Newsfront

Print Action, Apr 2004

PIERRE KARL PELADEAU becomes the new president and chief executive officer of Quebecor World Inc. Peladeau replaces Jean Neveu who has served as interim president and CEO since March, 2003. Most recently, Peladeau served as president and CEO of Quebecor Media, where he set about grouping together assets in cable, broadcast television, publishing and new media. Peladeau has also served as president of European operations and chief operating officer of Quebecor Printing.

FORTUNE MAGAZINE'S March issue ranked the Most Admired Companies in several industry categories. R.R. Donnelly and Sons took die lead spol in the printing and publishing category, followed by Mail-Well of Colorado and Banta Corporation of Wisconsin. The award is based on a survey by The Hay Group that considers the top 10 companies by revenue in 64 industries. This includes foreign firms with large U.S. operations. Companies are then ranked by 10,000 industry executives on eight key attributes.

CREO received $67 million in financing after entering into an agreement with a syndicate of underwriters led by RBC Capital Markets for the issuance of 5,000,000 common shares, at a price of $13.39 per common share. Creo stated that it intends to use the proceeds, in part, as capital to support its digital media strategy. The funds will also be put forward integrate new manufacturing capacity for plates and hardware.

GORD WIGHT of Grenville Printing and Gerald Fruehwirth present a Gallery of Superb Printing Award to Mirjana Suric of Polytainers Inc. In total, Polytainers was presented with five awards from the International Association of Printing House Craftsmen. The awards were announced earlier in the year but saved for presentation at the annual gala of the Toronto Printing House Craftsmen. The auction raised $1,500.00 for the Ryerson GCM fund to be presented at the April dinner meeting.

QUADRA PRINTERS LTD. of Nanaimo, British Columbia has new business partners. Blake Brown of BBMR Admedia, along with Ed Robinson of Mail Boxes Etc. and Michael Robinson of Dragonfly Ink Graphics Studio, acquired an equity interest in the company with plans to expand the operation. Bruce Gordon, who started Quadra in 1976, will remain as company president and general manager. Gordon turned 65 this year and the move provides him with an exit strategy.

ALBERT POLLENS, Agfa's general manager of graphic systems, announced the company's intention to buy the shares of Lastra S.p.A., an Italian manufacturer of offset printing plates, related chemicals and equipment. Lastra had recently acquired Western Lithotech from Mitsubishi Chemical and began operating six factories in Italy and the States. Agfa also announced a new 5-year plan with Xaar to develop binary and greyscale inkjet printheads.

LUC DESJARDINS becomes the CEO of Transcontinental Inc. The company reported weakened earnings for the first quarter of 2004, claiming a timing effect resulted from the inclusion of an additional week of activity at the end of fiscal 2003 and the negative impact of the exchange rate. Despite the setback, Transcontinental is maintaining its earnings per common share target of $1.72 to $1.80 for 2004. In the first quarter ended January 31, 2004, Transcontinental reported consolidated revenues of $462 million compared to $475 million for the same period in 2003, down three per cent.

DEJONG PRINTING will install a new 6-colour Komori Lithrone into its Edmonton-based facilities. The 28-inch press includes an Anilox Tower Coater with extended delivery, as well as AMR (Automatic Make-ready), which works toward CIM. Also included on the new press is Komori's colour-connection package and PDC-S close-looped spectral and density control.

EASTMAN KODAK COMPANY officially agreed to acquire two lines of business from Heidelberg. Kodak will purchase Heidelberg's 50 per cent interest in NexPress Solutions, which originally was a 50/50 joint venture of Kodak and Heidelberg. Kodak will also acquire NexPress GmbH. The company anticipates that the acquired operations will add to earnings by 2007.

MAN ROLAND is to install its 1,000th PECOM system in France, at a 99-year-old printing company called D&G Deschamps. D&G primary commercial printing operations are run by a staff of 43 and earned EUR6.1 million last year. The company serves regional and Paris customers with products such as mail-order catalogues and labels. The company recently invested in a 4-colour Roland 700 with APL automatic plate loading and cylinder washing device.

DAY INTERNATIONAL, a manufacturer of pressroom consumables products, acquired Network Distribution International (NDI), a converter of offset printing blankets and a distributor of pressroom consumables. With facilities located in six geographic regions of the United States, NDI offers a line of offset printing blankets that includes products manufactured by Day International, Reeves, Duco International and Fujikura. NDI will continue to sell product lines produced by other manufacturers.