MPG leaves eight-figure shortfall
The £25m turnover, 210 employee book printing group collapsed in May, and attempts by management to revive the company via a CVA deal were unsuccessful. It went into administration in June. In the report from administrators Simon Girling and David Gilbert at BDO, the failure of the business is pinned on the delays and cost overruns that occurred when MPG set up a new facility in Cambridge following its deal with Cambridge University Press. “Unfortunately the time taken to complete the factory severely impacted on customer confidence leading to a reduced number of orders… as a result the company had insufficient work to trade in the short-term,” it said. The potential CVA deal failed due to the high start-up costs that would be associated with it, according to the report. Even though more than 25 potential third-party buyers expressed an interest in the business, with 18 signing non-disclosure agreements, no purchaser was willing to take on the risks associated with resurrecting the group, which also had sites in Bodmin and King’s Lynn. Major trade creditors include Agfa, Kodak, HP, Kolbus, and a raft of paper companies (see below). The estimated total deficiency regarding all the group’s creditors is £10.2m. Next week Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is running an online auction of MPG’s remaining fixed assets, which include some of the equipment purchased on finance agreements. JLL is selling the Timsons digital book printing system and Kolbus KM600 sequential binding line that is owned by HSBC via private treaty. JLL director Spencer Chapman said many of the items for sale were virtually new: “The compressed air systems at Cambridge and even the office furniture there is less than a year old,” he said. “The Océ print-on-demand setup at Bodmin is also very nice. It’s a logistical challenge if people want to visit all three sites, but we’ve had a lot of interest from the UK and abroad.” A full list of the assets for sale can be found on the JLL website. “We’ll do our level best for everybody,” he added. JLL is also handling the sale of the Kodak Prosper inkjet system from MPG’s King’s Lynn site on behalf of HSBC, which could be of interest to St Ives for its Clays site. Chief executive Patrick Martell said St Ives was still evaluating its options: “We’ve got one already and we know the technology works. Whether we buy this one or buy a new one will depend on the migration of work from conventional print to digital,” he said. Printing & Graphic Machinery is selling MPG’s KBA sheetfed presses. CPI Group has already purchased some of MPG’s kit, including a Timson T-Fold and additional Kolbus KM600 binding line. MPG Printgroup – major trade creditors Agfa £116,627 Denmaur Independent Paper £378,325 Diamond Print Services £42,089 DMD Graphic Services £137,843 Elliott Baxter £29,065 Gould Paper Sales £1.9m HP £47,669 KBA UK £54,851 Kodak £273,405 Kolbus UK £62,674 Masons Paper £433,967 Middleton Paper £34,642 Océ UK £24,827 Xerox UK £264,054...
read moreMPG leaves eight-figure shortfall
The £25m turnover, 210 employee book printing group collapsed in May, and attempts by management to revive the company via a CVA deal were unsuccessful. It went into administration in June. In the report from administrators Simon Girling and David Gilbert at BDO, the failure of the business is pinned on the delays and cost overruns that occurred when MPG set up a new facility in Cambridge following its deal with Cambridge University Press. “Unfortunately the time taken to complete the factory severely impacted on customer confidence leading to a reduced number of orders… as a result the company had insufficient work to trade in the short-term,” it said. The potential CVA deal failed due to the high start-up costs that would be associated with it, according to the report. Even though more than 25 potential third-party buyers expressed an interest in the business, with 18 signing non-disclosure agreements, no purchaser was willing to take on the risks associated with resurrecting the group, which also had sites in Bodmin and King’s Lynn. Major trade creditors include Agfa, Kodak, HP, Kolbus, and a raft of paper companies (see below). The estimated total deficiency regarding all the group’s creditors is £10.2m. Next week Jones Lang LaSalle (JLL) is running an online auction of MPG’s remaining fixed assets, which include some of the equipment purchased on finance agreements. JLL is selling the Timsons digital book printing system and Kolbus KM600 sequential binding line that is owned by HSBC via private treaty. JLL director Spencer Chapman said many of the items for sale were virtually new: “The compressed air systems at Cambridge and even the office furniture there is less than a year old,” he said. “The Océ print-on-demand setup at Bodmin is also very nice. It’s a logistical challenge if people want to visit all three sites, but we’ve had a lot of interest from the UK and abroad.” A full list of the assets for sale can be found on the JLL website. “We’ll do our level best for everybody,” he added. JLL is also handling the sale of the Kodak Prosper inkjet system from MPG’s King’s Lynn site on behalf of HSBC, which could be of interest to St Ives for its Clays site. Chief executive Patrick Martell said St Ives was still evaluating its options: “We’ve got one already and we know the technology works. Whether we buy this one or buy a new one will depend on the migration of work from conventional print to digital,” he said. Printing & Graphic Machinery is selling MPG’s KBA sheetfed presses. CPI Group has already purchased some of MPG’s kit, including a Timson T-Fold and additional Kolbus KM600 binding line. MPG Printgroup – major trade creditors Agfa £116,627 Denmaur Independent Paper £378,325 Diamond Print Services £42,089 DMD Graphic Services £137,843 Elliott Baxter £29,065 Gould Paper Sales £1.9m HP £47,669 KBA UK £54,851 Kodak £273,405 Kolbus UK £62,674 Masons Paper £433,967 Middleton Paper £34,642 Océ UK £24,827 Xerox UK £264,054...
