Printing World articles from July 2000

Printing World archives from July 2000

LCP highlights skills shortage in London.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The print sector is facing a recruitment crisis with seven vacancies to every job applicant, according to new figures provided by the London College of Printing. It says it currently has 15 jobs on its recruitment board with not a single...

Print boss set to buy Swindon Town FC.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Terry Brady, the owner of North London's Alito Colour who is said to be one of the wealthiest printers in the UK, is set to buy Swindon Town FC for #2m. The former director of Portsmouth FC plans to finalise the deal at the club's creditor's...

Scorpio-Fish buys three stitching lines.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The ambitiously expanding print finishing business Scorpio-Fish has invested a further #550,000 in three new stitching lines. Money is being poured into the company by its parent group, and the latest spend brings its investment in new...

Bigger Bertelsmann is still hungry.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Bertelsmann, the German company which claims to be the world's third largest media conglomerate, has reported a Dm6bn rise in turnover for the 1999/2000 fiscal year. The company is a major international publisher of books, newspapers and...

125 face up to the Polestar challenge.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Age shall not weary them... Certainly not the veteran team from Polestar Watford which took part in the company's annual Challenge Weekend in the Lake District. The Watford team with an average age of 51.5 years came in third behind the...

Gestetner 3000 marches into Ministry of Defence.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The Ministry of Defence is bringing more of its mono print production inhouse, with Gestetner the main beneficiary. Gestetner's UK distributor, NRG Group, has won a #3m contract with the Ministry of Defence to supply or rent up to 3,000...

Top Fasson global role for fast track Helen.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Helen Saunders is fast tracking to the top of the Avery Dennison organisation which she joined 14 years ago. Two years ago, Ms Saunders was given the job of heading the Fasson Select speciality labelstock business in the northern region and...

Digital television and Internet `will kill off travel print'.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The printed holiday brochure is to die out within ten years, according to senior figures within the travel industry. It is claimed the sector, which keeps many printers in business, is to lose out to interactive media such as digital television...

Dolphin breathes easy on Sealed Air takeover.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Dolphin Packaging has been bought by Sealed Air Corporation in a deal worth #79m. The friendly takeover, welcomed by Dolphin chairman Harry Evans, valued the company's shares at a 29.4% premium to the closing middle market quotation of 255p on...

Bezier slammed over job cuts.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... GPMU OFFICIALS have reacted angrily to the closure of greetings card company Burgess, claiming the company's failure was down to "bad management". The Abingdon company, part of the Bezier group, announced the closure last week with the loss of...

News in brief.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The Bucks Herald was named the Weekly Paid-for Newspaper of the Year at the Newspaper Society's Weekly Newspaper Awards. The Milton Keynes Citizen received the award as Weekly Free Newspaper of the Year. Gemini Group with companies at...

Lord Mayor looks a little sheepish.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... If our printer Lord Mayor of the City of London, Ald Clive Martin looked a little sheepish last week, it was quite understandable! He joined more than 400 Freemen of the City in a march across London Bridge driving a flock of Jacob sheep! The...

Big Printing World prizes for Save the Children.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Tomorrow's Printing World Awards to be staged at London's Grosvenor House Hotel in front of an audience of more than 1,000 will be a glittering occasion. Presented by television's Jonathan Ross, the Awards will also help the premier...

New look Big Issue due on the streets July 10.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... As predicted in Printing World two weeks ago, the redesign of the Big Issue has prompted the print contract to shift from current printer Wiltshires in Bristol. The company which is to gain from the switch to glossy paper is Goodhead, also in...

Tim Smith joins e-print site.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The link between Polestar and print farming dot.com Httprint has been extended with the appointment of Tim Smith, the former creative services director of Polestar to director of marketing. Httprint has former Polestar senior director Barry...

Printers deride dotcom farmers as Internet brokers.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Printers have launched an attack on the emergence of dotcom print farming businesses following the outspoken comments of Printpak's Norman Marks in Printing World last week. Many in the industry have echoed the views of the MIS company's...

West Herts students win Printing World bursaries.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... A group of printing students at West Herts College, Watford, are now benefiting from last year's Printing World's Printing 2000 initiative. Printing 2000, a first guide to the products, services and employment opportunities in UK print helped...

