The contract, thought to be agreed for less than five years, will involve Opus printing and mailing out annual bills for EDF’s business and private customers in the UK. The £12.5m-turnover, 150-staff firm will print the bills at its 7,900sqm Leicester-based facility on bespoke HP-badged IntelliJet 20 digital colour printers and insert the output into mail packs using its CMC9000 enclosing lines. Opus Trust chief executive Linda Scott said it was a great win for the company. “In a competitive tender where experience, innovation and quality were integral, EDF Energy’s decision to choose Opus Trust Marketing underlines the strength of our solution,” she added. An EDF representative said Opus had won the tender because of experience and innovation. He added: “Opus Trust Marketing’s wealth of experience is very impressive and showed early on as they demonstrated a clear understanding on the specific needs of our industry and the key issues we face. “It is evident they are committed to continual investment and intent on leading and innovating their industry; from the unique IntelliJet T20s and the quality, flexibility, speed to market they provide, to the quality assurance controls and extensive postage options.”...

The contract, thought to be agreed for less than five years, will involve Opus printing and mailing out annual bills for EDF’s business and private customers in the UK. The £12.5m-turnover, 150-staff firm will print the bills at its 7,900sqm Leicester-based facility on bespoke HP-badged IntelliJet 20 digital colour printers and insert the output into mail packs using its CMC9000 enclosing lines. Opus Trust chief executive Linda Scott said it was a great win for the company. “In a competitive tender where experience, innovation and quality were integral, EDF Energy’s decision to choose Opus Trust Marketing underlines the strength of our solution,” she added. An EDF representative said Opus had won the tender because of experience and innovation. He added: “Opus Trust Marketing’s wealth of experience is very impressive and showed early on as they demonstrated a clear understanding on the specific needs of our industry and the key issues we face. “It is evident they are committed to continual investment and intent on leading and innovating their industry; from the unique IntelliJet T20s and the quality, flexibility, speed to market they provide, to the quality assurance controls and extensive postage options.”...

Exaprint has just launched in the UK. The company has been established for fifteen years in France, where it typically processes some 2,500 orders a day. It also has operations in Spain and Italy. Its new UK operation has been set up by managing director Simon Cooper, whose background includes production and business development roles at Pureprint Group, Precision Printing and CGI Europe. “It’s a platform for print-related businesses to outsource products they don’t produce themselves. A ‘secret weapon’ to help you manufacture goods for your customers,” Cooper explained. “It gives a smaller business the ability to behave like a bigger business.” The service is focused on design and print professionals, and only registered users see pricing details for its range of products. Cooper anticipates that printers will use the service for non-standard products that can’t be produced in-house, and as an overflow option when their own capacity is full. The range spans typical printed products such as stationery, leaflets and brochures, but also includes unusual and high-value items including specialist substrates, laser-cutting, security products, 3D varnishing and promotional drink cans. Cooper added: “People would love to have access to a Scodix press, but aren’t necessarily going to spend £250,000 on one of their own. We can pool their requirements.” Exaprint does not manufacture itself, but works with a range of specialist suppliers. Cooper has already established a network of print partners in the UK, and expects that 90% of jobs ordered will be printed here. “Some peripheral products will not be produced here in the beginning, but if volumes become sufficient we will move the work here. And some UK products will be added to the range and shipped to Europe,” he said. “The intention is to manufacture everything in the UK eventually.” The sophisticated IT backbone includes pre-flighting and job tracking, along with templates for thousands of different product combinations. There is no fee to use the platform. Early users include London-based Rapidity and Healeys Print Group in Ipswich. Healeys sales and marketing director Kelly Harris praised the ease-of-use of the online interface, and said: “Exaprint means we never have to say ‘no’ to our customers. The range of options is superb, and the level of service from proofing through to unbranded, direct-to-client delivery is excellent. I can see us using it more and more”. Rapidity managing director Paul Manning described the service as “well-timed”. “It’s online, it’s easy-to-use, you can get a price quickly and we have confidence they’re going to do the job properly. It’s really good,” he said. Exaprint has set up an office in London, employing four customer service staff. “We understand it’s going to take time, but we want to become part...