read moreEFI ups quality and integration with new Fiery servers
The Fiery EX and EXi print servers deliver three times faster processing speed than the previous model, higher-resolution printing and integration with systems such as cost-accounting tools and Xerox FreeFlow workflow suite products. Central to the new servers is Fiery FS100 Pro, which the company claimed was the “only digital graphic arts workflow system to print PDFs perfectly”. The Fiery EX and EXi supports print resolutions of 1,200dpi, while spot-color emulation, automated image enhancement and optional software such as the Fiery Graphic Arts Package boost colour management capability for brochures, posters, presentations and photos. EFI sales director for Europe Terry Garvey said: “All-round performance and integration makes this technology stand out; standard software such as impositioning comes with ad-ons including Fiery Job Master for applications such as training manuals where you need tabs inserted.” Built-in tools such as Fiery FreeForm variable-data formatting and advanced variable-data print stream processing is also designed to allow printers to offer new, value-added services to their customers. EFI vice president for Fiery marketing John Henze said: “Print professionals need to expand their offerings and improve turnaround time, all without sacrificing quality.” He said the Fiery EX and EXi print servers enabled Xerox users to create end-to-end production workflows by integrating with EFI’s MIS software, e-commerce and scheduling tools. Integrating production workflow allowed customers to optimize print loads and track expenses and profits. EFI would not reveal cost details but said commercial availability would be in early September....
read moreEFI ups quality and integration with new Fiery servers
The Fiery EX and EXi print servers deliver three times faster processing speed than the previous model, higher-resolution printing and integration with systems such as cost-accounting tools and Xerox FreeFlow workflow suite products. Central to the new servers is Fiery FS100 Pro, which the company claimed was the “only digital graphic arts workflow system to print PDFs perfectly”. The Fiery EX and EXi supports print resolutions of 1,200dpi, while spot-color emulation, automated image enhancement and optional software such as the Fiery Graphic Arts Package boost colour management capability for brochures, posters, presentations and photos. EFI sales director for Europe Terry Garvey said: “All-round performance and integration makes this technology stand out; standard software such as impositioning comes with ad-ons including Fiery Job Master for applications such as training manuals where you need tabs inserted.” Built-in tools such as Fiery FreeForm variable-data formatting and advanced variable-data print stream processing is also designed to allow printers to offer new, value-added services to their customers. EFI vice president for Fiery marketing John Henze said: “Print professionals need to expand their offerings and improve turnaround time, all without sacrificing quality.” He said the Fiery EX and EXi print servers enabled Xerox users to create end-to-end production workflows by integrating with EFI’s MIS software, e-commerce and scheduling tools. Integrating production workflow allowed customers to optimize print loads and track expenses and profits. EFI would not reveal cost details but said commercial availability would be in early September....
