Printing World articles from October 2000

Printing World archives from October 2000

Mbo talks begin as Barco Graphics sales lag.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Barco Graphics, the Belgian manufacturer of ctp and digital workflow technologies, is in discussions with its parent group concerning a management buyout. Graphics is one of five remaining divisions owned by the Barco Group, and directors would...

Peter Clark moves back to web offset.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... The larger than life Peter Clark has resigned from Midway Clark, the West Country printer bearing his name to answer the call of a return to big-time web offset. This week Mr Clark moves back to the process that is his first love and commences...

Consumables volte-face for Heidelberg as de Keyzer goes.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Frank de Keyzer, the Belgian head of Heidelberg Consumables has left the company heralding a total change of direction for the division. Created in the summer of 1998 with plans for a major international consumables enterprise, Heidelberg has...

Receivers in at Simson Pimm.
October 2, 2000... The pain in the greetings card sector was brought into sharp focus again last week when Simson Pimm, a specialist envelope maker, was put into voluntary receivership. The firm, described as a "major company in the greetings cards business" has...

Polestar poised to buy HelioColor in Madrid.
October 2, 2000... Polestar is poised to take a further step into European magazine printing with the purchase of HelioColor, a gravure printer near Madrid owned by the French publisher Hachette Filipacchi Medias. Hachette dates back to 1826 and is responsible...

Williams Lea secures momentous #210m Axa print contract.
October 2, 2000... Williams Lea, the one-time City financial printer which has repositioned itself as an international document outsourcing group, has won a mammoth #210m print management contract from Axa. The French- owned insurance company has signed up to a...

Technotrans acquires Farwest and coatings future.
October 2, 2000... Technotrans has taken two major steps in consolidating its leading position as a manufacturer of water cooling and ink tempering systems. It announced at Chicago's Graph Expo that it had acquired Farwest Graphic Technologies of Corona,...

Dennis Print fades away.
October 2, 2000... Dennis Print in Scarborough and its saucy postcard publishing arm Bamforths have lost the fight for survival, three months after going into receivership with #1m of debts. During that time staff levels have dropped from 50 to just 20, all of...

All together in Gee Street.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Photobition has pulled most of its sales and marketing staff into new offices on Gee Street, just off Goswell Road in London. The new offices, on a previously vacant floor of the Photobition Jupiter building, brings together staff from both its...

S&G takes Optimus 2020 on board.
October 2, 2000... S&G Print Group, in Merthyr Tydfil, is to install the Optimus 2020 online management information system to improve its efficiency. The Group comprises Pelican Print Finishing, S&G Printing and S&G Magazines provides binding, contract printing,...

Papyrus launches Berga - paper for the Internet user.
October 2, 2000... Papyrus which has the StoraEnso Group as its parent, is launching Berga, a new range of office papers in the UK prior to the pan-European introduction of the brand later this year. Offices, says Papyrus want multifunctional papers that offer...

Print UK finishes with a sparkle.
October 2, 2000... The Print UK show finished with a sparkle after a couple of major show announcements, wrapped up proceedings. Digital printing equipment specialist Oce, although not exhibiting at the show, used the forum to tie up a major sponsorship with the...

Twenty Sherpas snapped up on Day One.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Agfa exhibited its Sherpa 24 digital colour proofing system at Earls Court, the system's first showing in the UK. Initially, the new Sherpa will only be available in limited numbers and with only 20 arriving in the country this year, Litho...

Buy a package of solutions says Heidelberg.
October 2, 2000... Heidelberg was selling packages at Print UK. Special deals were on offer to customers interested in production solutions. Heidelberg teamed up with HighWater to offer savings for those prepared to buy a HighWater Platinum 2218 ctp system or a...

DK&A will Wow PDF users.
October 2, 2000... DK&A, the imposition software specialist, used the Print UK platform to present its INposition software solution - the Wide open workflow (Wow) suite of products. The DK&A view is that PDF workflows are not as open as they should be and that...

Litho Supplies takes on Imation range.
October 2, 2000... Litho Supplies is to sell and distribute Imation films, plates and Matchprint products previously sold direct by Imation. In a deal estimated by Litho Supplies' joint managing director Gerry Mulvaney to be worth "a seven-figure business",...

Purup unveils its Imagemaker range.
October 2, 2000... Purup-Eskofot saw the Graph Expo event in Chicago as an opportunity to unveil its new flexible Imagemaker range. The Imagemaker ctf and ctp systems have been adapted to allow for changeable imaging lasers to suit production needs. Gitte...

