According to the Dutch manufacturer the inks have been developed to match the performance of products from major vendors such as Epson, HP, and Canon, but at prices more comparable with “cheaper” alternatives. A spokesman said: “Because printer cartridges from the original manufacturers are often expensive, demand exists for cheaper third-party options. The Van Son premium wide format inks are a direct copy of OEM inks [in terms of performance].” Formulated with an aqueous pigment base, the inks are available in cartridges from 220ml, 700ml and 775ml with prices ranging from £38 to £141. Where required cartridges are available to buy in 1,000ml containers for bulk orders. The range also includes inks designed for use with Mimaki SS21 and Roland Eco-Sol Max printers. These solvent-based inks are available in 440ml cartridges for £56.31 and 1,000ml containers for bulk orders. Suitable for both the solvent and eco-solvent markets they can be used for outdoor display work without the need for lamination, according to the manufacturer. Visitors to the stand at Fespa will be offered “show only” discounted prices on the new range....

The fresh five-year deal marks an extension of the group’s previous deal with Kodak, which was for three years. It covers CTP plates and ink for St Ives’ high-speed inkjet presses. Book wing Clays in East Anglia is the biggest single user of Kodak technology within the group, as it runs two digital book production lines using Kodak inkjet technology alongside its substantial conventional print production facilities. The agreement also covers retail print specialist SP’s sites in Redditch and Burnley, and the St Ives Direct operation in Bradford. St Ives group commercial director Ivor Watters said the new contract had followed a thorough review of potential alternative suppliers: “If we find a good supplier we tend to stick with them, but that’s not to say we wouldn’t move – we benchmark commercially,” he explained. “We’ve found Kodak to be very pro-active and very helpful, and we’ve been pleased with the consistency and quality of supply. “They’ve also provided value-for money by helping us to strip out unnecessary costs year-on-year,” Watters added. He said St Ives had been kept informed about Kodak’s Chapter 11 process, and was “comfortable” about the situation and the likely future shape of the supplier. The production workflow systems at Clays and SP have also been updated with bespoke configurations to marry with each site’s precise needs, using a combination of Kodak’s Prinergy workflow, Insite Prepress Portal and Prinergy Rules-Based Automation software. Kodak UK and Nordic sales director Darren Chard said he was delighted with the deal, and highlighted the value of the “tremendous synergy” gained through long-term customer partnerships. “The relationship that we have today has been built over several years to become more than just a day-to-day business relationship,” he said. ” A strong sense of purpose with a focus on attaining mutual success in a dynamic and ever-changing market environment has created tremendous synergy between our two businesses.”...

According to the Dutch manufacturer the inks have been developed to match the performance of products from major vendors such as Epson, HP, and Canon, but at prices more comparable with “cheaper” alternatives. A spokesman said: “Because printer cartridges from the original manufacturers are often expensive, demand exists for cheaper third-party options. The Van Son premium wide format inks are a direct copy of OEM inks [in terms of performance].” Formulated with an aqueous pigment base, the inks are available in cartridges from 220ml, 700ml and 775ml with prices ranging from £38 to £141. Where required cartridges are available to buy in 1,000ml containers for bulk orders. The range also includes inks designed for use with Mimaki SS21 and Roland Eco-Sol Max printers. These solvent-based inks are available in 440ml cartridges for £56.31 and 1,000ml containers for bulk orders. Suitable for both the solvent and eco-solvent markets they can be used for outdoor display work without the need for lamination, according to the manufacturer. Visitors to the stand at Fespa will be offered “show only” discounted prices on the new range....