Waddies reviews board changes and its job count.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... There was speculation as Printing World went to press of boardroom changes at Waddies, the leading Scottish printer. Managing director Brian Purves's position is not believed to be under threat, but it is thought an executive chairman with...

News in brief.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Assidoman has decided to abort the sale of it cartonboard operation. The company says that after negotiation with several parties it has not been possible to create a structure for the cartonboard business at an acceptable price. The...

Child Graphics.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Richard Child, owner of Child Graphics. Norwich, is looking pretty pleased. He has just taken delivery of his second B1 Trendsetter thermal ctp system in the space of six months. Child Graphics offers a comprehensive trade prepress service...

Two Comco uv flexo presses for Leading Edge.(International Pages)(Product Information)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Leading Edge Labels & Solutions in Gravesend has spent #2m, its largest single investment so far, on two uv flexo presses. The company will create 15 jobs to run the new presses which include a 22 in Comco uv flexo nine-colour press with the...

Drapkin moves into ctp.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Louis Drapkin, one of Birmingham's longest established printing firms, has moved into ctp with a Trendsetter system from Heidelberg. The firm has been using ctp digital workflow through suppliers for the past 18 months, but has now decided to...

Go digital, go online PwC urges publishers.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... European newspaper and magazine publishers should sacrifice traditional print media and concentrate on Internet strategies, according to a hard hitting report from accountant Pricewaterhouse-Coopers. The report recommends that publishers act...

To the Manor born in Gloucester.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Gloucester firm Manor Printing Services is installing a new #750,000 Heidelberg SM 74/5/P plus coater. The deal, financed by the Bank of Scotland, marks another step forward for managing director Chris Holloway, who acquired Manor Printing...

Colorplan range.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... GF Smith has produced a 120 page limited edition book, Open Air to showcase its Colorplan range of papers and boards. The book, featuring a collection of London street images was designed by Elmwood Design and printed by Triangle Press using...

Scottish printers rally to help MLP jobless.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... With closure of Macdonald Lindsay Pindar at Loanhead, near Edinburgh, scheduled for July 21, an employment fair was held in the factory last week involving the Employment Agency, Benefits Agency, and some of the local colleges. The GPMU...

Playing cheap price print roulette.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Let's slash our prices. Let's match those knee-creaking prices from overseas. It's a huge volume, the throughput will be terrific. You see, it'll come out all right!" Most of us have been party to the above conversation or one pretty similar....

Speaking up for book printers.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... I read the Comment, Don't let the taxman off the hook (Printing World, June 19) with some concern for the printing industry in the UK. Like many book publishers, HarperCollins sources its printing requirements internationally, from a limited...

Don't forget Selectprint.com.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... I refer to your article on Dotcoms (Printing World, June 19) in which you survey the new organisations in the market. It was somewhat surprising therefore that you failed to mention the BPIF offering in this market - Selectprinter.com. On...

The need for human contact.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... I was interested to read the letter from Norman Marks, director of Printpak, (Printing World, June 26). I have to say, I agree with Mr Marks on a number of issues. Particularly on the basis that he claims 85% of Internet consumer users want...

Blue Dog SoHo approach for Xerox inkjet printers.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Xerox launched a new strategy for its Small office Home office (SoHo) printer products this week, promising to capture a 10% market share in the colour inkjet market over the next three years. The market is a separate division to the machinery...

Bookbinders welcome first lady president.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The Institute of Bookbinding has voted in its first lady president - Iris Ding of DWD Hand Bookbinders who is taking over from Ken Olney, the retiring president, a lecturer at the London College of Printing. Among Mrs Ding's aims for her...

New Kodak Printer.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Ward Philipson Group production manager Peter Glenwright is a happy man. The #4.5m turnover Tyneside print group has spent #400,000 on a digital photolab at its Gateshead factory installing a new Kodak Digital LED Printer, the first in the...

Big Ferag order from Ireland.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Independent News & Media in Ireland has confirmed an order for new Ferag mailroom equipment at the company's printing centre due for completion in November. The Ferag mailroom includes two Multisert drums each equipped with two Multidisc...

