Electronics For Imaging, Inc. has announced commercial availability of its newest launched printer, the EFI™ Pro 24f. First exhibited at the recent SGIA Expo, it is the only dedicated flatbed wide-format printer featuring EFI’s proven LED and variable drop grayscale head technologies. It provides precision imaging, fine detail and outstanding image quality for a broad range of applications. Wichita, Kansas-based customer Superior Signs & Engraving is the very first user for the printer. The printer’s premium quality imaging capabilities, with white ink included, and the high versatility and productivity of EFI’s “cool cure” LED technology, have vastly improved throughput and quality at the company. Click Read More below for additional information.

Allen Press, Inc. has upgraded its scholarly journal typesetting platform to Arbortext Publishing Engine Enterprise. The Arbortext Publishing Engine is a cloud-based system that provides the ability to intelligently pull XML and unstructured data from content management systems profile content for targeted audiences and variable deliverable types and automatically generate publications. In addition to the Arbortext Publishing Engine platform, Allen Press improved its workstation-class computers by installing the latest generation hardware and high-resolution video systems. “Upgrading to the Arbortext Publishing Engine helps us accomplish our mission of efficiently producing more jobs,” said Mark Kohlhase, Senior Director of Composition and Training. “This technology will allow Allen Press to enhance our typesetting automation processes, resulting in faster delivery and reduced publishing costs.” Click Read More below for additional information.

More than 300 visitors from around the world and over 40 international trade journalists attended the Packaging Day hosted by Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) at its Wiesloch-Walldorf plant at the beginning of November. The “Pushing the Future in Packaging” event showcased the latest solutions and technologies for packaging printing. The aim of these solutions is to increase the efficiency of all processes through intelligent networking and automation. This applies both to printing high-volume standard packaging as well as highly embellished folding cartons in the luxury segment. Packaging printing is the strongest growing segment in the print media industry. Annual growth rates of around three percent are expected in the coming five years, and around 20 percent for digital printing. Heidelberg announced a broad-based product campaign for this market at drupa 2016, which is now being implemented consistently – in both offset and digital technology. As key note speaker, Steffen Schnizer, Managing Director of Multi Packaging Solutions in Obersulm near Heilbronn, emphasized that demand from brand owners for exclusively finished packaging is on the increase. Nowhere is this truer than in the cosmetics and perfume industry. Purchase decisions are frequently made at the point of sale, where high-quality packaging guarantee the necessary attention. “Heidelberg not only offers its customers the widest range of products for packaging output, but is also the clear market and technological leader in this area,” emphasized company CEO Rainer Hundsdörfer at the opening of the Packaging Day. Click Read More below for additional information.

LSC Communications has signed a multi-year agreement with Bauer Media Group USA, the number one seller of magazines at retail in the country. Beginning in January 2018, LSC will print 17 of Bauer’s popular print titles including Woman’s World, First for Women, In Touch Weekly, Life & Style Weekly, Closer Weekly and J-14, among others. According to Thomas J. Quinlan III, Chairman and CEO of LSC Communications, “With Bauer as one of the most successful magazine publishers in the world, LSC is honored to have been selected for our optimal print production and mailing solutions. We look forward to continuing to support Bauer’s vision for many years.” Click Read More below for additional information.

As many as 200 workers will be out of work by the end of January when the Quad/Graphics facility in Taunton closes, according to the Wisconsin book manufacturer. Emails were sent out Wednesday to workers informing them of the bad news, said spokeswoman Claire Ho. Ho said workers will be offered either a severance package with limited continuation of medical benefits or the chance to work at another of the company’s locations, most of which are in other parts of the country. “We want to take care of them,” she said on Friday from her office in Sussex, Wisconsin. Ho said the plant at 1133 County St., located on Route 140 near the onramp for Route 24, specialized in assembling traditional reading books. Click Read More below for additional information.