read moreEFI finance boss steps down
Pilette will officially leave his post at the global business on 3 September although he will help to create a smooth transition until the end of the quarter, during which time the company will begin a recruitment process for a replacement. Senior vice president and general manager of EFI Productivity Software, Marc Olin, will step in as interim CFO, while chief accounting officer Brandy Green will assist the role, joining the senior leadership team. Pilette, who was appointed as CFO at the start of 2011 to help drive the company’s growth strategy, exits on a high note after EFI posted record quarterly growth in Q2. Sales were up 10% year-on-year to $180.3m and operating profit up 19% to $23.4m. In a statement Pilette said: “While it was a difficult decision for me to leave EFI as the business is just beginning to realise its full potential, this strong position also makes it the right time for me to take on a different set of challenges and embark on the next chapter in my career. “My confidence in the company’s leadership and opportunities has never been higher, and I look forward to remaining a supporter and a shareholder of EFI,” he added. On Pilette’s departure EFI chief executive Guy Gecht said: “We are grateful for Vincent’s contributions to EFI and we wish him the best with his new endeavor. “We are confident in the finance team’s ability, with Marc and Brandy’s leadership, to comprehensively support the entire organisation in our mission to capitalize on the significant short and long term opportunities in front of us.” The company declined to comment further on Pilette’s future plans....
read moreEFI finance boss steps down
Pilette will officially leave his post at the global business on 3 September although he will help to create a smooth transition until the end of the quarter, during which time the company will begin a recruitment process for a replacement. Senior vice president and general manager of EFI Productivity Software, Marc Olin, will step in as interim CFO, while chief accounting officer Brandy Green will assist the role, joining the senior leadership team. Pilette, who was appointed as CFO at the start of 2011 to help drive the company’s growth strategy, exits on a high note after EFI posted record quarterly growth in Q2. Sales were up 10% year-on-year to $180.3m and operating profit up 19% to $23.4m. In a statement Pilette said: “While it was a difficult decision for me to leave EFI as the business is just beginning to realise its full potential, this strong position also makes it the right time for me to take on a different set of challenges and embark on the next chapter in my career. “My confidence in the company’s leadership and opportunities has never been higher, and I look forward to remaining a supporter and a shareholder of EFI,” he added. On Pilette’s departure EFI chief executive Guy Gecht said: “We are grateful for Vincent’s contributions to EFI and we wish him the best with his new endeavor. “We are confident in the finance team’s ability, with Marc and Brandy’s leadership, to comprehensively support the entire organisation in our mission to capitalize on the significant short and long term opportunities in front of us.” The company declined to comment further on Pilette’s future plans....
read moreJohnston Press writes down print, media assets as revamp starts to bear fruit
Johnston’s results were complicated by the impact of the wholesale restructuring at the regional media group, which has relaunched 227 titles and switched five daily newspapers to weekly frequency, alongside a big push into digital and mobile channels. Like-for-like sales in the six months to the end of June fell 9.8% to £144.3m, but like-for-like operating profit increased by 4.3% to £28.6m. However, Johnston also filed a massive £194.5m non-cash impairment charge against the value of its titles and wrote down the value of its print assets by £57.9m, resulting in a bottom line loss of £248.7m. Advertising revenues fell by 13.6%, although chief executive Ashley Highfield described the advertising market as “increasingly stable” and said the rate of decline had “narrowed to 6.3% during June and July 2013”. Circulation revenues for its revamped portfolio also showed “early signs of improvement”, and the overall rate of circulation decline has reduced to just 0.7%. Digital revenues jumped 13.3%, and Johnston has grown its web and mobile reach to 11.8m unique users a month. The firm does not disclose digital’s contribution to operating profit. Costs were reduced by £24.3m, ahead of plan, and the group has managed to get its pension deficit down to under £100m. Separately, it received a £10m exceptional gain due to News International’s cancellation of its contract printing arrangement with Johnston, after NI took previously outsourced print back in-house following the closure of the News of the World. This went towards reducing net debt, which was down £55.3m to £306.4m. Johnston has received a total of £40m in compensation for the cancellation of the NI deal. The absence of the NI work reduced turnover by £7.1m and operating profits by £3m. Johnston’s contract printing sales for external clients were £6.1m during the period, out of total contract print revenues of £27m. It has secured a new £600,000 contract with an unnamed customer as part of its push to replace the lost NI volume, “but at lower margins” than it enjoyed with NI. A spokeswoman told PrintWeek that Johnston was “monitoring” News International’s recently-announced hybrid print project, but had no plans at present to make a similar move itself. The group’s share price rose by 0.5p to 16.5p in early trading (52-week high 19p, low 5.2p)....
