Print Sales and Both Indicator Indexes Accelerate, But Printing Industry Hiring Shortage Remains (piworld.com)

Modern Litho announces a significant expansion of its direct mail capabilities at its St. Louis location. The company has recently onboarded several key employees with extensive industry experience in direct mail, enhancing its ability to deliver high-quality solutions. Among the new additions is Richie Graham, a seasoned professional 33-year industry veteran with a strong background in direct mail sales and operations. Graham's impressive track record includes owning and managing a successful St. Louis-based direct mail company, as well as delivering top sales results. This strategic move brings a wealth of expertise to Modern Litho St. Louis, including: •Advanced direct mail proficiency •Sophisticated data processing skills •Comprehensive warehouse management experience

Komori America recently completed the installation of a six-color Lithrone GX40 (GLX640) at Nosco, a full-service packaging solutions provider serving a roster of household brands in a variety of industries. Headquartered in Gurnee, IL, Nosco is a subsidiary of Holden Industries, Inc., which is a 100 percent employee-owned company. Nosco became familiar with the advanced technology and reliability Komori presses deliver when the company acquired two companies that were already operating Komori presses. Understanding value, total cost of ownership and product lifecycle management are important to Nosco when investing in conventional print technology. Through its recent company acquisitions, Nosco gained an enlightened first-hand experience with Komori’s low maintenance, minimal downtime and productivity performance, leading to the selection of the GLX640 over competitive machines being considered. “We have aggressive growth targets and with this press we are able to meet them,” said Russ Haraf, president of Nosco. “We looked at several options, even some used options. We chose a new Komori Lithrone GX40 because Komori’s value proposition is aligned with an industry where the product lifecycle is changing rapidly." Click Read More below for additional information.

It is no secret that the U.S. printing business had been battered for years as the popularity of digital formats significantly reduced demand for magazines, catalogs, and other printed materials. While sales of books held up better than those of their print counterparts, many of the largest printers worked across multiple product lines. And as a result, some of the industry giants (R.R. Donnelley, Quad Graphics) underwent wholesale makeovers, while smaller companies either closed or merged to cope with the plunge in demand. At a spring webinar presented by PW and Westchester Publishing Services, Jim Fetherston, president and CEO at the printer Worzalla noted that when the pandemic hit and book sales unexpectedly surged, North American printing capacity was at “historic low levels,” which led to demand exceeding capacity for the first time in years.