Communisis confirms HP T-series order as LBG contract commences
An HP T300 will be installed next at Copley, in December, followed by the second T400 in March 2014, at which point the site will replicate the HP T-series setup at Communisis’ main transactional print site in Speke, Liverpool. Communisis announced the triple installation in an Interim Management Statement published this morning (6 November), in which it said trading was in-line with expectations and listed the Lloyds contract win, Editions Financial acquisition and £60m debt refinance amongst its third-quarter highlights. Communisis hailed the high-speed digital investment, which it said would “enhance the group’s competitive advantage as the largest transactional operator in Europe” of HP’s T-series platform. The company said that the Lloyds outsourcing contract had been ratified by the LBG board and was “operating as intended” after successfully going live on 1 October. The Lloyds deal represents Communisis’ second major win of the year after a nine-year contract was signed with Nationwide in January. Communisis’ legacy cheque printing business was said to be suffering from the “continued erosion of volume”, leading the company to state that managing this trend and the opportunities arising from growth in outsourcing were its key priorities. “Continuing to win substantial, multi-year contracts and generating additional revenues from expanded service offerings [is an] essential part of our long-term growth strategy,” the company added. Communisis’ £60m debt refinance includes an increased £55m revolving credit facility, committed until March 2018, and a £5m overdraft, renewable annually; the firm’s banking syndicate includes RBS, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and Barclays. Communisis chief executive Andy Blundell said the company was continuing to “deliver successfully on its strategy for profitable growth”. Communisis share price was unchanged at 63p....
read moreCommunisis confirms HP T-series order as LBG contract commences
An HP T300 will be installed next at Copley, in December, followed by the second T400 in March 2014, at which point the site will replicate the HP T-series setup at Communisis’ main transactional print site in Speke, Liverpool. Communisis announced the triple installation in an Interim Management Statement published this morning (6 November), in which it said trading was in-line with expectations and listed the Lloyds contract win, Editions Financial acquisition and £60m debt refinance amongst its third-quarter highlights. Communisis hailed the high-speed digital investment, which it said would “enhance the group’s competitive advantage as the largest transactional operator in Europe” of HP’s T-series platform. The company said that the Lloyds outsourcing contract had been ratified by the LBG board and was “operating as intended” after successfully going live on 1 October. The Lloyds deal represents Communisis’ second major win of the year after a nine-year contract was signed with Nationwide in January. Communisis’ legacy cheque printing business was said to be suffering from the “continued erosion of volume”, leading the company to state that managing this trend and the opportunities arising from growth in outsourcing were its key priorities. “Continuing to win substantial, multi-year contracts and generating additional revenues from expanded service offerings [is an] essential part of our long-term growth strategy,” the company added. Communisis’ £60m debt refinance includes an increased £55m revolving credit facility, committed until March 2018, and a £5m overdraft, renewable annually; the firm’s banking syndicate includes RBS, Lloyds TSB, HSBC and Barclays. Communisis chief executive Andy Blundell said the company was continuing to “deliver successfully on its strategy for profitable growth”. Communisis share price was unchanged at 63p....
read moreProblems with the PrintWeek website today
In anticipation of our new website going live in the next few weeks, printweek.com was migrated to new servers early this morning. Unfortunately this caused a number of stability issues on the current site that resulted in the website being out of action for much of today. While we attempted to fix the problem we switched the website back to the old servers, unfortunately these also developed a fault during the migration and this caused some users to be redirected to the website of our sister title HR Magazine. The good news is that the stability problems have now been resolved, which will free us up to look for someone to pin the blame on. Apologies from the PrintWeek team for any inconvenience...
