Printing World articles from January 2000

Printing World archives from January 2000

Remploy strike looms over job cuts.
January 10, 2000... The row about job cuts at Remploy - the not-for-profit company set up after the Second World War to provide jobs for the disabled - looks likely to lead to industrial action, with possible strike ballots at all 87 Remploy plants soon. Nine...

Christmas press bonanza for GAE.
January 10, 2000... Graphic Arts Equipment, one of the country's biggest pressroom suppliers, says the demand for its imported offset litho brands is booming thanks to a trend towards lower volumes and lower lead times. Furthermore, this demand stretches across...

Maurice Payne Litho's 12-colour world first.
January 10, 2000... Maurice Payne Litho will be the first user in the world of Heidelberg's 12 unit Speedmaster 102 press when it arrives at the north London company next month. The Acton firm will be taking out an eight-colour Speedmaster to make way for the...

Vivien Nuttall succeeds Paul Unwin.
January 10, 2000... Optichrome Printing Group has a new sales director following the retirement of Paul Unwin at Christmas. Vivien Nuttall has been promoted from the post of sales manager after seven years at Optichrome. Mr Unwin enjoyed a 40-year career in...

Buying clout for small printers.
January 10, 2000... Jerry Widdowson is heading a new venture planning to bring the benefits of bulk buying to smaller printers that would not normally qualify for such discounts. Mr Widdowson has negotiated rates on a number of consumable products and capital...

Williams Lea loses top manager in crash.
January 10, 2000... Staff at Williams Lea FM in London have had a shock start to 2000 following the death of Paul Blakeman, acting head of the company's new media department, in a car crash. Mr Blakeman, who joined Williams Lea five years ago after a career in the...

Governments stand back in #325m inks marriage.
January 10, 2000... Sun Chemical's #325m takeover of Totalfina's Coates Lorilleux business, claimed to be the biggest in the history of the ink industry, has been allowed to go ahead despite protests from competitors. The deal was closed on New Year's Eve and...

Lexicon Marketing Services loosens its pursestrings.
January 10, 2000... Lexicon Marketing Services, Burton-on-Trent, is spending #3m on new Xerox Docuprints and replacement Bell & Howell enclosing lines in response to increased demand. Lexicon, part of the Adare Group, has doubled its turnover in the last two...

Eight-colour Miyakoshi for MBA.
January 10, 2000... MBA Group, a north London direct mail specialist, has finished a #3m investment programme that has brought it a new eight-colour Miyakoshi web press, an Oce PageStream 158DC, Buskro inking systems and Kern mailing systems. The spend began...

Scitex in Creo move?
January 10, 2000... Newspaper reports in Israel have suggested that Scitex is in negotiation with Creo about disposing of its digital prepress business to the Canadian company. A leading Israeli daily, Ma'ariv, is being quoted saying that a $500m deal is already...

Rival Group opens third UK site.
January 10, 2000... The Rival Group, one of the UK's largest privately-owned envelope manufacturers, is to open its third UK manufacturing site at Burnley, and a sales office in Leeds. It is well advanced in its #3m expansion plans which include further machines...

Harlequin sues EfI over Oem allegations.
January 10, 2000... Harlequin has unleashed legal action against Electronics for Imaging after EfI wrote to Harlequin's Oem customers saying they faced legal action for continuing to supply Harlequin's ScriptWorks Rip. EfI claims that the Rip infringes three of...

A52 takes pride of place at MMG.
January 10, 2000... The installation of a Muller Martini eight-colour press is both a rare and expensive occurrence. Nevertheless, it is something that Bristol direct mail printer Mail Marketing Group is doing as the keystone of an extensive redevelopment...

Smurfit to take majority control at Norcor.
January 10, 2000... Jefferson Smurfit, the giant Dublin packaging specialist, is to strengthen its hold in the UK by assuming a majority stake in Norcor, the Norwich manufacturer of corrugated sheets. The Irish firm already owns 29.95% of Norcor, and has made a...

Beeston says goodbye to Billhofer.
January 10, 2000... John Beeston, operations director at Billhofer UK, the Kent distributor of varnishing and laminating machines, has turned his back on the industry. Mr Beeston ended an 11-year spell with the Kemsing company at the end of last year. "It was my...

KPG shock departure - Patrick Berard to go.
January 10, 2000... In a shock announcement just before Christmas, Kodak Polychrome Graphics announced the departure of Patrick Berard, its vice president and general manager, Europe. The announcement described the departure as by mutual consent and that the...