LE Rip in Harlequin/Scitex Oem deal.
October 2, 2000... Global Graphics subsidiary Harlequin has signed an Oem agreement with Scitex Digital Printing at US printing show Graph Expo. Harlequin's Loadable Edition Rip will be used to support Scitex Digital's high speed digital printing systems and the...

Halm envelope press for SR.
October 2, 2000... SR Communications, the south-east London direct marketing specialist, has added to its envelope printing capabilities. The Deptford company has installed a Halm four-colour envelope master press fitted with a Maxicure uv dryer. According...

End of a consumables dream?
October 2, 2000... So Heidelberg's global consumables dream has proved a "no-no" and our Number One world graphics supplier is handing consumables back to each of its country operations and has said goodbye to consumables chief Frank de Keyzer. It would be easy...

Bueno suerte Polestar.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... This week should confirm that Polestar is buying one of Spain's gravure printers taking HelioColor away from the Hachette. This is the E2G company that Polestar has been sniffing around for the past two years and presumably has now become a lot...

Not bad at all in Earls Court.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Print UK, the graphics exhibition at Earls Court, London, claims to be a national show but did not set the world alight. The Earls Court "back door" entrance did not help the cause. But the visitor volume at 5,350 was decent, some big names...

NEWS FROM AROUND THE WORLD.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... PINCUS JASPERT provides a feast of graphics news from his non-stop travels around the world's printing industries Argentina: Industrias Plasticas Posadas has become the latest customer for one of the ten presses sold in the new...

Indigo snaps home photos.
October 2, 2000... Indigo is homing in on a new target for its digital printing products - photo albums. It has formed a sales alliance with photograph processing specialist Digital Now which will see the latter become a licensed reseller of Indigo's TurboStream...

Eastman Kodak rocked by film sales slump.
October 2, 2000... Shares in film manufacturer Eastman Kodak tumbled last week to their lowest levels in six years on the news that sales had suddenly fallen off. The weak euro was blamed together with higher raw material costs and increased investment in digital...

Two DocuColors for XPS in Surrey.
October 2, 2000... Surrey digital print specialist XPS has invested in two new Xerox DocuColor 2045 machines to sit alongside its two DocuTech 6180s. XPS has bought the DocuColors to keep up to date and to meet increasing demands for corporate orders on a short...

Service Point buys the next door but one.
October 2, 2000... Newcastle printer Service Point has continued its empire building in the north-east of England with the acquisition of its next door but one neighbour Hobs, for an undisclosed sum. Service point now claims to have more that 40% of the town's...

WBC Book's sale on October 11.
October 2, 2000... The presses and finishing lines of WBC Book Manufacturing in Bridgend are up for sale later this month, marking the final death knell for a company that was in and out of receivership several times in the last few years, and tried in vain to...

Pira launches fibre supplies forecasts.
October 2, 2000... Global paper consumption reached 300 million tonnes in 2000, prompting Pira International to launch a World Fibre Supplies analysis. The second edition of the guide covers pulp production, recycling and profiles of the leading players, along...

Gloves off as Xerox launches DocuColor DI.
October 2, 2000... Xerox has fuelled its feud with Heidelberg by claiming it will overtake the German giant as the world's biggest graphic arts company by 2003. The statement was made last week at Graph Expo in which Xerox gave demonstrations of its new family of...

Graph Expo eclipses Drupa with class act.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Graph Expo in Chicago has put the Drupa effect well and truly in the shade. If anything, the exhibitors and the show's organisers at the Graphic Arts Show Company created an environment that was much more accessible to visitors than Drupa. ...

Mitsubishi giants geared up at the Washington Post.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... US newspaper the Washington Post opened its doors last week to industry scrutiny for the first time since it installed its controversial Mitsubishi newspaper presses. The greenfield site at College Park, Prince George's County, Virginia, has...

Dotcoms take beating as US resentment grows.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Graph Expo provided perhaps the first clue that the dotcom revolution may be coming off the rails as a backlash from middle American printers grows against the new Internet invaders. Bob Rose, president of 58K.com, one of the most established...

EPC adds PlateRite 4000 to its 8000 model.
October 2, 2000... US home entertainment print specialist Shorewood Packaging has joined forces with EPC Europe to branch out into the UK. Based in Bristol, Cardiff and Cwmbran, EPC (Electronic Page Company) already had a Screen PlateRite 8000 and has been...