Electronics For Imaging, Inc. today reported that Northampton, U.K-based graphics production company Evolution has installed an EFI™ VUTEk® GS3250LX Pro LED hybrid roll/flatbed printer. Evolution chose the 3.2-metre wide printer for its speed, quality of build, and low downtime and running costs. Previously, when its superwide-format graphics work volumes became too large, the company often outsourced to other providers. Now, Evolution can produce that work in-house with a printer that is several times faster than its old flatbed printer. Although Evolution’s machine operators are new to using the printer, they were able to get trained quickly, taking very little time to start producing high volumes of work – more than 200 2440mm x 1220mm panels a day for clients. Click Read More below for additional information.

The National Association of Printing Ink Manufacturers (NAPIM) Board of Directors has announced its increased support of Two Sides North America, the non-profit organization that promotes and encourages the responsible production, use and sustainability of print and paper. NAPIM Executive Director, John Copeland and Director Regulatory Affairs and Technology, George Fuchs will be joining Two Sides’ Anti-Greenwash Task Force to ensure that the views of NAPIM members are considered in Two Sides campaign activities. Membership discussions are also underway with specific companies in the ink manufacturing sector to ensure representation within the Two Sides network of companies and governance. Click Read More below for additional information.

LSC Communications announced that it has acquired The Clark Group. Clark is a leading third-party logistics provider of distribution, consolidation, transportation management and international freight forwarding services, with a network of nine strategically located distribution centers in the US. “Continuing to expand LSC’s logistics service offering in ways that add value to our clients’ businesses has been a sharp focus for us,” said Thomas J. Quinlan III, Chairman and CEO of LSC. “The Clark Group brings a range of supply chain services to LSC that position us for growth, including the ability to better provide a full-service offering for magazine clients with newsstand distribution as well as reverse logistics solutions for our book publisher clients.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Kingery Printing, an Effingham, Ill.-based commercial printer that provides a full suite of prepress, sheetfed and web printing, binding, and distribution services, has announced the acquisition, effective December 1st, of Mattoon, Ill.-based United Graphics, a digital and offset printing company that specializes in the manufacturing of books, catalogs, guides and newsletters. Graphic Arts Advisors (GAA), Mountain Lakes, N.J., a strategic financial advisory and consulting firm devoted exclusively to all sectors of the graphic communications industry, represented Kingery Printing in the acquisition, with GAA Director John Hyde, Esq. serving as lead advisor on the purchase. Under the agreement, United Graphics and its Mattoon facility, will become part of the Kingery Printing organization, which, in addition to its Effingham headquarters and manufacturing facility, also includes a plant in Henry, Ill. John Wurtsbaugh, president of United Graphics, becomes COO of Kingery Printing, overseeing operations at all three facilities. Click Read More below for additional information.

Electronics for Imaging, Inc., announced the release of its newest-version EFI™ Fiery® XB digital front end (DFE) platform for ultra-high-speed production inkjet presses. The Fiery DFE meets highly demanding requirements for performance, color and imaging, including advanced variable-data production printing, at speeds of up to 13,000 pages per minute – or the data equivalent of 2 streaming movies each second. The groundbreaking Fiery XB platform used for the new DFE complies with native intelligent production data stream (IPDS) workflows and is certified IS/3 compliant, delivering the performance, functionality and accuracy required for high-volume transactional applications. As one of the most flexible DFEs in the production inkjet market, the Fiery XB DFE platform also consumes all variable data formats and languages, including PDF and PDF/VT. Click Read More below for additional information.

Ohio’s Office of Workforce Development received another WARN notice from Quad/Graphics. Quad/Graphics, which is based out of Sussex, Wisconsin, is a printing company. The company was founded in July of 1971. According to the company’s WARN notice, it will soon be shutting down its Columbus facility and laying off all employees at the facility. The closure and layoffs are expected to be permanent. The employment separations are expected to commence on or around December 8, 2017. In total, Quad/Graphics believes that 116 workers will be impacted by the upcoming closure. The WARN notice can be accessed here. Click Read More below for additional information.