Print mourns the loss of Dennis Durham.
January 10, 2000... Dennis Durham, the long time sales director of Heidelberg UK has died following a massive heart attack. He was 67. For 20 years before his retirement in 1995, Mr Durham had been sales director of Heidelberg UK, a job which put him in contact...

SMS rescue for Howards Labels.
January 10, 2000... The SMS Group has rescued Howards Labels from the receiver, bringing much New Year cheer to many households in Slough. A joint venture was signed between managing directors Martin Brown of the SMS Group and Bernie Leigh of Howards Labels a week...

Beacon claims a first for waterless ctp.
January 10, 2000... In what is being billed as a first for UK waterless printing, Beacon Press, Uckfield has gone ctp. The company is this month taking delivery of a #500,000 Scitex Lotem 800V platesetter, coupled with Timna data management. Beacon went on a...

Dearer carbon black from Germany's Degussa Hulls.
January 10, 2000... Pressure on ink margins is likely to increase dramatically during the coming year, mainly due to the rapid increase in world oil prices. A German carbon black manufacturer Degussa-Hulls of Frankfurt is one of the first to announce a price hike....

Cardiff printer aims to cut makereadies by 50%.
January 10, 2000... Eclipse Printing of Cardiff has installed a Heidelberg Speedmaster in the hope of reducing makereadies by 50%. The SM52-4E with wash-up devices has, says Eclipse md Tony Thorne, "faster set up times, higher running speed and improved quality"....

Bezier sets up its digital print squad.
January 10, 2000... Bezier Labels, Boston, has set up a specialist sub division dedicated to digital printing. Bezier Digital Solutions will comprise five people and its activities will ostensibly revolve around the six-colour Indigo Omnius One-Shot Colour digital...

TAKING the junk out of junk mail.
January 10, 2000... Database handling is one of the skills that enables printers to add value to their products. TERRY ULRICK meets Olwen Direct Mail's data professional Julia Keep joined Olwen Direct Mail after a successful career in computers and database...

Danes win processor war at News International.
January 17, 2000... News International has begun running its four ctp lines in Knowsley, Merseyside, with plate processors made by Gluntz & Jensen. The company claims the switch has allowed it to produce 240 plates per hour on each line with almost absolute...

Golden bangtail envelopes.
January 17, 2000... West Yorkshire printing company Waddington & Ledger printed 24.5 million golden bangtail envelopes for the Children's Promise Millennium Final Hour Appeal which benefited seven leading UK charities. So far, over #1m has already been raised. W&L...

Top advertisers spend up.
January 17, 2000... The top 25 advertisers in the UK's consumer magazines increased their average spend by 16% last year to #116.8m, says the recent PPA Magazine Handbook 2000 report. UK consumers spent #1.8bn on 1.35 billion magazines in 1998/99. Circulations...

When the levy breaks.
January 17, 2000... Last year, there were fears the Climate Change Levy would be the death- knell for the British paper industry and bad news for printers. ALEX GRANT reports on how an odd alliance of unions, employers and MPs got the new energy tax changed ...

Uncertainty as Caledonian Int shudders into receivership.
January 24, 2000... Caledonian International, the troubled Scottish book manufacturing company, has finally gone into receivership after nearly a year of uncertainty, leaving 360 jobs at its premises in Bishopbriggs, Glasgow, on the line. The book manufacturer...

4DM builds capacity with #2m high tech spend.
January 24, 2000... DIRECT marketing organisation 4DM Group is investing #2m in print machinery to meet rising demand. The six new machines for 4DM's sites in Kettering, and Tenbury Wells, represent a 50% increase in capacity for the group, which says it is...

It's big business at Bousfield, Bristol.
January 24, 2000... A clutch of new contracts has boosted business by #350,000 for Bousfield Heatons, the Bristol manufacturer of inks, coatings and pressroom chemicals. The bulk of the business is coming from a #200,000 deal with the MBA Group in London to supply...

Development of four pigment-based black inkjet inks.
January 24, 2000... Behind an exhibition of award winning black and white photographs currently on display at the Royal Festival Hall in London, is the development by Ilford of what it claims to be a unique set of four pigment-based black inkjet inks. The...

Paris match for Universal press at printing school.
January 24, 2000... French lessons in printing are being upgraded with an order for the country's first shaftless Goss Universal press to train apprentice newspaper printers. The Universal 45 will be installed at the printing school Association de Formation des...

