Former BPIF president dies aged 97
The lifelong Quaker was president from 1965 to 1966 but started his printing career 19 years before that in 1946 when he joined his father’s print firm Ebor Press, where he worked his way up to become managing director. The year he joined the company it won a franchise for self-adhesive labels from American inventor Stan Avery. In 1979 the company went on to acquire Leicester-based label printing form Soabar. Sessions continued to have close contact with the business, which changed its name to William Sessions, until it went into administration in 2010 a year after being put up for sale. Sessions leaves a widow Eva, and three children Sallie, Mark and Michael. The funeral is on 13 May....
read moreSun Capital creates global plastics packaging giant
US-based flexible paper and plastic packaging firm Exopack and European firms Paccor and Kobusch will join Paragon and Britton Group to form the new company. The businesses will operate under the banner of Exopack Holdings, which will have its headquarters in Luxembourg, although all five will retain their individual brand names. Once the merger is complete Exopack Holdings will have 63 plants globally, around 8,650 employees and a turnover of more that $2.5bn. It will be divided into a flexibles division headed by Michael Cronin and a rigid division headed by Paccor chief executive Dieter Bergner. The combined business will be headed up by current Exopack chief executive Jack Knott. “By joining together to form this new entity, we will be better able to serve the needs of our global customers through a manufacturing base spanning North America, Europe, the Middle East and China that enhances our ability to deliver outstanding service,” said Knott. “The larger scale will enable us to accelerate the development and commercialisation of new and differentiated products that offer our customers a competitive advantage,” he added. The merger follows a raft of packaging acquisitions by Sun Capital Partners culminating with the majority share purchase of Paragon Print and Packaging in December last year. In 2005 Sun Capital bought US-based Exopack from the Sterling Group in Houston. Sun Capital’s European arm, Sun European bought German firms Paccor in 2010 and Kobusch in 2011 followed the same year by UK-headquartered Britton Group. “This combination represents a natural next step in a process that began eight years ago to create a global packaging company with a solid foundation for future growth,” said Marc Leder, co-chief executive of Sun Capital Partners. “Building on past collaborations between the companies, the combination will immediately achieve synergies and allow the combined company to more effectively pursue global business.”...
read moreS&G improves efficiency with Polar
The raft of Polar equipment which was installed last week includes a jogger, pile turner, Transomat downloaders and weighing scales, said bindery manager Marcus Partridge. Stephens & George has three Polar 115XT guillotines, but only two had the Polar handling kit, Partridge explained. “Two of the three lines had the kit, meaning the standalone Polar became just backup,” he said. “This should improve our productivity by around 20%. “We wanted parity across all three lines, so made this investment. It gives us capacity to cover cutting throughput even during peak periods. It’s a slick and smart way to work.” He said that materials handling increased the productivity of the cutter, freeing guillotine operators to cut more sheets by reducing the manual handling involved. Partridge said that it had the added advantage of boosting confidence in accurately quantifying all products that were cut. He added that the company in Merthyr Tydfil planned to further improve efficiency by installing Heidelberg Postpress Manager to link up with its current MIS and help with shop-floor data collection....
read moreS & G boosts efficiency with Stahl
The raft of Stahl equipment which was installed last week includes a jogger, pile turner, Transomat downloaders and weighing scales, said bindery manager Marcus Partridge. Stephens & George has three Polar 115XT guillotines, but only two had the Stahl handling kit, Partridge explained. “Two of the three lines had the kit, meaning the standalone Polar became just backup,” he said. “This should improve our productivity by around 20%. “We wanted parity across all three lines, so made this investment. It gives us capacity to cover cutting throughput even during peak periods. It’s a slick and smart way to work.” He said materials handling increased the productivity of the cutter, freeing guillotine operators to cut more sheets by reducing the manual handling involved. Partridge said that the it had the added advantage of boosting confidence in accurately quantifying all products that were cut. He added that the company in Merthyr Tydfil planned to further improve efficiency by installing Heidelberg Postpress Manager to link up with its current MIS and help with shop-floor data...
