Texas-headquartered Cape employs around 15 members of staff, with four based in the UK, and offers a range of packaging design and pallet optimisation software. The US developer’s Cape Pack toolkit already uses data from Esko’s ArtiosCAD structural design software, for calculation and simulation, while the software’s reports can be managed with Esko’s WebCenter online packaging management platform. Esko’s corporate marketing director Jef Stofels said: “There is a direct link with our software where it can take the data of whatever packaging it is producing and send it directly to the Cape system to estimate how it will fit on the pallet and how strong the boxes need to be. So it can be directly integrated. “The software will remain on the market under the Cape name; we don’t want to dilute that. We also share a lot of common customers and suppliers so as far as the client is concerned, it is business as usual,” he added. Esko president and chief executive Carsten Knudsen said: “Cape has already made inroads in the brand owner and retailer packaging space. Adding their palletisation tools to our portfolio supports our strategic goals. “We’re determined to leverage the synergies this brings to our existing products and services, especially the sustainability benefits that integrating Cape’s technology into Esko solutions should provide our customers.” All staff and products will be integrated into the Belgian software developer’s business model by the end of September. The value of the acquisition was not disclosed....

Texas-headquartered Cape employs around 15 members of staff, with four based in the UK, and offers a range of packaging design and pallet optimisation software. The US developer’s Cape Pack toolkit already uses data from Esko’s ArtiosCAD structural design software, for calculation and simulation, while the software’s reports can be managed with Esko’s WebCenter online packaging management platform. Esko’s corporate marketing director Jef Stofels said: “There is a direct link with our software where it can take the data of whatever packaging it is producing and send it directly to the Cape system to estimate how it will fit on the pallet and how strong the boxes need to be. So it can be directly integrated. “The software will remain on the market under the Cape name; we don’t want to dilute that. We also share a lot of common customers and suppliers so as far as the client is concerned, it is business as usual,” he added. Esko president and chief executive Carsten Knudsen said: “Cape has already made inroads in the brand owner and retailer packaging space. Adding their palletisation tools to our portfolio supports our strategic goals. “We’re determined to leverage the synergies this brings to our existing products and services, especially the sustainability benefits that integrating Cape’s technology into Esko solutions should provide our customers.” All staff and products will be integrated into the Belgian software developer’s business model by the end of September. The value of the acquisition was not disclosed....

The Shop was soft launched last month with a newly recruited team of 14 staff, headed by SP Group’s former business development director Neil Jenkinson. “The marketplace is tougher predominantly because, not only are we up against other printers, but also print management businesses, and now media agencies that are diversifying and offering end-to-end solutions,” said Jenkinson. He added: “It was becoming harder for SP, as a print specialist, to compete credibly and talk to specialist brands about shopper behavior and how best to respond to those needs, not just through paper and print but through other display opportunities. “To be taken seriously we needed to create a specialist division offering expert help.” The Shop has been set up to offer clients a more integrated service earlier in the planning process, so rather than simply creating POS displays the service offers shopper marketing strategies as well as retail design and permanent display options. Part of the new service includes the supply of components, such as electronics or metal fixings, needed to complete permanent displays. The new business operates as a standalone division based at SP Group’s Redditch print facility, but with an increasing presence in London as new business in the capital gains momentum, according to Jenkinson. The Shop is already working with existing SP Group clients including Holland & Barrett, M&S and Britvic and Jenkison said the new creative offering would run seamlessly alongside SP’s print and production services. “The acid test of our success will be our ability to bring on new clients that SP could never have done on their own. I’m hoping to build this into a £5m business within one year and I’m confident we can deliver that,” said Jenkinson....

The Wipers Times will be broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm. The fact-based drama centres around a young captain and his lieutenant who discover a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, and decide to publish a satirical newspaper from the trenches. The name ‘Wipers Times’ is a pun on the difficulty in pronouncing Ypres. The programme has been written by Ian Hislop, editor of satirical current affairs title Private Eye, and cartoonist Nick Newman....

The Wipers Times will be broadcast on BBC2 at 9pm. The fact-based drama centres around a young captain and his lieutenant who discover a printing press in the ruins of Ypres, and decide to publish a satirical newspaper from the trenches. The name ‘Wipers Times’ is a pun on the difficulty in pronouncing Ypres. The programme has been written by Ian Hislop, editor of satirical current affairs title Private Eye, and cartoonist Nick Newman....