Commercial Printing Outlook: Stay on Offense, Not on Defense (piworld.com)

Kodak is proud to announce Mercury Print Productions as its first customer for the KODAK PROSPER 7000 Turbo Press. Mercury, based in Rochester, NY, USA, has chosen the fastest inkjet web press currently available on the market to significantly expand its high-volume digital printing capacity. Mercury has been a user of KODAK PROSPER Technology Solutions since 2011, printing up to 10 million pages per day. The renowned print service provider will use the new PROSPER 7000 Turbo Press for a wide range of print jobs, including educational, trade and children’s books, personalized direct mail, marketing collateral, transactional documents as well as short to medium-run packaging requiring variable print.

TC Transcontinental Printing, a sector of Transcontinental Inc., is proud to announce that it has invested more than $10 million over the past eight months in its book printing platform in Québec, mainly at its Transcontinental Interglobe plant in the Beauce region. These investments have enabled the plant to improve its manufacturing efficiency to better meet the demand from North American customers and the fast delivery times expected by the market, while reducing its environmental footprint. “These major investments demonstrate our confidence in the future of the North American book market and our desire to build our printing platform in growth verticals like this one,” said Jacques Grégoire, Chief Development Officer, Printing & Media at TC Transcontinental. “The timing is right for these investments with the signing of several contract extensions and new agreements with major educational publishers. They will allow us to remain competitive in the market and take on larger jobs to continually meet the growing demand from our customers.”

Johnson & Quin, Inc. celebrates its 145th year in the printing industry, beginning as a ledger book printer in Chicago in 1876 and evolving into a national supplier of direct mail production and mailing. The company also announces the promotion of Andrew Henkel to President. After 33 years of leadership as CEO and President, David Henkel is handing over this key role to his son. Andrew has been with the company for 15 years, initially concentrating on sales and most recently as Vice President. During that time, his leadership has helped Johnson & Quin remain competitive in the direct mail industry. He was heavily involved in steering the company from older print technology to state-of-the-art color inkjet print and personalization which has been key to the company’s growth. “Andrew’s new role as President is a logical signal of generational change, as well an important sign of continuity to our clients, prospects, vendors and employees,” states David Henkel. “Andrew has been key in managing many of our major clients and instrumental in major company decisions over the past several years. He is supported by an exceptional management team, who have all been involved in the operation and growth of the company over the years.”