Expanding its range of in-mould label products and presenting non-UV print shops the ability to compete in this growing segment, Flint Group today announces the global availability of Novastar® D 2000 IML BIO for metallised paper and non-absorbent substrates. According to Jürgen Riedlinger, Director Global Product Management, Sheetfed, “Over the last 5 to 6 years global production of in-mould labels has grown at around 4% per year, due in part to the ability of the technology to enhance the product visibility and brand identification in the market. And we believe in-mould labelling will continue to grow significantly as the manufacturing efficiencies and visual quality it brings gets wider endorsement. Currently in-mould accounts for less than 3% of all labelling, so there is plenty of room for it to grow.” Click Read More below for additional information.

Transcontinental Inc.'s Media Sector, TC Media, announces the sale of its weekly Courrier Laval, as well as its related web property, to 2M Média. This company is led by Mr. Martin Olivier, President, and Mr. Martin Routhier, Vice President, who are both former TC Media managers. Fourteen employees of Courrier Laval are transferred to the acquirer, along with two employees from TC Media's Production team. Furthermore, TC Transcontinental also concluded a multi-year agreement for the printing and distribution of this publication. TC Transcontinental therefore hands over the reins to 2M Média to carry on the activities of Courrier Laval, a jewel of the weekly newspaper landscape in Québec. The Corporation would like to thank all the employees who have shown dedication and professionalism over the years and wishes them the very best for the future at 2M Média. Click Read More below for additional information.

Paul Ramirez, president of Barrington Press in Paramus, New Jersey had a problem – his offset presses were offline as much as three hours a shift. The downtime, set-up and overtime costs made it difficult to keep jobs profitable. Knowing that delivering high quality printing with quick turnaround was critical to grow his business, Ramirez looked to Xerox for a solution and the answer was to go digital with the Xerox iGen® 5 Press. “If someone would have told me how much money I’d be saving each month using the Xerox iGen 5 Press, I wouldn’t have believed it,” says Ramirez. ”When we combined the excessive paper waste, overtime wages and offset press supplies, the numbers were staggering.” With its market leading uptime, substrate versatility and job automation features, the iGen 5 created a fundamental turnaround at Barrington Press. The figures tell the story. In the year Barrington Press has owned its iGen 5, the company has saved $10,000-$15,000 per month and has created new opportunities for growth. Click Read More below for additional information.

By offering a combination of trusted brands, consistent products and OEM partnerships combined with ‘Best in Class’ manufacturing, Flint Group was well positioned at IPEX to help printers extend their printing capability in respect to new substrates and targeting new market sectors. The XCURA EVO ink series featured heavily during the show. This ink series has been designed to help printers achieve maximum performance from new LED-UV presses and presses that have been retrofitted with a LED-UV curing system. Following on from IPEX Flint Group is pleased to announce that Fontain, a London based commercial printer, has agreed to Flint Group being the sole supplier of LED-UV ink for its brand new RMGT Ryobi 928P. This four-over-four perfecting press with LED-UV drying was also running live print jobs at IPEX. Click Read More below for additional information.

TC Transcontinental – RBW Graphics recently completed a suite of upgrades to a Goss M-3000 press installed at their RBW Graphics Facility in Owen Sound, ON. The project consisted of a drives and controls system upgrade, an Omni Make-Ready bundle and ink fountain rebuilds. The drives and controls upgrade involved replacing existing consoles with new OmniconTM and OmnicolorTM consoles, new Siemens PLC CPU hardware, controllers and drives. Goss technicians rebuilt the ink fountains on eight existing units and added new four and 16 channel driver boards, embedded controller boards, ink fountain balls, and single piece ink keys. Additionally, the Omni Make Ready package, a combination of hardware and software functions designed to reduce waste, helps TC Transcontinental – RBW Graphics to achieve its commitment to environmental responsibility. These upgrades ensure the long life of the Goss M-3000 while increasing productivity, improving waste reduction and reducing unscheduled press downtime. Click Read More below for additional information.