read moreJohnston Press writes down print, media assets as revamp starts to bear fruit
Johnston’s results were complicated by the impact of the wholesale restructuring at the regional media group, which has relaunched 227 titles and switched five daily newspapers to weekly frequency, alongside a big push into digital and mobile channels. Like-for-like sales in the six months to the end of June fell 9.8% to £144.3m, but like-for-like operating profit increased by 4.3% to £28.6m. However, Johnston also filed a massive £194.5m non-cash impairment charge against the value of its titles and wrote down the value of its print assets by £57.9m, resulting in a bottom line loss of £248.7m. Advertising revenues fell by 13.6%, although chief executive Ashley Highfield described the advertising market as “increasingly stable” and said the rate of decline had “narrowed to 6.3% during June and July 2013”. Circulation revenues for its revamped portfolio also showed “early signs of improvement”, and the overall rate of circulation decline has reduced to just 0.7%. Digital revenues jumped 13.3%, and Johnston has grown its web and mobile reach to 11.8m unique users a month. The firm does not disclose digital’s contribution to operating profit. Costs were reduced by £24.3m, ahead of plan, and the group has managed to get its pension deficit down to under £100m. Separately, it received a £10m exceptional gain due to News International’s cancellation of its contract printing arrangement with Johnston, after NI took previously outsourced print back in-house following the closure of the News of the World. This went towards reducing net debt, which was down £55.3m to £306.4m. Johnston has received a total of £40m in compensation for the cancellation of the NI deal. The absence of the NI work reduced turnover by £7.1m and operating profits by £3m. Johnston’s contract printing sales for external clients were £6.1m during the period, out of total contract print revenues of £27m. It has secured a new £600,000 contract with an unnamed customer as part of its push to replace the lost NI volume, “but at lower margins” than it enjoyed with NI. A spokeswoman told PrintWeek that Johnston was “monitoring” News International’s recently-announced hybrid print project, but had no plans at present to make a similar move itself. The group’s share price rose by 0.5p to 16.5p in early trading (52-week high 19p, low 5.2p)....
read moreEpson UK appoints Phil McMullin to Pro Graphics division
McMullin joined after eight years heading up the UK operation of Spandex, Epson distributor and specialist supplier of media and equipment to the signage and display industry. McMullin said: “Digital print for the signage market is a key area of growth for Epson. It’s an exciting time to join the company, with the launch of new large format devices including the SureColor SC-F dye-sub printers, commercial mini-labs, production label printers and other new products.” He added that along with the range of signage printers launched in 2012, the new devices were expected to drive the growth of Epson’s large format printer division for “years to come”. Prior to his time at Spandex, McMullin spent over a decade in the production print divisions of Xerox and Kodak, giving him an insight into the digital proofing, colour management and print requirements of Epson’s traditional customer base, McMullin said. “The primary attraction to customers in these new sectors are the core Epson values developed over 40 years of print experience – quality, consistency, reliability and customer service,” he added....
read moreMimaki upgrades to Windows 8
The upgrade from Windows 7 for RasterLink Pro 5 and RasterLink 6 programmes means users can RIP files quicker using the newest, higher-spec PCs. Customers can download the latest version of the software free from the Mimaki website or use the application’s inbuilt ‘web update function’, according to Mimaki’s UK and Ireland exclusive supplier, Hybrid Services. Technical support officer Steven Barrance said the upgrade could be installed across a range of printers, including the JV33 series, CJV series and the UJF-3042. “This simple-to-use feature is available for customers running RasterLink Pro 5 and all customers who have full versions of RasterLink 6. “It allows users to benefit from the latest Windows operating system, along with other performance and profile updates as they become available.” Mimaki RasterLink Pro 5 and RasterLink 6 are PostScript Level 3 RIP packages, customised to Mimaki printers offering spot-colour support and versatile image editing functions....
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