The company bought a new dotmeter from Centurfax-owned ccDotmeter, replacing its 13-year old predecessor. Ivor sales and account manager Nikki Brin said: “In order to comply with British standards we needed official confirmation that the ccDot was still reading accurately.” CcDotmeter sales director Paul Foster said: “While dotmeters might not be viewed by some printers as an essential piece of kit when CtP units and plates are far more reliable, companies still recognise these units are an effective investment. “It takes only one small error to creep into this process to produce an incorrect colour, equalling a job that the customer rejects. This can turn into a customer that starts to look elsewhere for the next large print run. An investment of just a few hundred pounds can pay for itself in weeks,” he added. Ivor Solution’s 50 staff based in London prints stationery, leaflets and fliers on a range of litho and digital kit including four Heidelberg GTOs, two HP Indigos, a Ricoh Icon black-and-white printer and a four-colour Presstek device....

On 27 September ballot papers will be sent to 115,000 postal workers in the Royal Mail and Parcelforce, with the results to be announced on 16 October. Post Office staff are excluded. Strike action could then commence from 23 October, following a seven-day legal notice period to Royal Mail. The ballot was originally supposed to take place today (20 September), with results due to be announced on 3 October and industrial action possible from 10 October, however the union said the ballot had been delayed due to logistical details. Open-ended negotiations are still ongoing between Royal Mail and the union. A spokesman said: “Really we still want to reach an agreement, industrial action is a last resort, but I think finding a resolution in this time scale is extremely unlikely.” Last week a union spokeswoman confirmed that the organisation was consulting lawyers about how it could include a boycott of DSA providers as part of planned industrial action. The union is in dispute with Royal Mail over pay, pension and contractual terms as well as last week’s confirmed privatisation of the national postal organisation. The Royal Mail has proposed a three-year legally-binding agreement that includes an 8.6% pay increase. But the CWU has rejected the proposal, which it claims was linked to accepting major pension changes and a no strike deal. It is demanding an above inflation, no-strings pay deal. CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward, said: “The government’s privatisation agenda has destabilised everything. Postal workers are rightly concerned about their future so we want a legally-binding agreement on protections for jobs, terms and conditions – regardless of who owns the company. Without an agreement strikes are inevitable.” “We want the company to recognise its main asset – its workers – who literally deliver the success of the business. This union still wants an agreement and we are hoping this strike ballot will focus the minds of Royal Mail and bring us to a legally binding deal that will protect the interests of postal workers for the long-term foreseeable future.” He added: “Attacks on terms and conditions and the threat of new employment models in a potential race to the bottom with competitors are a real risk for postal workers and we intend to achieve legally binding protections that mean the future of postal workers jobs are secure and Royal Mail continues to set the benchmark for pay and conditions in the postal industry.”...

The company bought a new dotmeter from Centurfax-owned ccDotmeter, replacing its 13-year old predecessor. Ivor sales and account manager Nikki Brin said: “In order to comply with British standards we needed official confirmation that the ccDot was still reading accurately.” CcDotmeter sales director Paul Foster said: “While dotmeters might not be viewed by some printers as an essential piece of kit when CtP units and plates are far more reliable, companies still recognise these units are an effective investment. “It takes only one small error to creep into this process to produce an incorrect colour, equalling a job that the customer rejects. This can turn into a customer that starts to look elsewhere for the next large print run. An investment of just a few hundred pounds can pay for itself in weeks,” he added. Ivor Solution’s 50 staff based in London prints stationery, leaflets and fliers on a range of litho and digital kit including four Heidelberg GTOs, two HP Indigos, a Ricoh Icon black-and-white printer and a four-colour Presstek device....