Operating profits before exceptional items fell from £1.3m to £1.1m, while sales from its UK and Eire operations contracted from £13.8m to £12.6m, which the company said reflected a competitive marketplace and increased online competition. Sales across France and Belgium showed marginal increases although its Dutch operations contracted by 5.3% to £6.1m. Chief executive Tony Rafferty said that costs related to the development of its crowd-sourced graphic design initiative, TemplateCloud and its white label offering for the graphic arts sector, W3P, had impacted on overall profit on the year. “The results hide the fact that we have evolved TemplateCloud and W3P to really significant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings internationalising them into eight languages. That has required development, operational and marketing costs,” he explained. Referring to Printing.com’s print franchise network and online services Flyerzone, Drukland and BrandDemand, Rafferty said that these would remain central to the group and in the short term would continue to be the main source of earnings. “The European market has been very challenging and that has pulled back some of the momentum we had in the previous year, so yes the earnings have tightened, but the underlying cash generation in the group remains strong. We have no debt in the group,” he added. Moving forward Rafferty said there was a refocusing of emphasis within the group, with three distinct revenue streams coming from its franchise and online channels, W3P.com, and TemplateCloud.com. He said the company had reached the point where the new SaaS initiatives had moved from development to deployment and that the outlook for new international partners was “encouraging”. “We expect to attract a lot of digital and commercial printers to use the W3P platform. What we are offering is a game changer for web-to-print,” he added. “Our number one focus for the year is to gain momentum with our SaaS initiatives. That is going to incur cost so we doubt our earnings will significantly move forward this year but once they are firmly embedded the profits will begin to take care of themselves.” As part of the “repositioning” and refocusing of the group’s operations Printing.com is to change its holding company name to Grafenia to “reflect the broad graphic nature of the group’s activity” and to avoid confusion and misunderstanding when marketing the TemplateCloud and W3P offerings. All brands including the Printing.com franchise, will remain the same. “We are more than just a printing company. We are a software development house that offers slick, clever and innovative services and our name change reflects that,” said Rafferty. The name will be rubber-stamped at the company’s next AGM....

Operating profits before exceptional items fell from £1.3m to £1.1m, while sales from its UK and Eire operations contracted from £13.8m to £12.6m, which the company said reflected a competitive marketplace and increased online competition. Sales across France and Belgium showed marginal increases although its Dutch operations contracted by 5.3% to £6.1m. Chief executive Tony Rafferty said that costs related to the development of its crowd-sourced graphic design initiative, TemplateCloud and its white label offering for the graphic arts sector, W3P, had impacted on overall profit on the year. “The results hide the fact that we have evolved TemplateCloud and W3P to really significant Software-as-a-Service (SaaS) offerings internationalising them into eight languages. That has required development, operational and marketing costs,” he explained. Referring to Printing.com’s print franchise network and online services Flyerzone, Drukland and BrandDemand, Rafferty said that these would remain central to the group and in the short term would continue to be the main source of earnings. “The European market has been very challenging and that has pulled back some of the momentum we had in the previous year, so yes the earnings have tightened, but the underlying cash generation in the group remains strong. We have no debt in the group,” he added. Moving forward Rafferty said there was a refocusing of emphasis within the group, with three distinct revenue streams coming from its franchise and online channels, W3P.com, and TemplateCloud.com. He said the company had reached the point where the new SaaS initiatives had moved from development to deployment and that the outlook for new international partners was “encouraging”. “We expect to attract a lot of digital and commercial printers to use the W3P platform. What we are offering is a game changer for web-to-print,” he added. “Our number one focus for the year is to gain momentum with our SaaS initiatives. That is going to incur cost so we doubt our earnings will significantly move forward this year but once they are firmly embedded the profits will begin to take care of themselves.” As part of the “repositioning” and refocusing of the group’s operations Printing.com is to change its holding company name to Grafenia to “reflect the broad graphic nature of the group’s activity” and to avoid confusion and misunderstanding when marketing the TemplateCloud and W3P offerings. All brands including the Printing.com franchise, will remain the same. “We are more than just a printing company. We are a software development house that offers slick, clever and innovative services and our name change reflects that,” said Rafferty. The name will be rubber-stamped at the company’s next AGM....