Unique Images adds a 706 to its Roland 900.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Unique Images, Bradford, the greetings card and wrapping paper manufacturer, has installed a new #1.5m six-unit B1 MAN Roland 706 perfecting and coating press. The new press replaces a Heidelberg Speedmaster and, according to operations...

#1.5m boost for Qualitech.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Cheshire company Qualitech has invested #1.5m in a series of investments designed to double output from its repro and print facilities. The largest chunk of the spend has gone on a Heidelberg Speedmaster 102 CD press supplied by BBR Graphics to...

Third Komori goes in at Status Design & Print.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Status Design & Print has not only installed a new five-colour Komori Lithrone 528 to meet rising demand, it now aims to bring all printing and finishing inhouse thanks to an extension to its Bolton premises. The new five-colour press is the...

30 takers for Fujifilm Pictro Proof.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Fujifilm Graphic Systems reports that its Pictro Proof digital proofing solution has been installed in 30 repro houses and printers in the UK. Eyeris Imaging, Kolorcraft, CMR and Atelier, among others, have selected Pictro Proof to image proofs...

Unbending on flexible packaging.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... FIONA FRASER meets Geoffrey Stewart, a man who has been through thick and thin to recover Parkside, his flexible packaging business via a recent mbo Geoffrey Stewart is the managing director of Parkside Flexibles following an mbo from BPI....

Machon to head Xerox in 20 countries.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Xerox Corporation has named Jean-Noel Machon as president of the European Solutions Group, succeeding Pierre Danon who has left the company after 19 years to join BT. Mr Machon has been with the company since 1976, and has served as president...

The future is thermal claims Neijens.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... A detailed and informative look at imaging technologies for ctp and digital offset was delivered last week at the IoP's Annual Technical Lecture by Boudewijn Neijens, the man responsible for European sales and technical development for...

Trio Offset doubles its output.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Trio Offset has doubled its output by investing #1.5m in a new Heidelberg two-colour SM 74, a six-colour SM 74 6P perfector, a two- colour SM 52 and a Trendsetter ctp system. Graeme Sibley, director of the Mitcham company says: "We are very...

SJP investment.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Cambridgeshire material manufacturer SJP has invested E750,000 in a Vision Imaging System for its Bachofen & Meier self-adhesive coating machine. The system has been modified at the company's St Neots mill to take pictures of the coating...

Wages peace at Carnaud Metal Box.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Following GPMU threats to take industrial action at four factories of Carnaud Metal Box, the GPMU has agreed a wage settlement with the food can division of the firm. Members employed as tin printers, coater operatives and auxiliary workers at...

Major FT IntelliNet deal with Agfa?(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Agfa is believed to have concluded a major deal with the Financial Times for an installation of the IntelliNet Newsflow system, marking one of the company's largest UK orders for an editorial workflow system. Nobody at Agfa or the Financial...

EfI marks its European card with a swish new hq.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Electronics for Imaging, the Californian developer of the Fiery Rip and cluster printing systems, is going after the European market in a big way. Last week it opened impressive new European headquarters in Amsterdam and announced its intention...

New portal for Forest Express.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... EquipNet has been chosen as the asset exchange platform for trading used equipment and accessories for ForestExpress's online marketplace. The EquipNet Direct platform will offer ForestExpress users a full range of services from sales of...

JT Colour opts for Brisque/Lotem duo.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... J Thomson Colour Printers, one of the largest commercial colour printers in Scotland, has ordered a CreoScitex computer-to-plate system. The new equipment, comprising a Brisque Extreme Impose workflow driving a Lotem 800V2 and an archive and...

Envinks targets Europe with Dutch plant.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... US company Environmental Inks & Coatings is to build a headquarters and research laboratory at Sneek in The Netherlands. Envinks has nine sites in America and aims to expand into the European market. The Netherlands site is to be funded by...

4DM Group award.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... 4DM Group in Kettering is celebrating winning a major award for meeting Royal Mail quality standards. The company was among large mailing operations monitored over a 12 month period which came out top as a company which bags, tags and sorts its...

Handy hints on exporting to China from Picon.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Picon will reveal some handy hints for exporting goods to China in a briefing on November 14. The suppliers' group claims that China is set for "explosive growth" as a result of a predicted increase in purchasing power of 500% by 2005 and GDP...