read moreCPI unveils £20m investment plans
The machine, launched at Drupa 2012 and installed at the book printer’s Croydon facility last month, applies varnish digitally using inkjet with varying levels. The varnish can be adjusted in depth across the sheet creating a 3D embossed effect, and opens up opportunities in packaging and POS, book jacket printing, promotional print and brochures. Additionally as part of the investment the book printer is to invest in a new high speed B1 litho press at its Croydon site to add to its existing suite. Further details of the new press, which is to be commissioned later this year, were not confirmed although CPI is currently an all-Heidelberg house. Announcing the plans last night CPI UK group sales director Alison Kaye said: “We are combining the expertise of our people with the very latest press technology so we can keep pushing the boundaries, so we can stay at the forefront of lithographic printing.” Kaye stressed that although print remained at the core of the business, the company’s “overarching strategy” was to support clients through the entire supply chain from content creation to consumer delivery. As such, as part of the £20m plan, the company intends to develop its existing digital media capability such as content-rich app delivery and its management information system, CPI Highway, with digital asset management functionality. Kaye added: “Investing in our growing IT resource is vital so that we can engage electronically with our clients via EDI and XML workflows to drive efficiencies, improve workflow and help reduce administrative costs.” The latest investment strategy follows the completion last year of a £22m, three-year spending strategy in its UK businesses that included the installation of its first UK-based HP T350 “Quantum” colour inkjet webpress for short run colour books and catalogues. The company also installed two HP Indigos in Croydon along with a raft of digital finishing equipment, following the relocation of its Bookmarque paperback manufacturing operation to Mackays in Chatham, Kent. The latest round of spending comes on the back of the year-long restructuring and consolidation of CPI UK’s commercial printing operation in Croydon. It saw the consolidation of four separate operating businesses – Fulmar Colour, Royle Print, Quadracolour and Pegasus – into one and rebranded as CPI Colour. The business now employs 130 of the 900-strong workforce that make up CPI...
read moreSMEs still gloomy on credit and cash flow
SME Finance Monitor by market researcher BDRC Continental found although nearly three quarters struck lucky in their overdraft applications in the last quarter of 2012, almost all of the rest failed, with a few companies securing funding elsewhere. “Nine out of 10 successful applicants felt loan or overdraft facilities were put in place by the bank in good time for when it was needed,” said the authors. “Seven out of 10 successful overdraft applicants had a facility in place within a week. Loans took slightly longer with two thirds in place within two weeks of being agreed.” Other findings included just over two fifths of SMEs reported using any external finance in the last quarter of 2012. This was virtually unchanged from the third quarter and from a year ago. Larger SMEs remained more likely to be using external finance than smaller ones, but the proportion is declining. The proportion making a profit was stable, but smaller profits were reported. There was a slight increase in the proportion of SMEs with a worse than average external risk rating. A fifth of all SMEs interviewed in the fourth quarter thought initiatives such as Funding for Lending or the National Loan Guarantee Scheme made it more likely they would apply for funding, the equivalent of around 900,000 SMEs. The Forum of Private Business said the data suggested “confidence was low amid access to credit and cash flow problems”. But reworking the Funding for Lending scheme could change that sentiment, the forum added. Head of policy Alex Jackman said: “Unsurprisingly the report on business lending shows a mixed picture across the UK. The one common theme is low confidence, affecting every region with around one in three firms citing it as a major barrier. “The research suggests confidence is highest among business owners in England, where fewer numbers of businesses cite cash flow or late payment as a perceived problem (11%), and also access to external finance (10%).” The findings supported the forum’s long-held view that bank lending and late payment remained huge issues for small firms. But Jackman hoped the chancellor’s recent “fine tuning” of the Funding for Lending scheme could help improve lending. “If businesses feel they will be able to follow a growth plan without being hampered by issues around access to finance there’s every chance confidence will grow, and there is some evidence of this effect in the data.” The SME Finance Monitor surveys 5,000 businesses every quarter about past borrowing events and future borrowing intentions. It is the largest such survey of its kind in the UK and BDRC Continental held over 20,000 interviews for this report....
read moreEpson announces distributors for SureColor dye-sub printers
The two 44- and 64-inch printers, which are due to make their second UK outing at Fespa after being unveiled at last week’s at Sign & Digital UK, can produce up to 57sqm per hour. They both use Epson’s first dye-sub ink Ultrachrome DS, and are designed for soft signage, sportswear, apparel, accessories, promotional products and decorated gadgets applications. Nick White, business manager, professional graphics at Epson UK, explained that working with suppliers with established expertise in this field would be key to the success of Epson’s first foray into this new market. “We wanted to work with resellers that were very experienced in the dye sublimation textile marketplace,” he said. “They both have a very good reputation and they can offer good pre sales consultancy and after sales service and can provide ancillary equipment for textile printing.”...
read moreNorth Plains upgrades core products
The updates focus on making its production and digital asset management systems and its brand management platform more accessible for users and simplifying the transfer and sharing of assets being produced by different users. Xinet is North Plains’ production asset management system, heavily used by creative production teams and agencies and integrated with Adobe Creative Suite. New features for the system include the Xinet Pilot desktop application that allows users to drag and drop digital assets into it without having to be in Adobe giving users more flexibility to synchronise asset production. Using North Plains’ ConnectR technology, launched in December to smooth the transfer of assets between North Plains’ products, Xinet can now push assets to the firm’s recently launched On Brand and Xinet Digital brand management products. Previously it was only possible to push assets to North Plains’ enterprise-scale DAM system, Telescope, but the upgrade has also enabled metadata and assets to be “pulled” back from Telescope into Xinet creating a bi-directional workflow for asset transfers. Product line manager Bob Bennett said: “This really cements the role of Telescope as a central repository. This is big news for users of our products who want to really get that combined power of Xinet and Telescope, as well as those people who want to feed an On Brand system directly from Xinet.” “This interoperability really ties creative teams closer to other parts of the business that are using their creative work.” Other new features include the introduction of Unicode support meaning that Xinet can now encode multiple languages within any one metadata field rather than one language per field. MP3 audio thumbnails have also been added to improve browsing, while the system can also now be licensed without a hardware dongle on Windows and Linux. As well as the enhancement to ConnectR technology within Telescope, upgrades in the DAM system include an auto-complete function in many of its data entry fields that filter out non-matching items as the user types speeding up data entry. Upgrades in On Brand, the brand management platform and marketing management resource, include enhanced user permission to give more control over what assets can be viewed, downloaded and shared, and by whom. Additionally On Brand can now be used to brand portals in multiple languages, making the system more globally accessible. All three updates versions will be ready for shipping by the end of the quarter....