Newsquest spends #3m to boost Goss colour.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Newsquest Sussex, one of ten print centres belonging to the Newsquest Media Group, has embarked upon a #3m investment to double its colour capabilities and extend production capacity. A press expansion and upgrade has been ordered from Goss...

News in brief.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Colortec, part of the Anton Group that has just opened a state of the art new printworks in Hutton, Essex, has a new sales director, Simon Leeder. Mr Leeder has come to the new position after seven years at Raithby Lawrence in Leicester, and...

Bravo for First Impression.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Poor work from trade finishers has prompted First Impression, the colour printer in London SE5, to bring its finishing inhouse with the purchase of a Muller Martini Bravo T saddle stitcher. The Bravo T can handle sizes up to A3 and beyond,...

Kemsley pat on back by David S Smith.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... A year of record output at Kemsley mill, Sittingbourne, is being rewarded with the promise of a fully automated warehouse. The plan, from owner David S Smith is to provide the best customer service in the industry while maintaining the Kent...

Edwina Currie at October BAPC conference.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Edwina Currie, the former government minister and MP who is now a radio presenter and best selling author, will be one of the speakers at this year's annual conference of the British Association for Print & Communication. The conference...

In the black SPEF ponders pay and pensions for Scotland.(International Pages)(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Despite a drop in income of 7.7%, caused by a fall of #17,000 in subscriptions, and a drop in training grants from Local Enterprise Companies of #26,000, members of the Scottish Print Employers' Federation were told at their annual meeting that...

B3 Xeikon for IoM's Lexon Group.
July 3, 2000... The Lexon Group is installing a Xeikon DCP-32D digital press at its Isle of Man print site. The press, supplied and installed by Openshaw and said to be the first of its size on the island, complements Lexon's B2 five-colour litho press, single...

Dutch swoop on Mekvale Envelopes.
July 3, 2000... Mekvale Envelopes, London SW12, has been acquired by Stronghold Group, the largest envelope manufacturer in the Netherlands, for an undisclosed sum. Mekvale, which specialises in rapid turnround of envelope overprinting, has a turnover of #4m...

Finat survey puts self-adhesive at No 1.
July 3, 2000... Self-adhesive labelling (3.2 billion sq m were produced in 1999) is growing at a rate of nearly 7% a year and commands 58% of the entire label market. The sector is described as fragmented but clearly dynamic. A recent Europe-wide survey by...

Hill soothes dotcom worries.
July 3, 2000... Online print marketplace Printmountain has appointed a business development team to enhance its Internet printing services. The team consists of phone-based customer service and field sales staff, who will aim to provide customers with a...

Dotcom consolidation strikes in UK.
July 3, 2000... Dotcom consolidation, already underway in the US, has come to the UK dotcom print market. Printbuyers.co.uk, one of the less noisy, but more active dotcoms, has snapped up rival Multiquotes. Printbuyers.co.uk, Chichester, is owned by Active Net...

Print Factory wins #1.5m Motability deal.
July 3, 2000... The Print Factory, the Hertfordshire facilities management group, has captured a contract to be the exclusive supplier of print services to the UK charity Motability. The contract is worth more than #1.5m over three years. The Print...

New Heidelberg.
July 3, 2000... Moving up from a used GTO to a new Heidelberg four-colour Speedmaster SM 52-4E is Wellington Press, Leyton, London E10. Here commercial director Andrew Thomson (left) and production director Nick Murray are seen with their new baby. Established...

Scanplus opts for MAN Roland open systems B1 press.
July 3, 2000... The Scanplus Group is installing a fully-automated MAN Roland five- colour press, after discounting digital machines on quality and cost grounds. The press boasts Pecom packages and CIP3 prepress link for high throughput, offline makeready and...

Big backing for PaperX.com but long haul to profits forecast.
July 3, 2000... Just four days after Amazon.com saw its share price spectacularly slump by 19%, one of the boldest Internet trading ventures for the print and paper industry was officially launched last week. PaperX.com claims to be the first pan-European...

CPC eyes UK for labels.
July 3, 2000... CPC, the French packaging group with four UK sites, could be expanding its labels capacity in Britain following the purchase of Sipse, a French self-adhesive label manufacturer. The purchase of the company which had turnover of E7.5m last year,...