October launch date for new Canon paper range.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... Canon is to launch a new range of papers and transparencies in mid- October. The new products include high grade super gloss and double- sided high grade matt and gloss papers ranging in weights from 135gsm and 200gsm for A4 and A3 brochures,...

Big swing to flexo for Finat competition.(Brief Article)
October 2, 2000... The Finat 2000 International labelling competition attracted a record number of more than 350 entries from all over the world and saw flexo printed entries outnumber letterpress for the first time. The 20th competition was divided into 16...

Presstek names Graphic & Offset Plates UK agent.
October 2, 2000... Presstek, the US platemaker, has replaced Openshaw with Graphics & Offset Plates as its UK and Ireland distributor. Founded in 1987, Presstek is the leading developer and international marketer of non- photographic, non-toxic digital imaging...

UK Paper rebrands Logic and Evolve.
October 2, 2000... UK Paper has improved and rebranded its Logic and Evolve business paper ranges, thanks to an intensive end user research programme commissioned by the Sittingbourne mill. Logic, with what is described as a crisp new image, has introduced shade...

Walter Brown takes PlateStream.
October 2, 2000... A lot of short runs, some up to 48 pages, mean a lot of plates are required at Walter Brown Printers in Warrington. The five-strong family business has just installed a PlateStream 46 ctp system from AMI and is delighted with the time...

Compulsory winding up.
October 2, 2000... * The following cases are due to be heard at the Royal Courts of Justice, Strand, London WC2 Citron Press plc St James Court, Brown Street, Manchester M2 2JF on October 4 at 10.30am. Petition by Guardian Media Group Paka Print Ltd 4...

Appointment of liquidators.
October 2, 2000... Garandale Ltd Trading name: Optima Reprographics and printing. Liquidators: JPW Harlow and K Mistry, HKM Harlow Khandhia Mistry, The Old Mill, 9 Soar Lane, Leicester LE3 5DE PR Paper Services Ltd Waste paper recycling. Liquidator: AJ Clark,...

Meetings of creditors.
October 2, 2000... Meshcount Graphics Ltd at Gilderthorp & Partners, 22 Paul Street, Shepton Mallet, Somerset BA4 5LA on September 27 Total Graphics Ltd at David Rubin & Co, Pearl Assurance House, 319 Ballards Lane, London N12 8LY on October 16 at 11am ...

Final meetings.
October 2, 2000... IME Print & Publishing Ltd at AH Tomlinson & Co, St John's Court, 72 Gartside Street, Manchester M3 3EL on October 24 at 10am Copyright: United Business Media Ltd.

Metro takes toll on regional dailies.
October 2, 2000... The fall in regional newspaper sales has continued, thanks to the explosive growth in free morning papers in the Metro mould. Overall, sales fell 2.1% in January-June 2000 from the same period the year before. The biggest falls in daily sales...

Amberley soldiers on.
October 2, 2000... Amberley, the parent company of consumables supplier Bousfield Heatons, has suffered a big fall in its share price following the collapse of management buyout talks last month. At around 20p per share, the group now looks vulnerable to a...

Scottish paper chase.
October 2, 2000... The new daily financial paper in Scotland. Business am sold more than 13,000 copies on its launch day last month despite printing delays, according to its publisher - although its competitors put the figure at nearer 7,000. If the paper's...

The r&d blues.
October 2, 2000... A new DTI survey of research and development spending in the world's largest companies shows some big variations among printers and equipment suppliers. Research and development budgets vary from a whopping 6.8% of all sales at Canon, 5.8% at...

EfI gets the thumbs-up.
October 2, 2000... Electronics for Imaging (EfI) has been tipped as a "pressing buy" by US tipsters in the wake of its takeover Splash Technology last month. "Back in 1998 nobody wanted to touch this company with a rusty garden rake because its business in Japan...

Goodbye GEI.
October 2, 2000... GEI, THE MAKER of packaging equipment, is to delist from the Stock Exchange as costs and losses arising from the sale of its pharmaceutical division begin to bite. Shares fell from 6.5p to 2.5p at the news. Copyright: United Business Media...

CreoScitex plug-in for PDF flexibility.
October 2, 2000... The release of V1.5 of Seps2Comp, a plug-in to Adobe Acrobat, adds another piece to the jigsaw which will become a complete PDF-based workflow from CreoScitex. It creates a PDF file which can be handled like any native PDF file, offering...

