to dealers.
January 18, 1999... Highwater has appointed new dealers in Germany, France, Holland and Belgium in a bid to double its representation on in the rest of Europe. They will sell Rips, platesetters and associated software. Highwater's accounts department in...

Sappi ready to add to Transcript.
January 18, 1999... Sappi's carbonless paper producing Transcript mill is keeping details close to its chest of exactly what new products are going to be launched next month, following a #1m investment in equipment and r&d which the Fife company is currently...

Spottiswoode Polyman snapped up by Pindar.
January 18, 1999... Pindar is expecting delivery of the first parts of a five unit MAN Polyman web press at its Scarborough factory this week. The company bought the fastest web press in the UK during Ipex, but had not then anticipated buying a 16pp machine....

Silicon Graphics does the double.
January 18, 1999... Silicon Graphics International (SGI), has livened up the Windows NT visual workstation market with the launch of two new products, the 320 and 540. The 320 is supported by two Intel Pentium II processors running at 450Mhz while the 540...

Bezier divides screen operation in Wakefield.
January 18, 1999... Bezier Creative Print, the former Wace Screen division renamed in the management buyout of Wace UK's printing business, has opened a new site to allow its point of sale and textile material businesses to operate from separate premises. The...

NS pushes the Press.
January 18, 1999... The Newspaper Society is to launch a major advertising campaign in March, in an attempt to build awareness of Britain's regional and local Press. The campaign will have a yearly budget of #3m and will comprise trade and regional press...

Shuttleworth hits the road with Windows.
January 18, 1999... Business systems company, Shuttleworth, is to introduce a scheduling module to its recently launched Windows-based management information system at the end of this year. The company is already set to introduce a #1,250 purchase order...

FT ponders German version.
January 18, 1999... The Financial Times is considering the launch of a German language edition in Frankfurt. Frankfurt was the Financial Times' first printing base outside the UK when the newspaper decided to expand abroad 20 years ago. New York was added in...

Partnership in leather.
January 18, 1999... Two old established and respected names in the world of leather bookbinding have come together. J Hewit & Sons, which has manufactured an extensive range of bookbinding leathers from its Kinauld Tannery at Currie, Edinburgh, for the past...

World Color keeps growing.
January 18, 1999... World Color Press, the giant North American printing group, is becoming one of the world's largest with yet another acquisition - Infinity Graphics in Connecticut. World Color owns 52 factories across the US and Canada and employs over...

Maintaining the Dornier spirit.
January 18, 1999... Direct Press Marketing, Westerham, a new used machinery dealer on the block, is up and running. With an avowed intent of being the successor in spirit, ethics and determination to the now defunct Dornier Machinery. DPM is hell bent on...

Openshaw adds Howson plates and Manders' inks.
January 18, 1999... Openshaw has added two new product ranges to its existing supplies - Agfa Howson positive plates and ink. This is after picking up the UK distribution rights to Manders sheetfed litho inks, a first for the company. The plates join Fuji,...

Shareholders urge action on Mirror.
January 18, 1999... The on-off merger saga between the Mirror Group and Trinity, the UK's largest regional newspaper group, took another twist last week. Talks between the two were resumed before Christmas, having broken down last spring. But last week...

Chain shows quick profit.
January 18, 1999... Kall Kwik is celebrating what it claims was the best ever financial year in its history, with its turnover during the last 12 months breaking the #70m barrier. The Windsor centre has played a large part in this collective success of the...

SMG print to stay put.
January 18, 1999... Scottish Media Group has announced the construction of a 60,000sq ft office to accommodate its publishing division, which will move from its present site in Albion Street in Glasgow city centre. The new building will be linked to the...

Culver chosen for RA Monet prints.
January 18, 1999... Culver Graphics Litho, the High Wycombe specialist in fine art reproduction, has won the contract to produce the prints that will accompany the Royal Academy of Arts exhibition, Monet in the 20th Century, which runs from January 23-April 18....

Md at Klippan Paper Sales.
January 18, 1999... Garry Colyer has been appointed as managing director of Klippan Paper Sales in the UK. He became well known in the industry through the success he enjoyed from the mid-1980s with Data Copy and MoDo Office, where he was chief executive. ...

Holly moves from Agfa to Polaroid.
January 18, 1999... Holly Hokrein is the new marketing programs manager at Polaroid Graphics Imaging. Previously Ms Hokrein was marketing communications manager at Agfa. In her new role at Polaroid, she will work with dealers to implement channel marketing...

Cp sales nationwide.
January 18, 1999... Domino, Cambridge, has promoted David Ellen to UK commercial printing sales manager. For the last three years, Mr Ellen has worked for Domino as CP sales manager for northern England and previously for five years with Sheridan and...

SR tempts back two.
January 18, 1999... SR Communications, the south London printer and direct mailer, has tempted two IT experts back to its payroll to help expand the company's laser personalisation capacity. Mike Schneider, who left SR Communications a year ago for a small...

Client services manager.
January 18, 1999... Smith Print Group, Gateshead, has appointed Richard Lawson as client services manager. He joins the company from the advertising industry, and the appointment to the new post marks Smith Print's expansion into design, marketing...

Marketing for Robert Horne.
January 18, 1999... Robert Horne Paper has appointed Steve Brading as its new marketing manager. He was previously head of marketing at John Dickinson Stationery, with overall responsibility for brands such as Basildon Bond, Plus Fabric, New Guardian, Black...