DuPont moves into global info.
January 24, 2000... DuPont's photopolymer and electronic materials business unit, which includes DuPont Color Proofing, is changing its name to DuPont Technologies. Vice president and general manager John Hodgson says: "This is more than a simple name change. We...

FT millennium plate raises #10,000.
January 24, 2000... THE LAST Financial Times front page press plate of 1999 and the first of the new millennium, scooped #10,000 for charity with the plates going to the highest bidder at auction. The original plates were auctioned off for over #2,500 to an as yet...

Print Search to save Parisa 25%.
January 24, 2000... The Parisa Group, Warrington, the #200m leisure services company which controls a chain of off-licences and cafe bars across the UK, has appointed Print Search of Manchester to handle the production, storage and distribution of all its printing...

Creo/Scitex merger will create world prepress number one.
January 24, 2000... Creo and Scitex have announced plans to merge the Canadian computer to plate company with Scitex's digital preprint division to create a $635m digital prepress supplier stretching from image capture to computer to plate, where the new company...

Consumables boost for GAE in GeoGraphic.
January 24, 2000... A strategic alliance has been announced by Graphic Arts Equipment, of Perivale, west London, and GeoGraphic a press room consumables supplier based in High Wycombe. This alliance brings together two businesses that in recent years have made a...

Receivers search for buyer for John Cleland.
January 24, 2000... Belfast packaging group John Cleland is the hands of receiver Arthur Andersen as changes in the textile and pharmaceutical markets in which it operates have left the company struggling. Colin Dempster and Richard Fleming are running the company...

Six-colour Hexachrome process.
January 24, 2000... James Upton, Birmingham has used the six-colour Hexachrome process to produce this CD pack for Universal International's Midnite Vultures album for Beck. James Upton thinks this pack may be a first for the European music industry and says the...

Tobacco ad ban looks very near.
January 24, 2000... The long-awaited ban on tobacco advertising - which the BPIF says could cost 1,000 or more printing jobs - looks set to come into place in February or March after the Government won an appeal against a delaying injunction granted to tobacco...

Field Group to buy SCA's Glasgow carton company.
January 24, 2000... Packaging manufacturer Field Group is to buy SCA Packaging's Scottish folding carton business subject to the outcome of employee consultations. The Glasgow specialist in the alcoholic drinks, electronics, clothing and food markets was bought by...

Bland to deliver Livery Lecture.
January 24, 2000... Sir Christopher Bland, the often outspoken chairman of the BBC's board of governors, will be the speaker at The Worshipful Company of Stationers & Newspaper Makers' Livery Lecture. It takes place at Stationers' Hall, London, on March 6, and Sir...

Jarvis Porter loses #4m M&S deal.
January 24, 2000... The Marks & Spencer decision to source more of its garment range overseas has now hit the labels market. Jarvis Porter, which produces some #4m worth of garment swing tickets for M&S at its Spreckley works in Nottingham, has been told by the...

New customer ops chief for FFEI.
January 24, 2000... Andrew Williams is the new director of customer and commercial operations for Fujifilm Electronic Imaging. He will take responsibility for growing the revenue worldwide and developing new sales channels for the company's expanding portfolio of...

Status concern over part-time workers.
January 24, 2000... The Government has watered down new regulations covering the employers of part-time workers, which unions say, leave many part-timers - including thousands of printing industry home-workers and those in the finishing sector - without the legal...

Portland pulls plug on ADS.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Portland PMS has pulled the plug on ADS, the artwork delivery system used to transmit digital ads from agencies to printers over ISDN lines. The company has chosen to focus its efforts on Ad Express, its own development, which uses the...

Hardy Group's new single port of call.
January 24, 2000... Print and communications specialist the Norman Hardy Group has streamlined its three companies under a new management team headed by Stuart Hardy as group chairman. Norman W Hardy Printing Group, NWH Sales and New Venture Publications have been...

Dublin plant to close in single site move.
January 24, 2000... Burgess, the greeting cards printer owned by Bezier, is to close its finishing plant in Dublin and cut over 150 jobs as it relocates finishing to a new site next to its factory in Abingdon. The move follows a sea-change in greetings cards...

Centurion to buy PP&P.
January 24, 2000... Centurion Press is to buy Dutch media sales company PP&Partners in a #600,000 deal which will create one of Holland's largest independent media sales operations. The merger of PP&Partners with Centurion's existing Dutch company, Centurion...

