Newsfront

Print Action, Aug 2004

AGFA left the PrintCity consortium whose primary focus is developing the JDF standard for interoperability between the systems of member companies. "We will demonstrate connectivity in our day-to-day business, not just in a consortium or at a trade show," said Agfa's vice president of imaging solutions, Jan Van Daele.

PUNCH INTERNATIONAL NV acquired basysPrint, a developer of a CTP systems using conventional plates, at a time when basysPrint had halted production at its factory in Germany. Punch says it has reached an agreement with basysPrint to retire some of the debts and make repayments on the remainder. This continues an acquisition pattern for Punch, which earlier created a graphics division out of Xeikon and also CTP supplier Strobbe.

PRESSTEK is set to acquire the U.S. interests of AB Dick and will operate it as a wholly owned subsidiary based in Niles, Illinois. At press time, AB Dick was owned by Paragon Corporate Holdings and some of its holdings were filing for protection under Chapter 11 bankruptcy. Presstek and KeyBank, AB Dick's present lender are reported to have put together a US$7-million credit facility to ensure AB Dick can continue trading and help a smooth changeover.

DENNIS LYNCH celebrated his retirement as president of Ernest Green & Son with more than 150 guests. The company's founder Ric Green hired Lynch in the early 1970s to sell consumables to printing companies across Toronto. Lynch rose through the ranks and would eventually lead the company through some of the industry's most technologically disruptive years. Lynch embraced the era of digitization and helped to make Ernest Green the largest distributor in Canada.

THE NEW YORK TIMES CO.'s June 2004 advertising revenues increased 2.3 per cent compared with the results for the same month last year. Interestingly, advertising revenues of its NY Times Newspaper Group only increased 0.1 per cent for June 2004, while the NY Times Digital division rose by 36.3 per cent. The company stated this reflected growth in display advertising and in all classified ad categories at NYTimes.com and Boston.com.

HP, which earned US$76.8 billion in revenues over its last four quarters, plans to recycle 1-billion pounds of electronic products and printing supplies globally by 2007. In 2003, HP recycled more than 100-million pounds of electronic products and printing supplies through its Planet Partners program, raising the companywide total to 500-million pounds recycled since HP began recycling in 1987. Earlier this year, Xerox, during a webcast launch of the Docutech system, dramatized its environmentally print friendliness versus HP.

XEROX will produce more than 10-million documents in on-site print centres at the 2004 Democratic and Republican National Conventions. Ten Xerox production-publishing systems will be used at the late-August Republican Convention in New York City. Xerox has had a role in supporting each party's convention since 1988.

KUBAS CONSULTANTS of Toronto completed a research report called The Future of Direct Mail for the Graphic Arts Marketing Information Service. According to Kubas, In Canada, 2004 direct mail expenditures are projected to be $1.8 billion and annual expenditure growth rates are projected to be 3.3 per cent through 2007. In the U.S., direct mail will represent about $36 billion or 10 per cent of all U.S. media and marketing expenditures in 2004.

U.S. POSTAL SERVICE unveiled findings of an independent study showing a positive relationship between direct mail and internet sales. The Multi-Channel Catalogue Study revealed that 15 per cent of consumers who receive a catalogue and visit the cataloguer's website make an online purchase. Existing customers in this study were 33 per cent more likely to buy from a retailer's site after receiving a catalogue.

QUEBECOR WORLD, at press time, continued to struggle with American labour unions, stating publicly that the union is harassing the company and releasing deceptive statements. The company pointed out that it is one of the most highly unionized companies in the printing industry. Approximately one-third of its U.S. employees or more than 7,000 people are union members.

ASIA PULP & PAPER is reacting to what is calls an inaccurate and misleading report from World Wildlife Fund that accused the company of continuing to support illegal logging in Indonesia's rainforest. "The information contained in the report is out of date. APP took corrective action immediately when this came to our attention last year and WWF subsequently sent a letter of acknowledgement," said Arian Ardie of APP.

PIA/GATF'S 2004 ratios survey found that profits at U.S. printing companies are still not back to where they were in the 1990s. The average printer in the U.S. achieved a pre-tax profit of 1.7 per cent in 2003, lower than the 1.9 per cent reached during the 1990-91 recession. U.S. printers in the top 25 percentile reached an 8.7 per cent profit level in sales, down from 10 per cent achieved during 1999-2001.