Atlantic Digital has installed an Agfa process-less CTP system.
News WEEK OF MARCH 03, 2008
Jeff Jacobson
PRESSTEK SHRINKS CANADIAN OPERATIONS
Presstek has effectively emptied out its Mississauga, ON facility, sending some of its administrative and service people, many of whom came from the 2004 purchase of AB Dick, to its Hudson, New Hampshire and Plaines, Illinois facilities, while the remaining Canadian sales and service representatives have relocated to home offices. The Canadian employee base has decreased by about 40 percent over the last few years, according to one source, with a reduction in qualified technical service personnel for Eastern Canada from about 15 to 5. With this North American restructuring, sales and service accounts now go through managers in the States.
In financial news, Presstek’s securities will continue to trade on The NASDAQ Global Market. The company announced that it has received a determination from NASDAQ indicating that, based upon the filing of the form 10-Q for the period ended September 29, 2007, it has evidenced full compliance with NASDAQ's requirements for continued listing. Presstek had delayed the report of its Q3 financial results for about three months, citing the need to first conduct a worldwide inventory review, including an examination of operations directed by the new senior management team, and a review of receivables from certain distributors in Europe as well as certain European revenue recognition practices. The late filing with the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC), predictably, has resulted in the delayed filing of its annual report on form 10-K for the year ended December 29, 2007. Presstek expects charges of $1 to $2 million in the Q4 relating to the previously disclosed reviews as well as certain product warranty costs. The company has not yet announced the date it expects to report fourth quarter financial results.
"It's disappointing that the effort required to complete our business reviews has challenged our ability to meet SEC reporting timelines,” said Presstek's executive vice president and CFO, Jeff Cook. "The delay in filing our Form 10-K is due solely to our late start in closing Q4 2007 financial records, and is not related to any new findings or issues.”
A similar delay occurred with Presstek’s 2006 10-K Annual Report filings. The company said this delay was due to an SEC review of its accounting procedures for certain product development costs. The year-end report, filed at the end of April, includes
management's assessment that the Company did not maintain a sufficient complement of personnel with the appropriate level of accounting knowledge, experience, and training in the application of U.S. generally accepted accounting procedures to analyze, review, and monitor accounting for transactions that are significant or non- routine. This has resulted, in part, from the Company's continuing migration from a niche player to a mainstream business. As a result of this material weakness, management has concluded that the Company's internal control over financial reporting was not effective as of December 30, 2006.
This Q4 2006 delay started a domino effect of the delays that have continued into 2008.
The net Q3 2007 loss was US$3.6 million, or $.10 per share. Operating expenses in the third quarter totalled US$21.1 million, including US$400,000 of restructuring charges related primarily to the company's Canadian operation.
Presstek president and CEO Jeff Jacobson said, "Our Business Improvement Plan which we announced on October 25, 2007 is well underway and on track and, based upon actions already taken, we now expect we will exceed our previously announced nine percent reduction in headcount. We are looking forward to a much improved 2008."
On March 4, consulting firm InfoTrends listed the technologies it describes as Best of Show at the On Demand show, which focuses on primarily on the world of electrophotography. This is the third year of the Best of Show awards judged in nine categories. An Honourable Mention award was also presented for some categories.
Bindery Finishing and Mailing Equipment Best of Show: Ricoh, Ring Binder RB5000 Honourable Mention: Kompac Technologies, Kwik Finish
Document Creation Software Best of Show: XMPie Inc., PersonalEffect Honourable Mention: GMC Software, PrintNet Designer 5.2
Innovations in Paper Usage and Substrates Best of Show: Mohawk Fine Papers, Beckett Cambric Honourable Mention: Neenah Paper Inc., CORONADO SST Papers
Monochrome Digital Printing Equipment Best of Show: Océ, VarioStream 8000
Process Color Digital Printing Equipment Best of Show: Canon U.S.A., imagePRESS C6000 Honourable Mention: Océ, JetStream
Web To Print Solutions Best of Show: Rochester Software Associates, WebCRD Enterprise System 7.0 Honourable Mention: Firespring, PrinterPresence
Wide Format Printing Best of Show: Xerox Corporation, Xerox 8265 Honourable Mention: Canon U.S.A., imagePROGRAF iPF8000S
Workflow Solutions Best of Show: Ultimate Technographics, Impostrip Book Stacker 2.0 Honourable Mention: Rochester Software Associates, QDirect.SCAN
Innovative Use of Technology Best of Show: interlinkONE, ilinkONE Version 8 Honourable Mention: XMPie, Inc., Marketplace
Kazuto Ogawa was announced as the new president and CEO of Canon Canada Inc., returning to the country for the second time, after Tamotsu Nakamura was recently named executive VP and general manager of Canon U.S.A.’s Imaging Systems Group. Ogawa began his career with Canon in 1981 and from 1982 to 1983 spent time with Canon Canada’s Camera Division. Today, Canon Canada has 1,400 employees.