Premier Imaging name change.
July 3, 2000... Premier Imaging Materials is reinventing itself in the new digital market with a name change to Paragon Imaging Materials. The Manchester company, part of the Robert Horne paper group, seemed to be suffering from a crisis of identity. Marketing...

Greenaway's love affair with Le Bourse.
July 3, 2000... City printer GreenawayScott has formed a partnership with Parisian typesetter and printing company Actilog to take advantage of the new business generated by the deregulation of Le Bourse stock exchange. The London company, part of the Ormulu...

Stamp of success for Photobition Graphics.
July 3, 2000... Photobition UK Graphics was behind a #125,000 display at the recent Stamp Show 2000. Photobition's contribution to the exhibition, which was hosted by Royal Mail, ranged from all the graphic components of the centrepiece Royal Mail stand to...

DocuColor 2000 stars as Xerox sales soar.
July 3, 2000... Xerox is expecting to sell twice as many of its new generation DocuColor 2000 presses this year as it had projected. As a result, it is desperately trying to increase its manufacturing capacity in Japan and cut the 90-day wait that buyers are...

DISMAY from Dudley about print.
July 3, 2000... TONY BROWN meets Brian Dudley, the Bezier chief who has issued closure orders for two factories. He tells why he is fearful for the future of printing Brian Dudley has a long and varied management career, starting as a trainee at...

Italians show the way to printing success.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... An Italian newspaper publisher has unexpectedly beaten off IT and support services companies to reach the top of the Financial Times's European performance league table. Gruppo Editoriale L'Espresso, publisher of the second-largest Italian...

Labelstock answers.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... The labelstock market has grown by between 6%-10% in the first six months of 2000, according to the European Pressure Sensitive Manufacturers' Association, although non-paper grades seem to be becoming gradually more popular. Epsma figures show...

Tindle's triumph.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... More good results from a regional newspaper publisher. Tindle Newspapers, which has 100 titles in Devon, Cornwall, south Wales, Hampshire and Surrey, has just made annual profits of #4.4m, 4% higher than last year. Chairman Sir Ray Tindle told...

Unions don white collars.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Trade union membership has risen for the first time in ten years, according to the Government's latest Labour Force Survey. But the TUC is worried that membership will slip back again in 2000 because of the decline in jobs in manufacturing,...

Heidelberg `could go solo'.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... RWE, the giant German conglomerate that has a 56% stake in Heidelberg, is trying to become even larger, making a E30bn cash offer for Vivendi Environnement, the French environmental services group. RWE's offer is said to have been initially...

Yorkshire Post Yankees?(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Regional Independent Media, the publisher of the Yorkshire Post and many other regional papers in the north, considering either floatation or a trade sale to Gannett, the US publisher that already owns Newscom and Newsquest in the south....

EDL claims its updated kit has the future in the bag.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Barnstaple packaging engineering company EDL has updated its System 3000 range into a machine which can package products in a resealable bag. It is an advance which the company claims will bring automation into an area which is still normally...

User-friendly Inkleen.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Helping printers cut a swathe through leftover ink deposits, industrial cleaning specialist Gramos has introduced a product which is claimed to be both user friendly and kinder to the environment than other such solutions. The company from...

Spiral conveyor aids glue drying.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Binderies which require dwell time on conveyors for glue drying have been offered a new high-speed, space-saving spiral conveyor from Gloucestershire company the Ethos Corporation. The new range can offer speeds of over 135metres/min. The...

Pressing engagements.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... CATHERINE CARTER explores buyer trends in the world of web presses, and finds that different countries have different preferences. So where does the UK sit in this? Deciding to invest in a new press with new technology is difficult at the...

Hidden delights.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Although reviewed as the show with no surprises, LAUREL BRUNNER did find a few delights at Drupa in the digital input arena One of the great things about shows as big as Drupa is that no matter how overhyped the event is, one is never quite...

Hitting the heights in Halifax.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... And just when you thought that it was safe to utter the last rites over the corpse of the drum scanner, ICG has also announced new models, to be built by sister company Heights in Halifax. Its team of design engineers has been at work on the...

