Industry News

Jul 1, 2005 12:00 AM, AP staff

News from: American Graphic Arts, Quebecor, National Directory of Catalogs, IBM, Xerox, PrintManage, CCI, Williamson Printing Corp., Kodak, Maestrale North America, KPG, Heidelberg, Quad/Graphics, PerfectProof, Creo, Quark, St Ives, Appleton, Agfa, Avery Dennison RFID, innerworkings, C. Barenes & Co., NAPL, Wilcox Press, Day Intl., Base-Line, MAN Roland and Hi-Liter Graphics.

Hot Topics, Management Tips and Newsmakers

TIDBITS…
» How well do you know your pre-U.S. Civil War presses? See American Graphic Arts’ antique press catalog and brush up on your printing history at www.agamachinery.com/antiquepresses.

» As part of its Offset Retooling Project, Quebecor World has purchased 16 KL 6000 compensating stackers, 14 SV 500 vertical log stackers, eight PR 500 robotic palletizers, seven PL 500 robotic log palletizers and 29 overhead conveying lines from Gämmerler.

» The number of online catalogs grew from 6,147 to 7,400 over the past year—an increase of 1,293 titles—according to the latest edition of the National Directory of Catalogs. See www.mediafinder.com.

» It’s good to be No. 1. InfoTrends/CAP Ventures ranked IBM 2004’s No. 1 U.S. provider of high-speed, monochrome roll-fed printers.
» A printing cartridge designed by Xerox for HP LaserJet 9050, 9000 and 9040 monochrome printers reportedly costs up to 30 percent less.

» University of North Texas student Matt George has the best senior portfolio of the year, according to Padgett Printing. Winners of the Padgett Award also receive a free trip to the How Magazine Design Conference.

» PrintManage has inked a two-year contract with Maxim Healthcare Services to produce up to six million variable-data direct mail pieces annually.

» CCI was popular at the 5th Annual Graphics Excellence Awards. The company received a Badger Award, an Award of Excellence and a Certificate of Merit from the Printing Industries of Wisconsin.

Williamson namedsheetfed exec of 2005
Jesse Williamson, president of Williamson Printing Corp. (Dallas), has been named the 2005 Sheetfed Executive of the Year by the National Assn. for Printing Leadership (NAPL) (Paramus, NJ) and Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) (Sewickley, PA). The award was presented to Williamson during the annual NAPL & PIA/GATF Sheetfed Pressroom Conference in Chicago.

Williamson is the 11th recipient of the award, which honors his exceptional service, initiative and commitment to his community, his company and the sheetfed printing industry. For more about Williamson’s sheetfed innovations, click here.

Utah printer aims for optimal digital print production
Rocky Mountain Printing (Orem, Utah) recently installed the Kodak (Norwalk, CT) NexPress optima solution to better fulfill its customers’ short -run color and variable-data print needs. The installation is the first for Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) since announcing an agreement with Kodak to sell products from NexPress last fall.

"With the Kodak NexPress optima solution, we can provide our customers with the customization, high- quality color and paper stock options they need to create powerful print communications," says Teague Bengtzen, president of Rocky Mountain Printing.

Designed to drive digital print volume by opening up new business opportunities, NexPress optima incorporates the hardware, software and consulting tools necessary to automate the workflow for applications such as recurring Web-to-print jobs. The bundle solution includes the Kodak NexPress 2100 digital production color press; the NexStation III XE front end; the NexTreme Web-to-print exchange solution and NexTreme Media Producer software for Web-to-print applications; the NexTreme OneFlow+ workflow solution; the NexTreme DL-100 and DL-1000 variable-data software; the NexPert business development toolkit; and four Kodak NexPert FastStart consulting programs.

CTP vet Zilinskas heads Maestrale N.A.
Dwight Zilinskas, most recently the vice-president of Citiplate Inc. and director of international sales and marketing for PDI, is now the president and CEO of Maestrale North America (Edgewater, MD).

Based in Italy, Maestrale targets small and midsized printers via three subsidiaries: T&S for workflow, Optotec for CTP, and Maestrale SpA for worldwide marketing and distribution.

Maestrle’s newest offering includes CTP, workflow and a full line of consumables.

For more information, see www.maestrale.net.

KPG donates digital equipment to AGC
Kodak Polychrome Graphics (KPG) (Norwalk, CT) recently donated a Matchprint Professional Server and a Canon CLC 1150 digital color printer to the Assn. of Graphic Communications (AGC) (New York). An affiliate of PIA/GATF, AGC is a 140-year-old trade association in the New York metropolitan region, including New York, Northern New Jersey and Connecticut.