The Ricoh Commercial & Industrial Printing Business Group (CIPG), established in April, is keenly focused on getting the word out about its commitment to the production printing market. That was the key takeaway for a group of industry press and analysts who recently toured its Customer Experience Center (CEC) that is home to an array of continuous-feed inkjet, toner-based sheetfed and wide-format printers, along with several product development and testing labs, inside its Executive Briefing Center in Boulder, Colo. Ricoh defines industrial as wide-format digital printing and printing done as a part of the manufacturing process to produce finished goods such as garments, textiles, metals and architectural components. And the group’s ambitious goal isn’t merely lip service. According to Dollard, CIPG has nearly doubled its production inkjet printing direct salesforce since April; has created a Production Dealer Advisory Council to build stronger ties with its dealer network for toner-based sheetfed production and wide-format inkjet printer sales; is expanding its service and consulting business; and is fully committed to assuming a leadership role in industry advocacy, education and market advancement. Click Read More below for additional information.

Borderland Advisors CEO John Conley, a 42-year book printing industry veteran with RR Donnelley and then Xerox, describes how Amazon's same-day delivery requirements will totally disrupt today's book publishing, manufacturing, and distribution markets. The supply chain requirement will create new profit models and opportunities for innovative publishers and printers, while displacing those companies that are unable to evolve to the new industry paradigm. To view the video clip go to: http://www.bookbusinessmag.com/article/john-conley-amazon-day-delivery-slas-will-disrupt-book-printing/

Cenveo, Inc. has been awarded the 2020 Census Printing and Mailing Contract from the U.S. Census Bureau. The two-year $61 million contract is one of the largest contracts for printing and mailing ever awarded by the U.S. Government Publishing Office. "Cenveo's award of the 2020 U.S. Census is a reflection of our core capabilities and expertise, manufacturing and fulfillment," said Robert G. Burton, Sr., Cenveo's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer. "We are well-positioned to execute and manage all aspects of this program successfully and with the level of quality and security expected. We are honored to be a part of this program that will achieve a lasting impact to the future of our country." The contract will involve the manufacturing and fulfillment of 1.6 billion pieces, including letters, envelopes, inserts, questionnaires and postcards. The majority of the work will be performed at Cenveo's printing and binding facilities located in Southern California (Los Angeles) locations and other work performed across the United States. Click Read More below for additional information.

Net sales in the third quarter of 2017 were $329.5 million compared to $382.7 million in the same period last year, a decline of 13.9%. The Company generated net sales of $1.01 billion for the nine months ended September 30, 2017, compared to $1.16 billion for the same period last year, a decline of 13.1%. The sales decline for both the three and nine month periods was primarily driven by: (i) lower sales in the envelope segment, primarily due to lower direct mail demand primarily from our financial institution customers and lower demand in our wholesale and generic transactional envelope product lines primarily due to marketplace trends; (ii) lower sales volumes in the commercial print group and the publisher services group, primarily driven by lower customer demand and continued pricing pressures; and (iii) lower sales in the label segment, primarily due to the decision to exit our coating operation which was completed in the second quarter of 2016, and lower sales driven by customer demand and product mix changes. Operating loss was $0.5 million for the three months ended September 30, 2017, compared to operating income of $20.2 million in the same period last year. Operating income was $22.6 million for the nine months ended September 30, 2017, compared to operating income of $51.9 million for the same period last year, a decline of 56.5%. The decline during the three months ended September 30, 2017 was primarily due to lower gross profit resulting from lower sales volumes and intangible asset impairments of $7.7 million driven by our current and expected future operating results for certain product lines. The declines in the nine months ended September 30, 2017 were primarily due to lower gross profit resulting from lower sales volumes, the impact of the decision to exit the coating operation, intangible asset impairments of $7.7 million driven by our current and expected future operating results for certain product lines, and higher restructuring and other charges resulting from the 2017 Profitability Improvement Plan. Click Read More below for additional information.