Exclusive UK supplier for Spanish laminating film manufacturer, Derprosa, Graphic Image Films is now offering the company’s new Soft Touch range including new Black Soft Touch and Metalised Soft Touch films, which are suitable for both litho or digital printing. The newly available metalised range, which includes new colours solid red and blue matt films, can be over-printed, embossed, foiled or spot UV-coated. The company is targeting packaging firms of high-end products such as cosmetics, with the new metallic range. Graphic Image Films has also added gloss and matt BOPP-based, anti-bacterial films to its range, which are aimed at organisations where hygiene is paramount such as hospitals and children’s nurseries. The products are available in gloss and matt finishes. All prices depend on specification. Sales and marketing director Sandro Mosquera said that Graphic Image Films was unique in the UK with its ability to supply such a broad range of specialist laminating films in bespoke widths and reel lengths, with next day delivery. Mosquera said the new range of products on offer would allow clients in the printing and packaging industry to create more “luxurious and innovative” products. He added: “The market needs some new finishes like this, which is what everyone keeps telling us, instead of just going for the standard matt, gloss, silk for example.” “These products are BOPP-based meaning anyone with a standard laminating machine can work with them very easily so they are very adaptable. “We feel it is important for a company like ours to continually look for new products that our clients can then use to further improve their product range.” The 16-staff firm, based in Long Crendon, has a turnover of around £4.5m....

The increase will come into effect from 1 July and will apply to both sheets and reels. It follows from a £40 per tonne increase in April for the manufacturer’s wood-free coated papers, with the rising costs of raw materials, energy and transport again cited as the reasons for the rise. Both increases join a raft of price hikes from other paper manufacturers. Metsa Board also increased its prices for wood-free coated papers in April. Meanwhile Sappi Fine Paper Europe announced price increases for its graphic paper and coated fine paper range in February, and last month announced a 6% increase to specialty paper product prices, to come into effect from 1 July this year. The consensus when many of these rises were announced back in February, was that merchants would have no choice but to pass the full impact of these increases on to customers. Arjowiggins Graphic said that sales contacts would be in touch with customers shortly to “discuss further details and prepare implementation accordingly.”...

Exclusive UK supplier for Spanish laminating film manufacturer, Derprosa, Graphic Image Films is now offering the company’s new Soft Touch range including new Black Soft Touch and Metalised Soft Touch films, which are suitable for both litho or digital printing. The newly available metalised range, which includes new colours solid red and blue matt films, can be over-printed, embossed, foiled or spot UV-coated. The company is targeting packaging firms of high-end products such as cosmetics, with the new metallic range. Graphic Image Films has also added gloss and matt BOPP-based, anti-bacterial films to its range, which are aimed at organisations where hygiene is paramount such as hospitals and children’s nurseries. The products are available in gloss and matt finishes. All prices depend on specification. Sales and marketing director Sandro Mosquera said that Graphic Image Films was unique in the UK with its ability to supply such a broad range of specialist laminating films in bespoke widths and reel lengths, with next day delivery. Mosquera said the new range of products on offer would allow clients in the printing and packaging industry to create more “luxurious and innovative” products. He added: “The market needs some new finishes like this, which is what everyone keeps telling us, instead of just going for the standard matt, gloss, silk for example.” “These products are BOPP-based meaning anyone with a standard laminating machine can work with them very easily so they are very adaptable. “We feel it is important for a company like ours to continually look for new products that our clients can then use to further improve their product range.” The 16-staff firm, based in Long Crendon, has a turnover of around £4.5m....

The increase will come into effect from 1 July and will apply to both sheets and reels. It follows from a £40 per tonne increase in April for the manufacturer’s wood-free coated papers, with the rising costs of raw materials, energy and transport again cited as the reasons for the rise. Both increases join a raft of price hikes from other paper manufacturers. Metsa Board also increased its prices for wood-free coated papers in April. Meanwhile Sappi Fine Paper Europe announced price increases for its graphic paper and coated fine paper range in February, and last month announced a 6% increase to specialty paper product prices, to come into effect from 1 July this year. The consensus when many of these rises were announced back in February, was that merchants would have no choice but to pass the full impact of these increases on to customers. Arjowiggins Graphic said that sales contacts would be in touch with customers shortly to “discuss further details and prepare implementation accordingly.”...

Managing director Baz Ogle took delivery of the wide-format digital inkjet printer shortly after launching his company in Milton Keynes, this March. He said he had considered the circa-£350,000 investment for six months before he committed. EFI launched the Vutek GS3250LX UV-curing digital inkjet printer in 2011, as a “true breakthrough in high-speed super-wide inkjet printing technology”. It is vaunted as “a greener printing solution” that uses “cool cure” LED technology allowing the machine to consume less energy, increase printer uptime and reduce maintenance. The model is also available with regular mercury lamps. “The standard UV versions can get quite hot but with these LED lamps there is less heat, less cooling time and a lot cheaper running costs. The LED technology also allows us to run thinner PVC and other materials without warping,” said Ogle, who was a founder of nearby company Icon Graphics before starting his new business. The new eight-staff company, whose customers include agencies for blue-chip clients, prints on self-adhesive PVC and foam-mix substrates for posters, displays and exhibition materials. Ogle said with the new investment he hoped to make a turnover of £1m in his first year. “The main stand-out quality on the GS3250LX is speed; it runs at 90sqm per hour and can roll out an 8ft by 4ft foam display in under three minutes. I’ve used Vutek before and the print quality is unbeatable,” said Ogle. Other equipment at Format Graphics includes a Zünd 3m x 2m digital finishing machine and a 3m x 2m router. Commenting on total sales for the GS3250LX since its 2011 launch, an EFI spokesman said that global figures were “healthy”....