Marketing manager Andrew Thornhill said that the Cross Media 2013 team had listened to feedback that 2012’s show was too print-centric and featured too many seminars. He said: “Feedback from exhibitors and visitors suggested there was just too much content. Exhibitors were concerned that while there were a lot of visitors on the floor – it seemed quite busy – they all seemed to be rushing from one seminar to another. So we’ve reduced the number of theatres form six to five and staggered the talks better.” He added: “One of the things that was leveled at 2012 as a criticism was that it might have been too print-centric, but I think having listened to what all the stakeholders and visitors said, we’ve now shifted it to a more balanced cross-media event.” Thornhill said another key aim was that this year’s show should attract a more even spread of visitor types than last year’s, also held at the Business Design Centre, Islington. He said: “We received a mix of visitors last year, both printers, but also marketers, brand owners and people from creative or digital agencies, and then also publishers. We’re hopeful we’re going to grow the publisher background; we’d like to steal some back from the marketing section so we get a more even spread.” So far Cross Media 2013 has attracted pre-registration figures 150% higher than at this point before last year’s show. Though this is expected to level out slightly, visitor figures are predicted to be 3,000-3,500, up from 2,500 last year. Thornhill attributed this to an overall highly successful 2012 show. “The feedback we got was that 89% of visitors thought Cross Media was in tune with what was going on in the marketplace. With a figure like that you can’t argue that people weren’t happy with what they’d seen. 83% of people said they’d consider exhibiting again.” This year’s show will feature more special features than 2012’s, including an AR (Augmented Reality) Hall of Fame, Virtual Reality Skydive, interactive portrait and Oglivy Ideas Shop for small businesses to receive one-to-one guidance from this marketing agency. Thornhill said: “It’s been quite challenging to pull together a features programme, as obviously budgets are quite tight at the moment. But we’re confident we have a fantastic programme and a really informative seminar schedule featuring first-class speakers.” He added: “Printers coming to Cross Media will access a wealth of new possibilities in areas such as automated marketing and mobile technology, so how they can augment the work they’re already doing with technologies like near field communication and augmented reaility.” Cross media 2013 takes place 23-24 October. Register at: www.crossmedialive.com/register....

Run by father and son Mike and Mark Hipperson, the 12-staff, £1.5m turnover business, launched in 2007, installed the Meteor at its Taverham site in July. The £165,000 device complements the firm’s existing seven-colour HP Indigo 5500. The French-manufactured Meteor was supplied by UK distributor MGI technology. The key attraction of the device, according to director Mike Hipperson, was its flexible sheet-size format, which now allows the company to produce jobs that would previously have needed added finishing techniques using SRA3 substrates. He said: “We are focused on book production, which is very much landscape oriented and we simply couldn’t fit them efficiently on the Indigo. With the MGI we can do that. “Now we can work with 330×1,020mm sheet sizes where on the Indigo you are limited to 320x460mm. “The quality of the MGI is also on a par with the Indigo, which we look upon as digital offset,” he added. In 2010 the business was producing 300 photobooks per week rising to 500 at peak times and although Hipperson said there had been “significant growth” in demand since then, he declined to reveal current volumes. “We’re seeing absolutely phenomenal growth right now and we will continue to see that in the future I think. “We are also seeing a lot more on-demand publishing as well these days and we can produce those right down to runs as small as one if needs be.” Another significant attraction of the Meteor for the company was its cost effective ‘digital coverage’ format, with no click charges, according to Hipperson’s son Mark. He said: “We have found that running costs are lower than the average click charge. If our application does not require the extended format capability of the MGI, we can determine the approximate coverage and cost-per-page to choose which press will be more beneficial to our overall margin. “For example, if we were printing letterheads we have almost zero toner cost with the MGI, and are guaranteed 100% laser compatibility. We have experienced no major problems since the Meteor was installed and MGI have looked after us during the production ramp up.” All finishing is carried out in-house and Mike Hipperson said the company had invested a significant amount in that department over the last couple of years, including a new PUR binding line around 12-months ago. He said the business was eyeing further investment in equipment although Hipperson would not be drawn on what that was. “We certainly have ambitions for more investments,” he said....