Closed loop clincher.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... GARETH WARD reports on the emergence of closed loop colour systems for web offset presses which look like being the next "must have" technology Few, if any, web offset printers would dare consider a new press without some form of register...

All Gold New Cartons.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... Terry's All Gold chocolates, for decades the fall-back present for mothers, aunts and girl friends, is relaunched in new sophisticated cartons. Field Packaging in Bradford has worked with Terry's to produce the new range which features an "All...

People News.(Brief Article)
July 3, 2000... * George Waterston & Sons, Scotland's oldest independent printer, has a new chairman in former managing director Graeme Douglas (right) who has succeeded Brian Turnbull (left) as chairman and chief executive, following Mr Turnbull's retirement...

#4m injection to reshape and revitalise Waddies.
July 10, 2000... As predicted in Printing World last week, the Waddies print group in Edinburgh has appointed an executive chairman, Iain MacRitchie. He has been a non-executive director for some time and previously led Donprint from being a small unit in East...

GPMU mag wins TUC press award.
July 10, 2000... The GPMU's monthly magazine Direct has won the best feature prize in the TUC's Press & PR awards for its expose of how supermarkets drive down packaging prices and ask printers to make upfront payments to be on "approved supplier" lists. ...

CreoScitex settles its sales avenues.
July 10, 2000... CreoScitex has settled its UK sales and distribution channels following the confusion from the amalgamation between the two companies. What had been Scitex VARs will now sell both Scitex and Creo platesetters while KPG, which had been selling...

Moving from printing to tailoring.
July 10, 2000... Moving from bespoke printing to bespoke tailoring, Belfast's Textflow group is using its large format Xerox Xpress to begin printing fabric for use in these rather snappy suits. Part of the W&G Baird Group, Textflow has begun printing a unique...

Ifra set to break space record.
July 10, 2000... More than 260 exhibitors occupying over 18,000 sq m of stand space is the good news so far for the organisers of Ifra 2000. To be held at the RAI exhibition centre in Amsterdam from October 9-12, this year's international exhibition dedicated...

Quick prices for quick print.
July 10, 2000... Enterprising west London print centre Oasis Printing has opened for business on the Internet with an instant quote service listing for prices for printed items with a variable level of discount depending on the status of buyer. The company has...

Svecia plays at home to 250.
July 10, 2000... Svecia, the Swedish silkscreen press specialist, one of the leading names that chose not to exhibit at Drupa 2000, reports great success for its alternative event in Stockholm. Over 250 customers and suppliers from all over the world were...

Trade Events buys Glasgow show.
July 10, 2000... The ScotPrint exhibition has been sold by United Business Media to Trade Events, the owner with the BAPC of the Print UK show. The purchase of ScotPrint will see the show taking place at the SECC in Glasgow on November 21-22. This new venue,...

Print directory captures top DPA award.
July 10, 2000... The major reference book for the printing and graphic arts industry for the past 40 years, the Printing Trades Directory, has been feted for its marketing expertise. PTD is published by United Business Media Information Services and is a sister...

Debt recovery service goes online.
July 10, 2000... A new online debt recovery service is promising printers swift payment from customers that go beyond their 90-day terms. CPA Online is certainly not the only online late payers' database, but it claims to be the only company offering legal...

Ceo Tom Machin in sudden BPIF exit.
July 10, 2000... Tom Machin, chief executive of the British Printing Industries Federation, was ousted last week from his position at the helm of print's employers' organisation. In the top job for the past five years - at first as director general and more...

Heidelberg signs DuPont world proofing pact.
July 10, 2000... Heidelberg is to add proofing devices to its prepress line up following an agreement with DuPont which will allow the German press giant to sell the full DuPont range around the world. The agreement is non- exclusive and will cover DuPont's...

Hawthornes, Nottingham hands over 4% to its staff.
July 10, 2000... Sixty-two per cent of staff at Nottingham printer Hawthornes have taken shares in the company, a month after the family firm set up an employee share ownership trust. Although some 38% of the 95 staff chose to accept cash rather than a stake in...

IBM is Wimbledon's IT doubles partner.
July 10, 2000... IBM is once again a doubles partner for the Wimbledon Tennis Championships. IBM Printing Systems is responsible for the print output of match information reports, performance records and player biographies and pictures for the fans. In...