In September 1995, Ogawa was appointed to lead the Printer and Consumer Imaging Products division in the South East Asia Region after being transferred to Canon Singapore. When Canon Asia Marketing Headquarters relocated from Singapore to Hong Kong and then to Beijing, Ogawa followed the same route to head the Pan Asia Consumer Imaging Products Group and became CEO of Canon Singapore in April 2005.
According to Joe Adachi, president and CEO, Canon Americas Group, “Mr. Ogawa has been highly respected as a strong leader who always generates stellar results, such as achieving record sales, market share and profits for Pan Asia.” Discussing Mr. Nakamura’s departure from Canon Canada, Adachi said, “Canon Canada achieved record revenue each and every year under Mr. Nakamura’s leadership. He brings a wealth of experience to his new responsibilities leading our U.S. business and office products team as it enters a new era of growth and prosperity.”
QUARK GOES DYNAMIC At this year's On Demand show in Boston, Quark announced a new workflow for the enterprise publishing marketplace. Called Dynamic Publishing Solution, Quark says it injects automation to multiple media, including print, Web, mobile and electronic devices.
"Over the past year I have visited at length with key customers across Europe, North America and Asia. These customers - some of the largest and most well-known publishers and creative groups in the world - confirmed that their publishing requirements are changing dramatically," said Ray Schiavone, Quark CEO. "We are solving these challenges with Quark Dynamic Publishing Solution by helping our customers improve automation, create reusable content, and more efficiently publish to multiple channels. This is the basis of dynamic publishing, the next revolution in publishing."
In essense, Quark DPS will act as a form of content manager, channelling one set of content to fit various pages and screens, reducing the amount of work involved to create campaigns which are cross-platform and allows content changes to be automatically updated across different platforms with one change. The software will be based on the XML open format, also used by Microsoft in its latest Office suite. As a result, DPS will accept content created from tools other than Quark, including Adobe InDesign.
This move by Quark is seen by some as the company's shift towards server-based publishing, abandoning the desktop market to Adobe's Creative Suite. Schivone was quick to respond to those rumours: "QuarkXPress is a valuable and widely-used graphic design and page layout tool in its own right, and will play an integral role in Quark DPS. QuarkXPress is and always will be the foundation of our product portfolio and we will continue to invest in it to meet the needs of individual designers and large organizations alike."
Citywide Printing, an arm of the ColorRightNow Group based in Calgary, has installed a Presstek 52DI press in its plant. It is the first 52DI press in the province.
“We needed to ensure that we could deliver the quality and fast turnaround our customers expect,” said Rick Wilson, ColorRightNow’s owner. “Since we have installed the 52DI we have already seen massive efficiency improvements. The fact that we have a sellable sheet 10 minutes from sending the file is simply outstanding. Our initial reports suggest that we’ve reduced our makereadies by approximately 60 percent.”
Wilson says that wholesale printing for the trade will be a new business opportunity for the firm with the DI press. In addition, he says the press will be able to bring in house the $30,000 to $40,000 a month in four-color print he was previously outsourcing. In considering the purchase, Wilson visited other satisfied DI press owners in Canada, who reinforced his decision to acquire a Presstek DI press.
Avanti Computer Systems, based in Toronto for 24 years, has signed a deal to integrate its Management Information applications into Pageflex’ Storefront Web-to-print software. Avanti’s Graphic Arts Management System will enable online document customization and ordering in Storefront through the production cycle of printing, finishing and shipment. Jobs created in Pageflex are automatically transferred to Avanti without hands-on work, eliminating the possibility of transcription errors and reducing turnaround time.
Pageflex Storefront enables customers to define, auto-generate and manage attractive Web-to-print document customization sites for print and cross-media campaign ordering and e-commerce. “We are pleased that the extensibility of Pageflex enables it to be a seamless participant in the Avanti workflow,” said Anna Chagnon, president and CEO of Bitstream Inc., which is the parent company of Pageflex. “Our joint customers now have the opportunity to sell robust document customization services through a Web portal, coupled with the competitive advantage of behind-the-scenes automated business processes.”
With over 400 installations, Avanti's fully integrated modules include Estimating, Quotation letters, Order Entry, Job Costing and Tracking, Inventory Management, Purchasing, Scheduling, Shop Floor Management, Fulfillment, Direct Machine Interface, Shipping Integration, Invoicing, CRM, JDF interfaces, Triggers and Alerts, Executive Dashboard.
HP's Indigo Ink system is now licensed with Pantone's Goe system. The new PANTONE Goe license for the HP Indigo Ink Mixing System, together with the original Pantone Matching System license, produces more than 3,000 Pantone colours, delivering the highest level of process-color simulation of Pantone colours in the digital printing industry. HP Indigo Pantone Goe mixed inks will be available for HP Indigo customers in May 2008.
“The combination of the new Digital Color Toolbox and the Pantone Goe System licensing for the HP Indigo Ink Mixing System ensures the best possible colour results on HP Indigo digital presses," said Alon Bar-Shany, vice president and general manager of HP's Indigo division.