read moreHeidelberg and Fujifilm join forces with inkjet deal
In a surprise move the two companies announced a partnership deal this morning (5 November), at the same time as Heidelberg announced its half-year results. Described as “a broad alliance aimed at strengthening existing business and establishing a platform for future-oriented markets,” the manufacturers highlighted the commercial and packaging print markets as key target areas. Heidelberg chief executive Gerold Linzbach said he envisaged Heidelberg’s digital business overall (including its existing equipment) generating sales of more than €200m within three years. The two suppliers will also aim to exploit synergies in each company’s global network of customers, and sales and support operations. As well as next-generation inkjet printing products, they will share their know-how in pre-press. Shigetaka Komori, chairman and chief executive of Fujifilm corporation, described Heidelberg’s reputation among printers as “unique”. “With Heidelberg’s global market present in the printing industry we can introduce our products to new customer groups and increase their potential.” Fujifilm acquired inkjet head manufacturer Dimatix in 2006. It first showed its sheetfed B2 inkjet colour press, the Jet Press 720, in 2008 and subsequently launched a colour inkjet web. The first Jet Press 540W in the world has recently been installed at book printer Bell & Bain in Glasgow. This is Heidelberg’s third major alliance for digital printing. It teamed up with Kodak to develop the NexPress, which launched at Drupa 2000, but the joint venture came to an end in 2004 when Heidelberg sold its stake for just $1 and Kodak took sole ownership. In 2011 Heidelberg teamed up with Ricoh for production printers, in a partnership that is ongoing. Stephen Palmer, production print director at Ricoh UK, said: “It is business as usual for us. We are delighted with the progress we have made with Heidelberg, both at head office and UK levels, and we will continue to develop the partnership going forward.” This is the second major manufacturer alliance to be announced within a week. Komori and Landa announced a strategic alliance on 1 November....
read moreCountry Life gets Royal guest editor
The 244pp bumber issue (up from an average 116pp) will be published on 13 November, the day before Prince Charles’ 65th birthday, and will be the first national publication to have been guest edited by The Prince. It features a 250gsm silk cover stock, instead of its usual 200gsm wood free coated, with additional spot UV varnishing, gold foil blocking and embossing. The cover was produced by Ipswich-based Ancient House Press (AHP) while the body copy was printed and bound by Polestar Chantry in Wakefield. A spokeswoman for IPC Media confirmed that the print run had been increased for the commemorative issue, but could not release specific details of the run length. Country Life‘s average circulation was 38,246 in 2012. Producing the issue was an eight month project involving meetings with HRH The Prince of Wales and his designated team. In addition to writing the leader, HRH The Prince of Wales oversaw the content for the issue, including selecting contributors, suggesting features and contributing to reader favourites. The magazine includes an exclusive feature on the garden at Birkhall – The Prince’s Scottish residence on the Balmoral Estate – written by Alan Titchmarsh, and on The Prince’s home in Wales, as well as HRH’s views on art, books, food and the countryside charities he supports. The Prince also commissioned an architect from his Foundation for Building Community to design a solution to deliver affordable rural housing. Mark Hedges, editor of Country Life, said: “The commemorative edition is a unique record of The Prince’s love of the countryside and his commitment to preserving its way of life. “Since it’s launch in 1897, Country Life has been privileged to be given access to the Royal Family at times of national celebrations and we are delighted that the Prince allowed us to mark his 65th birthday by guest editing Country Life – a present to share with the entire nation.”...
read moreAntalis completes deal for Xerox office and digital papers
The deal, which was first announced in June, was completed on Friday (1 November) with 91 UK Xerox staff transferring to Antalis UK under TUPE as a result. As well as the UK, the European-wide deal encompasses Xerox’s office businesses in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The new division, Antalis Document Supplies, will be headed up in the UK and Ireland by general manager Doug Bishop, a Xerox veteran of 38 years who has led the company’s UK office paper business for the past six years. He will report to Hunter. The Xerox brand name will continue to be used on the 1,000-strong product portfolio inherited by Antalis, which, as well as paper, includes wide-format and non-paper substrates. While Hunter declined to reveal the precise scale of the UK Xerox office operation, he said that a “good proportion” of the €300m sales it would add to Antalis’ European operations would be generated in the UK. Prior to the completion of the deal, Antalis UK had sales of around £476m and 980 staff. It operates two central distribution centres and 14 regional branches across the UK and Ireland. Antalis currently markets 14,000 products. However, following the completion of the Xerox deal this will increase to 15,000. Hunter hinted that over time there may be some consolidation of the product range, but this would be in consultation with customers. He also signalled that Antalis would work closely on new product development with Xerox. However, he stressed that the integration of the Xerox business would be carefully structured, to ensure continuity for customers. “We’ve got two very good businesses here, so we have the luxury of time to look at a really sensible way of moving forward, to make sure we get it right,” he said. Following the completion of the sale, Hunter said that there are no immediate plans to reduce headcount, although he added that, as with all companies, the cost base of the business is under constant review. “The important thing for customers is that it is business as usual. The people they spoke to at Xerox last week will be the same people they speak to at Antalis UK this week,” said Hunter. He said the initial focus would be in supply chain synergies, including purchasing, with the integration of the rest of the back office functions following shortly afterwards. According to Bishop while the two companies have a number of shared customers “when we looked at the alignment, we’ve not had that much of overlap”, which according to Hoyne represents a significant opportunity for Antalis. “Because we have such varied components to our business, cross-selling has always been a fillip for us and with Xerox coming in we now have a huge opportunity to sell packaging to them, for example,” he said. However, Hunter said that the next six to 12 months would be focused on effectively integrating the two businesses to ensure a seamless transition. “One thing we won’t do, and we’ve made absolutely certain we won’t do, is say ‘we’re Antalis we’ll show you how to sell paper’. Clearly there are huge skills on both sides and things that are done differently, so I think there will be big opportunities to learn from...