New flexographic repro operation is born in Bury.
January 24, 2000... A new repro house for flexo printers has begun life in Bury. Connect Digital Imaging has started off in a 12,000 sq ft building with an #800,000 investment in ctp equipment. Although primarily a flexo shop, it will also offer offset litho...

74Karat speeds up work at FE Burman.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... The UK's first 74Karat digital press is up and running at the London premises of prepress house FE Burman. Managing director Michael Burman says the press - which he originally tested at the Karat Digital Press factory in Germany - allows the...

New model SM 52 for Stewarts.
January 24, 2000... Stewarts, the Edinburgh commercial printer, has become the first British company to order a Speedmaster 52 with coater, a new version announced by Heidelberg late last year. The five-unit SM 52, and a two- colour SM 52 that Stewarts is also...

Sixth Shoei joins MPC in Enfield.
January 24, 2000... The Magazine Printing Company has ordered a sixth Shoei B2 folder, with a pallet preloader, in a bid to further automate production of short run magazines, a particularly competitive line of work. The new folder, supplied by Smyth-Horne, is the...

MAN Roland sells off US slitter/rewinder operation.
January 24, 2000... MAN Roland is selling off its US business which manufactures slitter rewinders and machinery for the converting industry. The Stanford division, located in Salem, Illinois, is being bought by a company called Stanford Products, Chicago, for an...

First European installation.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... AMI Technology of Hemel Hempstead is delighted with the way the commissioning has gone on the first European installation of a Hamada B452 four-colour B3 press. The press is constructed using the monocoque method and as a result is...

TypeMaker acquires ColorBlind agency.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Distribution of the ColorBlind range of colour management software is set to be stepped up. TypeMaker, a Birmingham colour management specialist, has bought the manufacturing and distribution rights for the software and accompanying products...

COMMENT: Will we all work for one company?
January 24, 2000... The planned digital prepress merger between Creo and Scitex is yet another drip, drip, drip in the seemingly relentless contraction of the supply side of our industry. This, of course, matches the way the industry itself is contracting with...

LETTERS TO THE EDITOR.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... The Isle of Man pound was first? I would like to point out what appears to be an inaccuracy in your story Belfast leads the way with plastic note (Printing World, January 17). You claim the Northern Bank #5 note is the first "plastic" note...

New dawn for the till rolls.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Dawn Retail Systems, an Airdrie company which provides a wide range of services to the retail and catering trades, has moved to a new factory and begun producing its own till roll paper. The company has invested #300,000 in the new site,...

Ruff Dog barks in Newcastle.
January 24, 2000... Dogged determination has secured the first contract for a new company specialising in co-ordinated sourcing of printed materials. Ruff Dog Productions, of Newcastle, was barking up the right tree when it came to pitching to "one of the...

GPMU `appalled' at IoW print closure.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... The GPMU says it is "appalled" by the decision to close J Arthur Dixon, the greetings card manufacturer on the Isle of Wight, only a month after the managing director told staff how optimistic he was about the future. The receiver, Jonathan...

New exhibition hall at Drupa.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... As the newest and largest exhibition hall at Drupa 2000 (Dusseldorf May 18-31) is still being built, this computer simulated image shows how it will look. The hall will be occupied by PrintCity, the project devised by MAN Roland to bring...

Crawford fronts Ipex 2002 sales.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Trevor Crawford, former group publishing director at Miller Freeman responsible for Printing World and British Printer is the new sales director for Ipex 2002. He has joined IIR Exhibitions as the man responsible for sales, exhibitor liaison...

MAN Roland takes control at Bruder Henn.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... As part of its strategy to strengthen its European presence, MAN Roland has acquired a majority shareholding in the Bruder Henn Group of graphic systems suppliers. Henn, with a annual turnover of around DM230m, has branch operations in areas...

Notts printer adds second Xeikon.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Demand for digital printing is rocketing because the market has at last woken up to the possibilities of the technology, according to CRi Digital Print, Nottingham. To prove it, the company has just taken delivery of a second Xeikon digital...

MGS supplies second OPI system.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... The Independent Press, Llandudno Junction, part of the Trinity Mirror Group, has turned to Marlowe Graphic Systems for a new OPI server and comprehensive back-up system. MGS, Berkhamsted, is to work closely with the Independent Press to link...

Jobs and plants to go in $125m Quebecor revamp.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Quebecor World is radically restructuring at a cost of $125m following its acquisition of World Color Press. The moves to "optimally integrate" the operations of Quebecor Printing and World Color Press over the next 18 months mean an...