read moreBFS to unveil kit-washing products at North Print & Pack
The Reading-based consumables company will unveil Finito Dress designed to protect presses from stains and TruPoint Quick Wash, which the company claims cuts down on washing times. Finito Dress, a self-adhesive film applied to the outside of printing presses, protects from ink and glue stains to keep the kit looking clean, according to the BFS. The thermoplastic film also protects from scratching and chemical damage, said head of sales Lewis Prince. Meanwhile the company claims that TruPoint Quick Wash can cut wash-up times and solvent consumption by up to 50%. A custom-made aluminium clamp fits to the wash-up tray allowing a TruPoint DeltaFlex wash-up blade, which has a contact area for a more effective wash-up, to be fixed into position. Two other recently unveiled products, Infinity Plus and Pre-impregnated Washcloths, will also be on show. Prince said Infinity Plus, which had been supplied by the company for a few months, was the newest addition to the Rollin range of sheetfed blankets for commercial printing and packaging, with “good smash resistance for a variety of substrates”. Pre–impregnated Washcloths cleaned printing blankets and cylinders without the need for further chemicals, he said. “The washcloths are suitable for sheet-fed, heat-set and cold-set presses using either conventional or UV inks. They come individually wrapped and sealed to prevent drying out before use.” Family firm BFS Pressroom Solutions said it made and distributed consumables that aimed to last longer and save printers’ money through improved productivity. It runs three factories, in Haverhill, Suffolk, Leighton Buzzard and Reading, Berkshire....
read moreCelebrate Print! The 2013 Premier Print Awards
We look at print differently today. Each piece produced is valuable, and attention to detail is critical. You can say that it transcends the physical product and becomes a greater symbol of what our industry is capable of achieving. This makes the Premier Print Awards competition even more pertinent. It celebrates outstanding achievements and recognizes companies’ work on a world stage. The chances that it offers companies, both large and small, from every corner of the earth, to showcase their finest printed pieces have become the annual target for many businesses. If you are like many printing companies, you have produced some award-worthy printed pieces. How can your company gain recognition? We spoke with two previous winning companies, Offset Alpine Printing and Bolger Vision Beyond Print, about how they found success. Show Your Customers the Value of Your Work Showcase the value of print like Dik Bolger, Chief Executive Officer, Bolger Vision Beyond Print, who says they, “continually speak out on the ‘Value of Print’ in today’s market, and the Benny certainly recognizes that value to our clients.” Bolger, located in the Midwest with 200 employees, earned two Best of Category awards in 2012. Your clients, as well as your peers, recognize the significance of a Premier Print Award. Entering the competition tells them that the work you produce has greater meaning beyond its intended use. Garth Hackett, General Manager, Sales, Offset Alpine Printing, states that they produced their winning piece to, “demonstrate that print as a medium is still relevant in an increasingly online world.” Showing outstanding printed pieces in this competition signifies that, “through the use of creative ideas, print can create a tactile and effective product of real and tangible value.” Recognize Your Team for Their Great Efforts They say that it takes a village—well, that stands true for print production, too. These companies instill pride in your dedicated staff members by gaining recognition for their combined efforts. “We are very proud of this outstanding achievement,” says Mr. Hackett, who’s team won multiple awards. “We feel it’s a reward for the hard work and commitment shown by our dedicated and talented team of staff and suppliers.” Mr. Hackett’s team, based in Australia, won three Best of Category awards in 2011. Additionally that year, the company of 350 won top honours for Best of Show, the highest award in the competition. Showcase Your Commitment in Each and Every Product Take a closer look at all of the work you have produced. “A large segment of the work we produce at Bolger involves exceptional quality,” Mr. Bolger states, “and winning a Benny demonstrates to our customers and prospects the commitment we have made in providing the very best in print.” As you work passionately to create high-quality work, you may find, as Mr. Hackett did, that you already have competitive, award-worthy pieces. “We were surprised but honoured to win the 2011 Best of Show award against such formidable competition in what is regarded as the largest and one of the most prestigious printing competitions in the world,” Mr. Hackett describes. It was so surprising to him because, “it was never our intention to produce a promotional piece for awards purposes.” Each year, we at Printing Industries of America are proud to see some of the finest pieces...
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