read moreCountry Life gets Royal guest editor
The 244pp bumber issue (up from an average 116pp) will be published on 13 November, the day before Prince Charles’ 65th birthday, and will be the first national publication to have been guest edited by The Prince. It features a 250gsm silk cover stock, instead of its usual 200gsm wood free coated, with additional spot UV varnishing, gold foil blocking and embossing. The cover was produced by Ipswich-based Ancient House Press (AHP) while the body copy was printed and bound by Polestar Chantry in Wakefield. A spokeswoman for IPC Media confirmed that the print run had been increased for the commemorative issue, but could not release specific details of the run length. Country Life‘s average circulation was 38,246 in 2012. Producing the issue was an eight month project involving meetings with HRH The Prince of Wales and his designated team. In addition to writing the leader, HRH The Prince of Wales oversaw the content for the issue, including selecting contributors, suggesting features and contributing to reader favourites. The magazine includes an exclusive feature on the garden at Birkhall – The Prince’s Scottish residence on the Balmoral Estate – written by Alan Titchmarsh, and on The Prince’s home in Wales, as well as HRH’s views on art, books, food and the countryside charities he supports. The Prince also commissioned an architect from his Foundation for Building Community to design a solution to deliver affordable rural housing. Mark Hedges, editor of Country Life, said: “The commemorative edition is a unique record of The Prince’s love of the countryside and his commitment to preserving its way of life. “Since it’s launch in 1897, Country Life has been privileged to be given access to the Royal Family at times of national celebrations and we are delighted that the Prince allowed us to mark his 65th birthday by guest editing Country Life – a present to share with the entire nation.”...
read moreHeidelberg and Fujifilm join forces with inkjet deal
In a surprise move the two companies announced a partnership deal this morning (5 November), at the same time as Heidelberg announced its half-year results. Described as “a broad alliance aimed at strengthening existing business and establishing a platform for future-oriented markets,” the manufacturers highlighted the commercial and packaging print markets as key target areas. Heidelberg chief executive Gerold Linzbach said he envisaged Heidelberg’s digital business overall (including its existing equipment) generating sales of more than €200m within three years. The two suppliers will also aim to exploit synergies in each company’s global network of customers, and sales and support operations. As well as next-generation inkjet printing products, they will share their know-how in pre-press. Shigetaka Komori, chairman and chief executive of Fujifilm corporation, described Heidelberg’s reputation among printers as “unique”. “With Heidelberg’s global market present in the printing industry we can introduce our products to new customer groups and increase their potential.” Fujifilm acquired inkjet head manufacturer Dimatix in 2006. It first showed its sheetfed B2 inkjet colour press, the Jet Press 720, in 2008 and subsequently launched a colour inkjet web. The first Jet Press 540W in the world has recently been installed at book printer Bell & Bain in Glasgow. This is Heidelberg’s third major alliance for digital printing. It teamed up with Kodak to develop the NexPress, which launched at Drupa 2000, but the joint venture came to an end in 2004 when Heidelberg sold its stake for just $1 and Kodak took sole ownership. In 2011 Heidelberg teamed up with Ricoh for production printers, in a partnership that is ongoing. Stephen Palmer, production print director at Ricoh UK, said: “It is business as usual for us. We are delighted with the progress we have made with Heidelberg, both at head office and UK levels, and we will continue to develop the partnership going forward.” This is the second major manufacturer alliance to be announced within a week. Komori and Landa announced a strategic alliance on 1 November....