AGC president Susie Greenwood says, "This is very exciting. [It] expands our capabilities for projects such as creating professional quality proofs for our annual buyer’s guide."

"AGC serves as an important partner in reaching the local graphic communications services industry," says David Tashji, KPG’s director of worldwide marketing, direct imaging and digital printing solutions. "AGC and KPG work together to educate and inform graphic services companies about ways they can do their jobs faster, easier and with better results."

Heidelberg opens new demo center, unveils 18,000-sph press
Heidelberg recently invited 300 printers from across the United States to the new Print Media Demonstration Center (PMDC) at its Kennesaw, GA, headquarters. PMDC features a full range of prepress, press, postpress and workflow solutions. "We can’t wait for trade shows," said Heidelberg CEO Bernard Schreier. "The world is changing and so are customer demands."

Several weeks later at a pre-PRINT 05 media event, Heidelberg USA president James Dunn said the company uses trade shows to create market awareness and the demo center to give customers a more in-depth, hands-on experience. Heidelberg will allow groups such as trade association affiliates to use the facility for their events.

Visitors to the 33,000-sq.-ft. facility also got a close look at Heidelberg’s Speedmaster XL 105 press, the first in a series of high-end offset presses. The new 62-ton press has a 29.52 x 41.34-inch sheet size, making it appropriate for long-run label and packaging applications. In field tests vs. a circa 2000, 15,000-sph press, the 18,000-sph XL 105 reportedly is showing up to 30 percent increased net output. For Heidelberg’s PRINT 05 plans, click here.

Quad/Graphics to install first U.S. Supra stitcher
In August 2005, Quad/Graphics (Sussex, WI) will become the first printer in the United States to install a Muller Martini (Hauppauge, NY) Supra high-performance saddlestitcher (introduced at Drupa 2004). The Supra will be installed at the Quad/Graphics printing center in Hartford, WI.

Featuring a newly developed, advanced pocket wheel feeder, the Supra stitcher runs at up to 30,000 cycles per hour. Quad’s Supra is rated at 25,000 cycles with the new 416 feeder.

PerfectProof, X-Rite pair up
PerfectProof (Dover, NH) and X-Rite (Grandville, MI) have announced a strategic partnership integrating X-Rite color management tools with ProofMaster RIP software.

X-Rite reports its Pulse ColorElite System and DTP70 scanning X-Y spectrophotometer, introduced last year at Drupa, will provide ProofMaster customers with one-stop display calibration, input/output ICC profile creation and certification.

"This partnership forms a perfect fit with our company’s philosophy to offer our customers a comprehensive yet affordable color proofing solution from start to finish," says Mark Verbist, GM of PerfectProof Europe NV.

Creo RIP drives IKON digital color
Creo Inc. (Vancouver, BC, Canada) is providing digital print technology to IKON Office Solutions Inc. (Malvern, PA) for the IKON PowerPro 500 print controller, which drives the IKON CPP 500 color printer/copier.

The IKON-exclusive print controller is designed to offer significant image and color quality, reliability and ease-of-use in a fast RIP with variable-data printing capabilities.

Coupled with the 50-ppm IKON CPP 500 color printer/copier, the IKON PowerPro 500 generates short runs of color brochures and catalogs, professionally-finished booklets and custom marketing materials for the corporate environment. The solution supports popular variable information authoring tools, including Creo Darwin VI, and formats including Creo Variable Print Specification, PPML, PDF and Adobe PostScript.

CEO quits Quark
Quark, Inc. (Denver) CEO Kamar Aulakh has left the company. The board of directors has appointed Linda Chase, senior vice president of commerce product development, to act as interim president. Quark also has initiated a search for a CEO to bring professional outside leadership to the company, retaining executive search firm Christian & Timbers.

U.K. financial printer ramps up U.S. initiative
St Ives Burrups (London), a division of St Ives PLC, has changed its name to St Ives Financial. Founded in 1628, St Ives Financial serves corporate, legal, and banking clients. Concurrent with the name change, the company will be introducing a suite of Web-enabled document management solutions to speed and streamline prepress and production for its clients. This is part of a U.S. expansion strategy that began in 2000 with the opening of offices in Philadelphia and New York City.

"Our new Web strategy will dramatically streamline financial printing, reducing customers’ costs while ensuring a new degree of accuracy—of particular importance in this era of increased shareholder scrutiny," says Andrew Langdale, divisional managing director of St Ives Financial. "There is no other company in the world with such a broad spectrum of experience, starting with hot lead in the 1600s and extending all the way to today’s Internet. Our new name and U.S. focus is intended to communicate that expertise to the U.S. financial markets."