Online colour correction for less than a tenner.
October 2, 2000... Individual digital images can be colour corrected for as little as $15 (a little less than #10) in a worldwide 24 hour turnround service being offered by Colorcentric, a US provider of prepress services. The service is independent of bandwidth...

New e-book readers still pale against printed books.
October 2, 2000... French consumer electronics giant Thomson is unveiling the next generation of e-book readers which some predict will become a milestone in the transfer of the printed word to the electronic page. However, a survey conducted in the US shows the...

State of the union.
October 2, 2000... TUC membership is likely to fall this year, a fact attributed to job losses in manufacturing sectors. But unions, with the GPMU very much included, are fighting back. MARION WILSON reports This month, the Government added another plank to...

The TUC's Labour Force Survey.
October 2, 2000... The TUC's annual analysis of the Government's Labour Force Survey shows that: * Of the 7 million members, 5.8 million work full-time and 1.2 million work part-time. Unionisation among temporary staff stands at 18%. Male employee union...

DIY training.
October 2, 2000... If your company cannot spare the time or the money for training, turn to the Internet. TIM McGUIRE looks at the Virtual Training Company Most UK employees - an estimated three out of four - consider training as important as salary, or...

Case study of Andrew Sweeney.
October 2, 2000... Andrew Sweeney attributes his success moving from novice to director of his design company Apex Web Media of Bolton to the VTC Online University. Mr Sweeney's introduction to VTC was through its Photoshop 5 training CD. "I struggled with...

Bad air day.
October 2, 2000... Low humidity levels play havoc with the way paper behaves, as RIK PROWEN, operations director at JS Humidifiers, explains We have all heard about, or worse experienced, those nightmare scenarios when paper seems to take on a mind of its...

Microsoft's top Brass says printed word is doomed.
October 2, 2000... Last week on this page, we were a mite critical about the immediate prospects of the e-book, given Stephen King's less than petrifying attempts to start hammering nails into print's coffin by making his new book exclusively available online....

Compac goes for print flotation.
October 2, 2000... During the fuel crisis, many printing companies were faced with a choice of either shutting up shop or else finding a cunning solution to move work about. One that chose that latter option was Compac Print in Swindon, which hired a milk float...

Elements buyout on cards: Unidigital faces Chapter 11.
October 9, 2000... Elements in the UK is looking for new ownership following the decision by US parent company Unidigital to file for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection last week. Elements in the City and West End of London, together with branches in Leeds and...

Photobition's six years of explosive success.
October 9, 2000... The explosive growth of the Photobition display graphics group has delivered record results for the sixth consecutive year. Operating profits up 18% before amortisation of goodwill was recorded on turnover up 61% at #146.90m (#90.97m) in...

Polestar buy delayed.
October 9, 2000... Polestar's purchase of Spanish gravure printer HelioColor has been slightly delayed, but is due to be signed and sealed any day now, says the company. Polestar is buying HelioColor from Hachette Filipacchi Medias, the French publisher of Elle...

Polestar completes production of 33 million forms for National Census.
October 9, 2000... Polestar has recently completed production of 33 million forms for the UK's 2001 National Census. Described as the single largest bespoke print contract of recent years, the mammoth job was handled at Polestar Petty in Leeds. Here, staff from...

Hyway orders world-first Mitsubishi 6/6.
October 9, 2000... Hyway Printing Services in London SE16 has ordered a giant world-first press from Mitsubishi. The printer of upmarket report and accounts and corporate literature has ordered a 12-colour 6/6 perfector following a visit to Japan by Hyway...

New dotcom bangs drum.
October 9, 2000... PrintRepublic.com has opened for business promising to bring European prices to UK printers, a market it has valued at #1.5bn.The dotcom is labelling itself as "the printer's friend" will also offer a low-cost website hosting service,...

Dublin's high tech Indoman ready to roll.
October 9, 2000... The biggest changeover in printing technology seen in the British Isles for some time is just over a month away, when the giant press at Irish Independent Newspapers' new state of the art print centre is due to start rolling. In a E60m (#36m)...

Union fury at St Ives' Dutch auction on pay deal.
October 9, 2000... Industrial action is sweeping fast through the St Ives' Web division with overtime bans at its Peterborough, Andover and Caerphilly factories and urgent talks underway at St Ives Plymouth and St Ives Roche in Cornwall. As Printing World closed...