Exaprint has just launched in the UK. The company has been established for fifteen years in France, where it typically processes some 2,500 orders a day. It also has operations in Spain and Italy. Its new UK operation has been set up by managing director Simon Cooper, whose background includes production and business development roles at Pureprint Group, Precision Printing and CGI Europe. “It’s a platform for print-related businesses to outsource products they don’t produce themselves. A ‘secret weapon’ to help you manufacture goods for your customers,” Cooper explained. “It gives a smaller business the ability to behave like a bigger business.” The service is focused on design and print professionals, and only registered users see pricing details for its range of products. Cooper anticipates that printers will use the service for non-standard products that can’t be produced in-house, and as an overflow option when their own capacity is full. The range spans typical printed products such as stationery, leaflets and brochures, but also includes unusual and high-value items including specialist substrates, laser-cutting, security products, 3D varnishing and promotional drink cans. Cooper added: “People would love to have access to a Scodix press, but aren’t necessarily going to spend £250,000 on one of their own. We can pool their requirements.” Exaprint does not manufacture itself, but works with a range of specialist suppliers. Cooper has already established a network of print partners in the UK, and expects that 90% of jobs ordered will be printed here. “Some peripheral products will not be produced here in the beginning, but if volumes become sufficient we will move the work here. And some UK products will be added to the range and shipped to Europe,” he said. “The intention is to manufacture everything in the UK eventually.” The sophisticated IT backbone includes pre-flighting and job tracking, along with templates for thousands of different product combinations. There is no fee to use the platform. Early users include London-based Rapidity and Healeys Print Group in Ipswich. Healeys sales and marketing director Kelly Harris praised the ease-of-use of the online interface, and said: “Exaprint means we never have to say ‘no’ to our customers. The range of options is superb, and the level of service from proofing through to unbranded, direct-to-client delivery is excellent. I can see us using it more and more”. Rapidity managing director Paul Manning described the service as “well-timed”. “It’s online, it’s easy-to-use, you can get a price quickly and we have confidence they’re going to do the job properly. It’s really good,” he said. Exaprint has set up an office in London, employing four customer service staff. “We understand it’s going to take time, but we want to become part...

PrintIT! is designed to build links between the industry and the workforce of tomorrow and amongst the 14 category winners (see below), Natasha Bates of Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire was crowned the overall winner. Print IT! programme director for Proskills, Richard Moore said: “The entries this year were of a really high standard and all of the finalists were worthy of the overall prize so the judges thought long and hard before reaching their decision.” The PrintIT! Awards, which can form part of the curriculums for GCSEs and A Levels in Media Studies and Graphic Products/Product Design, were launched in 2005. Since then, more than 2,000 schools and 140,000 students have taken part in the scheme. Outgoing PrintIT! chairman Tony Lock, who is group commercial director at Duplo International, added: “The entire print and paper industry should be very proud that it has the largest schools into industry programme in the UK. Encouraging talent, youth and energy into our industry is critical to the continued success of print and paper in this digital world.” “Education is an investment in the future-our future. Let’s all get behind the fantastic initiative and continue the great work that has already started. I have been proud to be a small part of the programme.” A key element of the scheme is the twinning programme, where a school is twinned with a local printer to help the students develop a better understanding of the career opportunities in print. This year’s ‘Best Twinner’ winner was Learn to Dream (LtD) in East London, which was twinned with Newstead Wood School in Orpington, Kent. “We weren’t sure what to expect, but from [LtD director] Seymour Reeves’ point of view, he was really keen to give something back to the industry. And in the end it went really well as they got involved with every step of the process of producing their work,” said LtD office manager Jane Edwards. As part of their involvement, around 30 schoolchildren visited large-format specialist LtD and saw their PrintIT! projects being produced. Two of the students have subsequently undertaken work placements at the 20-staff company, with another two set to follow suit in June. “It gives us a chance to show them all of the career options in print, and it’s a great for us too because it’s a fun thing to do,” added Edwards. 2012/13 PrintIT! Category Winners Royal Opera House – Best Postcard Winner – Alex Pace from St Ives School in Cornwall Royal Opera House – Best Flyer Winner – Jake Turner from Bungay High School in Suffolk Royal Opera House – Best Poster Winner – Joseph Dann from St Ives School in Cornwall Royal Opera House –...