read moreAntalis completes deal for Xerox office and digital papers
The deal, which was first announced in June, was completed on Friday (1 November) with 91 UK Xerox staff transferring to Antalis UK under TUPE as a result. As well as the UK, the European-wide deal encompasses Xerox’s office businesses in Austria, Belgium, Denmark, Finland, France, Germany, Ireland, Italy, Luxembourg, the Netherlands, Norway, Portugal, Spain, Sweden and Switzerland. The new division, Antalis Document Supplies, will be headed up in the UK and Ireland by general manager Doug Bishop, a Xerox veteran of 38 years who has led the company’s UK office paper business for the past six years. He will report to Hunter. The Xerox brand name will continue to be used on the 1,000-strong product portfolio inherited by Antalis, which, as well as paper, includes wide-format and non-paper substrates. While Hunter declined to reveal the precise scale of the UK Xerox office operation, he said that a “good proportion” of the €300m sales it would add to Antalis’ European operations would be generated in the UK. Prior to the completion of the deal, Antalis UK had sales of around £476m and 980 staff. It operates two central distribution centres and 14 regional branches across the UK and Ireland. Antalis currently markets 14,000 products. However, following the completion of the Xerox deal this will increase to 15,000. Hunter hinted that over time there may be some consolidation of the product range, but this would be in consultation with customers. He also signalled that Antalis would work closely on new product development with Xerox. However, he stressed that the integration of the Xerox business would be carefully structured, to ensure continuity for customers. “We’ve got two very good businesses here, so we have the luxury of time to look at a really sensible way of moving forward, to make sure we get it right,” he said. Following the completion of the sale, Hunter said that there are no immediate plans to reduce headcount, although he added that, as with all companies, the cost base of the business is under constant review. “The important thing for customers is that it is business as usual. The people they spoke to at Xerox last week will be the same people they speak to at Antalis UK this week,” said Hunter. He said the initial focus would be in supply chain synergies, including purchasing, with the integration of the rest of the back office functions following shortly afterwards. According to Bishop while the two companies have a number of shared customers “when we looked at the alignment, we’ve not had that much of overlap”, which according to Hoyne represents a significant opportunity for Antalis. “Because we have such varied components to our business, cross-selling has always been a fillip for us and with Xerox coming in we now have a huge opportunity to sell packaging to them, for example,” he said. However, Hunter said that the next six to 12 months would be focused on effectively integrating the two businesses to ensure a seamless transition. “One thing we won’t do, and we’ve made absolutely certain we won’t do, is say ‘we’re Antalis we’ll show you how to sell paper’. Clearly there are huge skills on both sides and things that are done differently, so I think there will be big opportunities to learn from...
read moreSales fall as Heidelberg pushes toward profitability goal
In the three months to 30 September sales at the group were up on the previous quarter’s €504m (£424m), but down 14.9% year-on-year at €593m. Half-year sales fell 9.9% to €1.09bn. EBITDA (earning before interest, taxes, depreciation and amortization) in the quarter jumped to €33m from €13m. The world’s largest press manufacturer is still losing almost €1m a week, but it more than halved its net losses at the half-year stage from €108m to €47m. It also reduced its net debt by €118m to €239m. Heidelberg said the strong euro combined with weak currencies in the US, Japan, India and Brazil had hit sales to the tune of €42m in the first half, while the prior year was also boosted by Drupa sales. The manufacturer shed a further 1,129 jobs in the period as part of its Focus 2012 restructuring initiative, and now has 13,616 employees worldwide. It said the EBITDA improvement was the result of Focus 2012 actions, price increases, and “a gradual scaling back of low margin business.” Heidelberg is pushing its workforce for more flexible working hours and stated that its operating break-even point “needs to be adjusted further in order to be better prepared for volatility in individual markets.” This will involve additional exceptional restructuring costs this financial year. Chief executive Gerold Linzbach said the results had “exceeded our expectations” and that Heidelberg had made “major progress toward achieving our target for the year of a net profit.” It announced the results alongside news of a major strategic alliance with Fujifilm for inkjet printing. Heidelberg shares rose by 12 cents to €2.10 in early trading....
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