ET Heron wins Body Beautiful.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Four new magazines are being launched in the first few months of the year by WV Publications, covering subjects ranging from women's beauty products to kart racing. But the bad news for predatory printers hoping to cash in is that the company...

Specialist Dutch buy for Lawson Mardon.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Lawson Mardon, the giant food and tobacco packaging printer with a factory near Bristol has acquired the Dutch gravure printer Vernhout & Van Sluyters Gravure, a specialist printer of tobacco related packaging. The two companies have extensive...

Taylor Bloxham diamond anniversary.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Leicester Tigers' rugby international Austin Healey is seen with Taylor Bloxham chairman Bruce Sharpless on the occasion the company's diamond anniversary at its new headquarters. Leicester City FC manager Martin O'Neill was also one of the...

Paul Rink stays to lead Wolstenholme Rink in major commitment.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Following the tragic and untimely death of chairman Tony Rink last December, Wolstenholme Rink has moved to remodel its group main board. Rodger Booth, the chairman of the Bemrose Corporation has been confirmed as non-executive chairman of Rink...

PAPER NEWS.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Ensocoat goes Dutch with hallmark Ensocoat SBS board, which is made by StoraEnso Packaging Boards, has been chosen as the principal card material for Hallmark Cards in the Dutch market. "Cardboard must have good stiffness, brightness,...

Alderson turns to ctp and Matchprint proof solution.
January 24, 2000... Alderson Brothers, which calls itself London's largest privately owned printer, is taking the unusual step of installing a ctp system for the purpose of producing proofs. Proofing for ctp is a thorny issue, and this move represents an...

Large self-adhesive printing set to rocket.(Brief Article)
January 24, 2000... Large format, self-adhesive printing is set to rocket by 18% in the next four years, but very little of the production is expected to be printed digitally, according to new research. The Large Format Self- Adhesive Graphic Arts Market Study,...

Tim Williams and his ISO baby.
January 24, 2000... It may not look much like a bouncing bundle of joy, but Tim Williams, technical director of Cambrian Printers, Aberystwyth, believes the company's newly achieved ISO 9002 status is like having a baby. "I have to admit it was like having a...

Euro rocks Enschede Oberthur merger.
January 24, 2000... Enschede, the Netherlands printer of many British postage stamps, and 50% of the DVLA vehicle tax discs, has run into a few problems in fulfilling its commitment in producing the euro in time for the issue date, January 1, 2002. So much so that...

New soccer weekly hopes to score with supporters despite crowded market.
January 24, 2000... Football is one of the boom areas for publishing as the sport continues to ride a wave of remarkable popularity with the chattering classes. But a new title has come along which promises to dig a little deeper than the glut of glossy titles...

Calendar trophy for Augustus Martin.
January 24, 2000... A story told one word at a time over 53 weeks helped printer Augustus Martin to a prize at the National Business Calendar Awards. The London company was joint winner of the trophy for Pictorial Bespoke Calendars with its page-a-week format...

Toon freebies to fight to the death on Newcastle's street.
January 24, 2000... Newspaper war has been declared on the streets of Newcastle by two free daily titles, both called Metro. The papers have been launched within a week of each other, and both camps are saying there can only be one winner. In one corner,...

Micropress chooses Luxel for B1 output.
January 24, 2000... Micropress, a magazine printer in Halesworth, has shunned the current industry rush towards computer to plate with the first installation in England of a two-laser beam Sumo Luxel F9000. The imagesetter is needed to feed the Suffolk company's...

Robert Horne backs BPIF Directions.
January 24, 2000... Paper merchant Robert Horne is to sponsor the BPIF's quarterly survey of economic trends in the industry, and as part of its sponsorship - which begins with the next issue of Directions, covering the last quarter of 1999 - is supplying the...

Franklyn Press up for grabs from administrator.
January 24, 2000... Twenty-four jobs have been lost and another 25 are in the balance at the Franklyn Press in Macclesfield, where administrators were called in before Christmas. Michael Gutersohn, proprietor of the 18-year-old family company, threw in the towel...

Agfa opens digital centre.
January 24, 2000... Agfa has opened a 1,700sq m building dedicated to its digital printing systems division. The state-of-the-art structure, in Mortsel, Belgium, houses executive management, marketing, logistics, finance, training, customer support and the core...

Stickers for egg promotion.
January 24, 2000... Funny faces on eggs were serious business for Olympus Labels, Leeds, when it produced the funny face stickers for a promotion for a range of Co-op free range eggs. The national promotion which offered a free woolly hat as well as the stickers,...