The machine with CMYK and white for short-run labels is being installed in a new 420sqm base three miles from its old headquarters in Burton-on-Trent. The investment comes a year after Colorscan took the UK’s first Jetrion 4900 UV-curable digital label press with in-line finishing. The 25-staff business supplies labels and POS materials for breweries and pubs in a town famous for its beer, said managing director Keith Forster. He bought both Jetrions from Grafitec Label Presses and said the modular design of the newest one enabled him to add laser cutting and finishing. “Almost 200 microbreweries have set up in the last few years and there are more now than at any time this century. Our ideal print run is 1,000 to 7,500 labels, but the Jetrion can do 500 as good as, if not better than, the guy knocking them out by the million. “The Jetrion has the full range of metallics – golds, silvers, reds and blues, and we are able to cut them to any shape without having to invest in vast amounts of die kit. It’s all inline so there is no waste. Britain used to have a proud brewing heritage and it is fantastic to see it back on from.” Forster said the latest Jetrion was an additional piece of kit at the digital house, which also runs a Xerox iGen3. The Jetrion also means his team could produce labels in a roll. EFI’s ink business vice president Stephen Emery said: “Colorscan Imaging Products is a great example of a label convertor that keeps growing their digital printing business. They take advantage of the lean manufacturing this digital label printer provides. “They capitalise on the increased demand for short runs and versioning. To remain competitive, print companies in this market sector need a reliable platform that gives them true flexibility and high quality, enabling them to profit from shorter runs and greater versatility.”...

The acquisition of the Glasgow-based wet glue, self adhesive spirit label printer is MCC’s second in the city, following its purchase of pressure-sensitive spirit and wine label printer Labelgraphics in April 2012. MCC said that the addition of John Watson & Co would complement the former Labelgraphics business. The US-based labels group, which employs 3,000 staff across 28 sites globally, has also announced the acquisition of Swiss-based wine label printer Gern & Cie. Both deals are expected to conclude on 1 October. Multi-Color Corporation president and chief executive Nigel Vinecombe said: “These acquisitions strengthen our leadership position in the large European Wine & Spirit label markets. We are delighted that both management teams will continue to run the businesses, allowing the current owners, John Watson and Michel Quinche to retire.” John Watson was unavailable for comment at the time of writing. Canada-based CCL Industries announced its proposed acquisition of John Watson & Co to the Toronto stock exchange on 20 November 2012. However, talks around the contractual terms of the sale agreement subsequently stalled and both parties jointly decided to terminate the discussions in late January 2013. Multi-Color Corporation posted a pre-tax profit of $48.7m on net revenues of $659.8m for the 12 months to 31 March 2013. It’s operating income for the same period was $70.7m....

The acquisition of the Glasgow-based wet glue, self adhesive spirit label printer is MCC’s second in the city, following its purchase of pressure-sensitive spirit and wine label printer Labelgraphics in April 2012. MCC said that the addition of John Watson & Co would complement the former Labelgraphics business. The US-based labels group, which employs 3,000 staff across 28 sites globally, has also announced the acquisition of Swiss-based wine label printer Gern & Cie. Both deals are expected to conclude on 1 October. Multi-Color Corporation president and chief executive Nigel Vinecombe said: “These acquisitions strengthen our leadership position in the large European Wine & Spirit label markets. We are delighted that both management teams will continue to run the businesses, allowing the current owners, John Watson and Michel Quinche to retire.” John Watson was unavailable for comment at the time of writing. Canada-based CCL Industries announced its proposed acquisition of John Watson & Co to the Toronto stock exchange on 20 November 2012. However, talks around the contractual terms of the sale agreement subsequently stalled and both parties jointly decided to terminate the discussions in late January 2013. Multi-Color Corporation posted a pre-tax profit of $48.7m on net revenues of $659.8m for the 12 months to 31 March 2013. It’s operating income for the same period was $70.7m....

The acquisition of the Glasgow-based wet glue, self adhesive spirit label printer is MCC’s second in the city, following its purchase of pressure-sensitive spirit and wine label printer Labelgraphics in April 2012. MCC said that the addition of John Watson & Co would complement the former Labelgraphics business. The US-based labels group, which employs 3,000 staff across 28 sites globally, has also announced the acquisition of Swiss-based wine label printer Gern & Cie. Both deals are expected to conclude on 1 October. Multi-Color Corporation president and chief executive Nigel Vinecombe said: “These acquisitions strengthen our leadership position in the large European Wine & Spirit label markets. We are delighted that both management teams will continue to run the businesses, allowing the current owners, John Watson and Michel Quinche to retire.” John Watson was unavailable for comment at the time of writing. Canada-based CCL Industries announced its proposed acquisition of John Watson & Co to the Toronto stock exchange on 20 November 2012. However, talks around the contractual terms of the sale agreement subsequently stalled and both parties jointly decided to terminate the discussions in late January 2013. Multi-Color Corporation posted a pre-tax profit of $48.7m on net revenues of $659.8m for the 12 months to 31 March 2013. It’s operating income for the same period was $70.7m....

Senior vice president of procurement Jan Paul van der Velde told PrintWeek: “Certain raw materials prices are increasing fast. How this will impact the current commercial agreements will differ case by case. What is key is the impact will ultimately flow through into the market. “Different cost drivers are having different effects in different market segments. The key issues revolve around publication inks, given the situation of rising prices for gum rosin and crude oil based products.” He said despite hopes prices would fall this year, the price of crude went up. In the first half of this year as many raw materials went up in price as came down. Crude today trades at around $110 per barrel, significantly above any level that people had forecast at the end of 2012. “In the base chemical markets materials such as benzene, styrene, toluene and xylene, important as building blocks for many material categories such as pigments and resins, prices again continued to rise in the first part of 2013 despite low demand in these markets. “Looking at third quarter developments, we have witnessed significant changes in some of our key markets since June and July with crude oil, gum rosin and pigments being amongst the key areas affected.” Oil prices not only hit inks but services such as packaging and logistics, he said. Gum rosin prices in China began to escalate dramatically from July, with a 40% hike impacting on pigments and Flint’s hydro carbon/phenolics based ink portfolio – heatset, coldset, sheetfed and gravure inks. “Given the relatively low stocks of crude gum rosin, it is likely that prices will remain at the current levels or potentially even increase until such time as the next crop is harvested. This is very similar to the situation in 2011 which resulted in gum rosin being traded at up to $3,500 per metric tonne.” He said: “Finally, we have also seen significant increases in pigment costs. This has mainly been driven by the ongoing and increasingly stricter enforcement of environmental rules in China and India – both for pigment suppliers and the suppliers of base chemicals for pigment production.” “It is clear the ink industry is again being confronted with the rising cost of raw materials and it does not look like this will quickly disappear. The result of these rising costs to some of the key raw material markets will inevitably have an increasing impact on the costing of publication inks.”...