“We’re very pleased that the momentum of Q1 accelerated in our June quarter resulting in a solid 10% top-line growth, a fantastic all-time record quarter for EFI,” said chief executive Guy Gecht in the company’s earnings conference call. He added that last month’s Fespa was a particular highlight, stating that the company had had its most successful show to date in terms of sales and lead generation. “Trade shows are a fantastic opportunity for customers to compare our products with the competition’s,” he added. Breaking the numbers down by regions, the company reported that the Americas were exceptionally strong in Q2, growing 22%, while Asia, excluding Japan, grew 10%. However, “the tough European market” continued its Q1 decline, although Gecht said it was “less pronounced” at just 3% overall, with inkjet being the only area of real decline and its Fiery and MIS segments actually growing. The firm reported that the migration of industrial tile printing to Asia was the prime cause of the decline in EMEA, stating that once the numbers for Cretaprint were stripped out, EMEA actually grew 4%. Gecht singled out 26% growth in UV ink volume as his personal highlight in Q2. “That’s my favourite number, because it shows that our [Vutek] customers are growing even faster than EFI,” he said. He cited a lot of the growth in UV ink volumes was down to strong OOH markets and the continued migration of screen to digital printing. Chief financial officer Vincent Pilette said that across the first half of the year, sales had grown 9% to $351.7m year-on-year and operating profit 21% to $45.8m. “We’re on track for a record revenue year,” he added....

The Warrington company has secured the exclusive UK licence for the Ecodomes technology, which provides an alternative to injection moulded badges and does away with the need to use mercury in the production process. It markets the product as Eco Badges. “It’s better for the environment than a resin badge. In 2016 there will be European legislation that will require the use of mercury-free resin,” explained production manger Christian Raihani. “We only use PVC and polyester in Eco Badges, and they can also be polyester and polyurethane if the client doesn’t want PVC.” The production method combines digital UV printing with layers of specialist materials – including chrome effects if required – that are then high-frequency welded together to formulate the badge and create the raised effect. Raihani said target markets including vehicle badging, white goods, phone covers and textiles. The firm showed a range of badge styles created using the system at last month’s Fespa exhibition, with samples that included textures and fine detailing. “We’ve had an extremely good reaction, particularly in the textile market for workwear. They’ve been absolutely wowed by it. Eco Badges offer better durability than embroidery and are easier to apply,” he added. “We’ve also had lots of interest from major car manufacturers and transport companies.” Price per badge varies from 50p to £10 depending on size and complexity. The initial tooling costs between £150-£500. Once setup is complete, individual badges can be made in less than a minute, and can be used immediately without any curing time. The badges are also fully outdoor durable. The maximum size is 400x300mm although larger-sized logos can be produced by nesting elements of the design. Family-owned Motique (www.motique.co.uk) employs 15 staff and has turnover of £2m. It produces a range of products including plaques, badges, labels and posters....

The 28-staff print department at US-owned packaging group Crown Holdings’ Liverpool site, which has a total workforce of around 150, had been in the midst of a series of stoppages after an agreed 7% pay increase was not honoured, according to Unite regional officer Phil Morgan. The pay rise was due to coincide with the arrival of a new four-colour printing press but following its installation staff were told that only the press operators – around eight – would receive the increase, Morgan said. However last week management announced a proposed restructure, as part of a cost-cutting exercise, prompting staff to suspend further action. Morgan said: “The situation really changed quite dramatically when the company announced 14 potential redundancies at the site so our members wanted to stop current action to concentrate on this. “We believe there is too much of a coincidence there. It seems like they are trying to brow-beat the workforce into ending this dispute.” He claimed that management had made no attempt to consult or communicate with Unite members at the Bootle site. No-one was available to comment from the company....

“Errors can be expensive and colour predictability is critical,” said graphic arts business unit director Michael Farkas. “Users rely on ColorProof as the quality reference in contract proofing. Many of the new features respond to requests for greater performance and usability. “You will not only find quicker start up and job creating times, but user interface improvements with a new manual job manager. Customers working with packaging will benefit from enhanced handling of white ink and transparent areas when proofing on foil.” Farkas said ColorProof tools helped users find a much sharper dot and accurate colour. A significant feature is an automatic alert because ColorProof often works unattended, printing jobs from hot folders without manual interaction. “But there are times when attention is needed, for example to load paper, calibrate a printer, or fix a job error. This system now alerts you when attention is needed. This can save hours: if an error is not recognised, jobs will be queued and a company might miss deadlines. He said ColorProof, which costs from £2,340, had undergone an extensive rebuild to improve user interface speed. The required time to create a new job from selecting the file until ready to print had been more than halved and start-up time is reduced from 45 seconds to 10 seconds. A database view tool meanwhile offers colour-related information such as proof standards and spot colours, while a separate view provides configuration settings. “Customers would like to archive settings for future reference or to configure the same job again,” Farkas explained. “So GMG ColorProof now provides a save-job-report feature containing all relevant job information and image settings.” Other new features for packaging jobs and prototypes include white-profiling to ensure transparent areas of white channels stay transparent. The cutting option for Roland printers has also been improved with 10 preconfigured presets for special blade and media...

The Warrington company has secured the exclusive UK licence for the Ecodomes technology, which provides an alternative to injection moulded badges and does away with the need to use mercury in the production process. It markets the product as Eco Badges. “It’s better for the environment than a resin badge. In 2016 there will be European legislation that will require the use of mercury-free resin,” explained production manger Christian Raihani. “We only use PVC and polyester in Eco Badges, and they can also be polyester and polyurethane if the client doesn’t want PVC.” The production method combines digital UV printing with layers of specialist materials – including chrome effects if required – that are then high-frequency welded together to formulate the badge and create the raised effect. Raihani said target markets including vehicle badging, white goods, phone covers and textiles. The firm showed a range of badge styles created using the system at last month’s Fespa exhibition, with samples that included textures and fine detailing. “We’ve had an extremely good reaction, particularly in the textile market for workwear. They’ve been absolutely wowed by it. Eco Badges offer better durability than embroidery and are easier to apply,” he added. “We’ve also had lots of interest from major car manufacturers and transport companies.” Price per badge varies from 50p to £10 depending on size and complexity. The initial tooling costs between £150-£500. Once setup is complete, individual badges can be made in less than a minute, and can be used immediately without any curing time. The badges are also fully outdoor durable. The maximum size is 400x300mm although larger-sized logos can be produced by nesting elements of the design. Family-owned Motique (www.motique.co.uk) employs 15 staff and has turnover of £2m. It produces a range of products including plaques, badges, labels and posters....