Two non-execs.
January 18, 1999... Macfarlane, the Glasgow packaging specialist, has appointed two new non- executive directors, Bob Speirs and Archie Hunter, both of whom come from outside the print and packaging industries. Mr Speirs, who joins as the company's senior...

New start on finishing.
January 18, 1999... Judith Chapman has joined the finishing department at the Smith Print Group, as part of the company's on-going expansion since it moved to its new works at Metro Centre Riverside Park, Gateshead. Ms Chapman brings more than 19 years'...

Mitsubishi takes 76% of Stora Carbonless.
January 18, 1999... Japanese paper giant Mitsubishi Paper Mills has bought 76% of two of Stora's operations - Stora Carbonless Paper, Bielefed and Stora Spezialpapiere, Flensburg. Brian Garson, managing director of Stora Carbonless Paper UK, says: "We are...

Robert Horne parties in Goodwood style.
January 18, 1999... Toby Marchant, managing director of Robert Horne Paper has warned that "conditions will continue to be difficult for the start of 1999. "But on a brighter note, we believe the Millennium will have positive spin-offs, for reasons of both...

Inadequate management - the hidden crisis holding back print.
January 18, 1999... Last week Printing World's Opinion column highlighted the shortage of top managers in UK printing. Here, GARETH WARD probes further and discovers that trained managers are increasingly in demand. Barry Hibbert's surprise departure from his...

Textile troubles but better inks promised.
January 18, 1999... Textile printing was in the news last week after Reebok decided to get tough on Indian companies selling counterfeit versions of its sports clothing, while at the Heimtextil show in Frankfurt, Encad revealed steps forward in digital textile...

Roll out more barrels.
January 18, 1999... Thieme, the German screen printing equipment manufacturer, has installed its third machine for printing sheet metal at South African oil barrel maker Van Leer. The Thieme 3000 unit will be used on sheet metal plates weighing 3.5kg,...

Fifth SA government Solna web press.
January 18, 1999... South Africa's Government Printing Company in Pretoria is to install its fifth Solna web press, with the introduction of a two unit D300. The press will be used for the production of the Government Gazette, stamps, postal orders and a...

Mako boost in Iceland.
January 18, 1999... Icelandic prepress house Steinmark, in the town of Hafnarfjordur, says the installation of an ECRM Mako 4625 imagesetter has been a great boost for business. Although Steinmark has contracts with Coca Cola and local government, its main...

French printer buys Weber, Switzerland.
January 18, 1999... Weber, the leading Swiss web offset printer, has been bought by Partenaires-Livres, a major French book printing operation. Weber's management had been considering a number of options to secure the future of the print group, eventually...

Tag that pallet, tag that bale.
January 18, 1999... CopyTag is an amazing new system that allows a label incorporating a silicon chip to be attached to any pallet which then becomes radio traceable worldwide. ROD HAYES assesses a new product currently being applied to equipment tagging for...

Colourstream chooses ctp over more staff.
January 18, 1999... Colourstream Litho has a somewhat different approach to ctp investment which is done for many reasons - sometimes a "me too" approach, but generally because companies invest to keep up to speed on the latest technologies, satisfied in the...

ECRM makes Black Cat purr.
January 18, 1999... Black Cat Graphics, Bristol, is making a leap into the future by getting its claws into a StingRay 6300 imagesetter from ECRM, and being no stranger to its products, there is no doubt that this is the most productive machine so far. ...

Tabloid copydot solution.
January 18, 1999... Newsquest (South London), like many companies called upon to handle large numbers of advertisements supplied as film, has invested in a copydot scanner to enable an advertisement to be handled within a digital workflow. Working in the...

Cheaper Rainbows offered.
January 18, 1999... Imation has announced reductions of around 33% on the Rainbow digital proofing system, and the reductions include the Controller software. A dye sublimation proofing device, the Rainbow comes in two models. The 2730 (above) is the jobbing...

PACK UP YOUR TROUBLES.
January 18, 1999... "Could do better" would seem to be the general consensus from the world of packaging on its current performance. JIM LARKIN finds out how carton printers are adapting to current trends. There will have undoubtedly emerged three enduring...

THE SECRET OF MY SUCCESS.
January 18, 1999... SANDRINE BRADLEY profiles packaging specialist MY Holdings and its chief executive John Monks, who has seen the company's turnover rise to #140m in eight years. The last eight years has seen a dramatic turnaround for the fortunes of...

Heidelberg to switch Slough plant to used machinery.
January 25, 1999... Heidelberg is to end binding machine manufacture in Slough and will use the factory to refurbish and rebuild secondhand presses and other graphic arts equipment. This will mark the first step into handling secondhand machines in any...

34 jobs go at Mackays.
January 25, 1999... Kent book printer Mackays of Chatham has shed 34 jobs to face up to current tough market conditions. The cuts, all GPMU jobs, are across the factory, but the finishing area is hardest hit. Mackays has sustained a steady investment...

Print tops in profit doubts.
January 25, 1999... Printing, paper and packaging companies have been issuing more profit warnings than most other industrial sectors, according to a report from financial analyst Ernst & Young. Ten per cent of all quoted print firms issued profit warnings in...

#194m US bid for Field.
January 25, 1999... Chesapeake Corporation, a US paper and packaging company, last week launched a recommended #194m cash offer for Field Group, in a further sign of consolidation in the UK packaging sector. The US group says it would use Field to spearhead...