Clormann Design played with letters in various typefaces to create a pattern that could be cut from the page. A paper with unusual strength was needed; the team selected Invercote G 240gsm paperboard from Iggesund for the cover. Christian Deppisch, a journalist at Novum, said the Invercote was laminated with the foil Brushprint Silver, and a copper shade was printed on to the foil. The designer wanted to play with the contrasts between shiny and matt. “The delicate pattern is really a challenge and with most other materials the pattern would risk being torn to pieces even before it reached its recipient,” he said. “But for this particular job the choice of material was perfect.” Kessler Druck+Medien did the printing and binding; a Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 74-5 LX was used for the cover while the magazine pages were printed on an eight-colour Speedmaster SM 102. Clormann Design worked with cutting and stamping specialists Stigler of Munich for the laser cutting. A Wohlenberg Champion was used for binding, which proved tricky and could have thrown up potential for the cover to catch on something in the binding machine due to all the holes, said Deppisch. “It was really, really difficult. So we made the binding machine three times slower and before that we did a lot of testing. We had to change the design of the cover so it would work better on the binding machine, and we closed all gaps in one direction.”...

Nearly half (46%) of respondents from the print industry cited lack of time to devote to trainees as a barrier, while 20% claimed costs were prohibitive and 5% said suitable candidates were lacking. “There are understandable reasons why many in the print industry are hesitant to invest their time and money into training an apprentice, as the benefits of apprenticeship schemes are not widely documented. “However, there is some evidence to suggest that they are worth the investment,” said Basil Bannayi, print division managing director at Close Brothers Asset Finance, which carried out the quarterly survey. Bannayi said that apprenticeships could help businesses by reducing the time and expense of recruiting, boosting productivity and developing a more diverse talent base. The latest Close Brothers Business Barometer, which surveys small- and medium-sized businesses across the UK, attracted 772 respondents of which 75 were from the print industry. Of those, around a third had turnovers between £250,000 and £750,000, a third were in the £750,000 to £1m bracket, 15% turned over £1m-£5m and a quarter turned over in excess of £5m. More than half (54%) said that recruiting skilled staff had proved challenging in the past, however of those that were actively running apprenticeships, only 13% said they planned to offer their trainees a permanent position on course completion. “Apprenticeships can go some way to addressing this problem by establishing a better fit between the skills possessed by the apprentice and those required by the company,” Bannayi said. He added that the standard of work produced by apprentices was often higher in order to meet assessment targets and that staff retention rates usually showed improvement because trainees felt a loyalty to the company....

In its interim results, the renamed parent company of Printing.com posted a 3.4% drop in sales to £10.08m in the six months to 30 September, and an 11.4% fall in pre-tax profits to £305,000. However, EBITDA increased by 8.4% to £1.29m. Print sales overall were down £500,000 at £9.4m, and sales at its Printing.com franchise network slumped by £1.2m, or 21%, to £4.4m. Sales of its W3P online ordering and web-to-print system increased by almost 24% to £566,000, while Template Cloud sales grew to £77,000 (2012: £24,000). Chief executive Tony Rafferty said: “The business is in a transition. It’s probably taking longer than we thought, but we are seeing momentum. “Our SaaS developments are eating up all the profit at the moment, but the reality is you can’t start something new without investing in it, and that’s what we’re doing. I’m one of the largest shareholders in Grafenia and I’m very excited about it,” he added. The group signed up 19 new agreements for its W3P online ordering and web-to-print solution during the period, and Rafferty said adoption was increasing. “We granted the highest number of W3P deals in October, after the period end,” he said. “Many SME litho and digital printers have been around the houses and looked at all the web-to-print offerings, and they have found that W3P is easier to use.” The new W3P web shop facility came out of beta testing last month. “It’s early days and it’s just starting to gain momentum,” Rafferty added. “My agenda is to have 1,000 printers who get rid of their website that loses them money and replace it with a web shop that makes money.” He said the business remained cash-generative, and the reduction in net cash, from £1.14m to £530,000, was the result of a strategic move: “We are simply paying suppliers quicker than a year ago in order to take advantage of settlement discounts.” The firm cut its interim dividend to 0.33p (2012: 1.05p). Grafenia’s share price fell from 21.5p to 19.25p on the news. Rafferty will shortly publish a book ‘Web-to-Print MD-to-MD’, that will challenge conventions about the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets....

In its interim results, the renamed parent company of Printing.com posted a 3.4% drop in sales to £10.08m in the six months to 30 September, and an 11.4% fall in pre-tax profits to £305,000. However, EBITDA increased by 8.4% to £1.29m. Print sales overall were down £500,000 at £9.4m, and sales at its Printing.com franchise network slumped by £1.2m, or 21%, to £4.4m. Sales of its W3P online ordering and web-to-print system increased by almost 24% to £566,000, while Template Cloud sales grew to £77,000 (2012: £24,000). Chief executive Tony Rafferty said: “The business is in a transition. It’s probably taking longer than we thought, but we are seeing momentum. “Our SaaS developments are eating up all the profit at the moment, but the reality is you can’t start something new without investing in it, and that’s what we’re doing. I’m one of the largest shareholders in Grafenia and I’m very excited about it,” he added. The group signed up 19 new agreements for its W3P online ordering and web-to-print solution during the period, and Rafferty said adoption was increasing. “We granted the highest number of W3P deals in October, after the period end,” he said. “Many SME litho and digital printers have been around the houses and looked at all the web-to-print offerings, and they have found that W3P is easier to use.” The new W3P web shop facility came out of beta testing last month. “It’s early days and it’s just starting to gain momentum,” Rafferty added. “My agenda is to have 1,000 printers who get rid of their website that loses them money and replace it with a web shop that makes money.” He said the business remained cash-generative, and the reduction in net cash, from £1.14m to £530,000, was the result of a strategic move: “We are simply paying suppliers quicker than a year ago in order to take advantage of settlement discounts.” The firm cut its interim dividend to 0.33p (2012: 1.05p). Grafenia’s share price fell from 21.5p to 19.25p on the news. Rafferty will shortly publish a book ‘Web-to-Print MD-to-MD’, that will challenge conventions about the business-to-business and business-to-consumer markets....

Nearly half (46%) of respondents from the print industry cited lack of time to devote to trainees as a barrier, while 20% claimed costs were prohibitive and 5% said suitable candidates were lacking. “There are understandable reasons why many in the print industry are hesitant to invest their time and money into training an apprentice, as the benefits of apprenticeship schemes are not widely documented. “However, there is some evidence to suggest that they are worth the investment,” said Basil Bannayi, print division managing director at Close Brothers Asset Finance, which carried out the quarterly survey. Bannayi said that apprenticeships could help businesses by reducing the time and expense of recruiting, boosting productivity and developing a more diverse talent base. The latest Close Brothers Business Barometer, which surveys small- and medium-sized businesses across the UK, attracted 772 respondents of which 75 were from the print industry. Of those, around a third had turnovers between £250,000 and £750,000, a third were in the £750,000 to £1m bracket, 15% turned over £1m-£5m and a quarter turned over in excess of £5m. More than half (54%) said that recruiting skilled staff had proved challenging in the past, however of those that were actively running apprenticeships, only 13% said they planned to offer their trainees a permanent position on course completion. “Apprenticeships can go some way to addressing this problem by establishing a better fit between the skills possessed by the apprentice and those required by the company,” Bannayi said. He added that the standard of work produced by apprentices was often higher in order to meet assessment targets and that staff retention rates usually showed improvement because trainees felt a loyalty to the company....