Printer drives away with a classic
Appleton (Appleton, WI) has awarded a vintage 1954 Corvette to Sam Manci, owner of Manci’s Allegra Print & Imaging in Tampa, FL, as part of the "50 Years of Classics" promotion commemorating the 50th anniversary of NCR Paper brand carbonless paper.

In accepting the award, Manci noted that he, too, was born in 1954. "NCR Paper brand is a staple in our business," he said, "especially now that digital technologies continue to grow and fulfill our customers’ evolving needs for short-run and customized forms."

CIP4 to Finalize JDF 1.3 spec
Agfa recently hosted a CIP4 meeting at its headquarters in Mortsel, Belgium, at which the organization finalized JDF 1.3 specifications. Agfa is a founding member of CIP4, a global organization of graphic communications suppliers and technology experts creating standards for interoperability within the graphic arts industry. The standard will be released at Print 05.

Avery Dennison develops high-speed RFID process
Avery Dennison RFID (Clinton, SC) has developed a high-speed RFID inlay manufacturing process. The company reports its "strap-attach-based" process produces tags at rates exceeding those of conventional production methods by up to 10 times or more, depending on the type of tag being produced. The process is meant to help Avery Dennison meet anticipated demand as more and more companies apply RFID tags to cartons and pallets shipped through the global supply chain.

Developed by Avery Dennison teams in Southern California and South Carolina, the process incorporates important advances in the handling of strap and antenna webs, strap transfer and strap attachment. Avery Dennison RFID anticipates the production of new EPC Class 1, Version 2 (or UHF Gen 2) tag designs later this year, which will use the new process.

Belcher exits MAN Roland, joins InnerWorkings
Eric D. Belcher has joined InnerWorkings, a Chicago-based enterprise print management and outsourcing firm, as executive vice president, operations. Belcher will oversee all service delivery functions, supply chain management and InnerWorkings’ certified supplier network. Previously, Belcher was MAN Roland Inc.’s (Westmont, IL) COO, where he oversaw sheetfed operations throughout North America.

Print buying analysis available
C. Barnes & Co. (Bath, ME) has released the manufacturing industries edition of its "Print Buying 2005: Demographic Analysis of Print End-User Markets" report. In its third year of publication, the annual report features the U.S. state and metropolitan demographics for 20 of the largest U.S. industries.

The 250-page report includes information about the telecommunications industry as well as pharmaceuticals, computer, automobile and packaged foods manufacturing. It covers:

2005 establishments, employment and sales totals for each industry.
2006 forecast establishments, employment and sales totals for each industry.
2005 and 2006 forecast U.S. state establishments and sales.
2005 and 2006 forecast 300+ metro area establishments and sales.
Five-year trend establishments and sales totals.
Print buying as a percentage of industry sales.
Print buying dollars for industry.
Print buying potential.
2004 establishments, employment and sales totals for 50+ sub- industries for the featured business services industries.

The "Print Buying 2005" report costs $1,999. The "Manufacturing Industries Edition" is available for $999, and each individual industry report costs $299. With each report, purchasers receive a PDF edition with an Excel version on CD. See www.cbarnes.com.

100 WORDS OR LESS:
Is globalization a threat or an opportunity?
"Globalization goes to the heart of what is happening in the printing industry. Our competition and markets are being redefined. Competitors are no longer just across town but across the ocean. And they’re not necessarily printers. Is globalization a threat or an opportunity? That depends. Are you positioning to be in the communications business or primarily ink-on-paper? Globalization is not about to go away.

Productivity and efficiency are more important than ever, but you also need to know your client’s business inside-out. The biggest threat is not China; it’s complacency and trying to maintain business as usual."
—Joseph Vincenzino, senior economist, National Assn. for Printing Leadership (NAPL)

PEOPLE

Wilcox Press, Inc. (Ithaca, NY) has hired Dieter Urbanski as CEO.
Day Intl. (Dayton) has made several appointments to its sales and technical support organization: Mark Barrington, senior vice president of sales and marketing, Image Transfer group; Greg Johnson, vice president of sales, key accounts; Mike Neroni, vice president of marketing and national accounts; Al Strake, director, channel sales; Dennis Florek, director, applications group; Terry Brady, director of sales, Northeast region; and Jeff Balcer, director of sales, Southeast region.
Base-Line Inc. (Gurnee, IL) has announced the addition of Lynne Gehrke as vice president of operations and Tom Garms as director of national accounts.
Robert Berg is the new GM of MAN Roland’s (East Rutherford, NJ) Eastern region sheetfed operations, replacing Todd Andrews who has been promoted to executive vice president and general counsel for the company.
Gary Fisher has joined Hi-Liter Graphics (Burlington, WI) as a finishing manager.