Additionally, HP has developed what it claims to be the industry's first swatchbook for on-press Pantone Goe simulation. The new HP Indigo Pantone Goe simulation swatchbook will be included in Pantone and HP's new version of the Digital Color Toolbox for the Pantone Goe System, a two-swatchbook bundle that offers a convenient way to compare solid Pantone Goe Colors with their simulations in HP Indigo four-color, on-press process.
The Pantone and HP Indigo Digital Color Toolbox for the Pantone Goe System has a list price of US $280 for a North American version or 280 Euro for an EMEA version.
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This Wednesday, more than 400 people from the Canadian printing industry gathered at the Palais Royale Ballroom in Toronto to celebrate the environmental efforts of the past year. In all, 38 awards were given out over 14 categories. PrintAction would like to thank all who participated in the event.
The recipients of this year’s awards were:
Environmental Innovator Gold: CEO, Forest Stewardship Council Canada, Antony Marcil
Environmental Community Involvement Gold: HP Canada Silver: Canon Canada Bronze: St. Joseph Communications
Most Progressive Environmental Process, vendor Gold: Heidelberger Druckmaschinen Silver: Enviro Image Solutions (Metropolitan Fine Printers) Bronze: Komori Corporation
Most Progressive Environmental Process, printer Silver: Jones Packaging Silver: CardPak Bronze: C.J. Graphics
Most Progressive Environmental Product Gold: Sun Chemical Silver: Taylor Label Bronze: Majestic Inkjet
Most Environmentally Progressive Print Consumer in Canada Gold: Wildfire Publishing
Most Environmentally Progressive Vendor in Canada Gold: Enviro Image Solutions (Metropolitan Fine Printers) Silver: Cascades Fine Papers Silver: Tembec Bronze: Sun Chemical
Most Progressive Environmental Printing Project, offset Gold: Metropolitan Fine Printers Silver: Flash Reproductions Silver: The Lowe-Martin Group Bronze: Parker Pad & Printing
Most Progressive Environmental Printing Project, digital Gold: Kempenfelt Graphics Group Silver: Parker Pad & Printing Bronze: Gilmore Global
Most Progressive Environmental Packaging Project, flexible Bronze: Farnell Packaging
Most Environmentally Progressive Printer in Canada, 1 to 49 employees Gold: Taylor Label Silver: Warren’s Waterless Printing Bronze: Accell Graphics
Most Environmentally Progressive Printer in Canada, 50 to 100 employees Gold: Informco Silver: Patient News Publishing Bronze: Colour Innovations
Most Environmentally Progressive Printer in Canada, 100+ employees Gold: The Lowe-Martin Group Gold: Hemlock Printers Silver: St. Joseph Communications
Saint-Jérôme-based Cascades (Fine Papers Group) and Toronto-based METRO Waste Paper Recovery are platinum sponsors of the event, while Gold sponsors include: Agfa, Baldwin Paper, Flash Reproductions, Fujifilm, HP, Kallima and Tembec, Kodak, Majestic Supply, National Envelope, Presstek and Unisource. Supporting the event with a Silver sponsorship are Heidelberg, Sun Chemical and xpedx.
On February 26, Quebecor Inc. reported its fiscal 2007 results for its Media division, while its CEO Pierre Karl Péladeau remained tightlipped about the future of printing subsidiary Quebecor World. "It's too early to say anything about what's going to happen there," Péladeau said during a conference call about the parent company’s financial results. The company stated that it expects to take a non-cash hit of up to $779 million resulting from the difficulties of Quebecor World.
Quebecor Media posted revenues of $3.37 billion for fiscal 2007, a $367.3 million – or 12.2 percent – increase from 2006, a year in which the Media division had a loss of $169.7 million. Back on January 21, 2008, Quebecor Inc. informed Quebecor World that it must remove "Quebecor" from its corporate name, as the parent company began to exclude Quebecor World from its consolidated results. On Quebecor’s website, the company now lists all of its subsidiaries – Quebecor Media, TVA Group, Canoe, Nurun, Sun Media, Vidéotron – with the exception of Quebecor World.
In Quebecor’s Vidéotron cable segment, operating income was up $130.2 million (25.4 percent), as its customer base increased by 238,600 for cable telephone service, 141,000 for cable Internet access, 65,700 for all cable television services combined (including a 144,600 customer increase for illico Digital TV), and 33,900 phones for wireless telephone service. During the financial conference call, Péladeau said the company is excited about favourable rules for new entrants to the wireless business and plans to participate in the upcoming auction. (See PrintAction July 2007 – Canada’s 50 Most Influential People in Graphic Communications.)
While the company indicated that it is potentially looking for wireless business partners outside of Quebec, Quebecor previously announced plans to spend up to $500 million on its wireless entry. Also on February 26, Quebecor Media announced that it now controls 100 percent of all of Internet-focused Nurun's issued and outstanding common shares. Weeks earlier, the company purchased approximately 91 percent of Nurun’s shares. During the conference call, Péledeau stated that there are no plans to offer Quebecor Media through an IPO.
On February 28, Montreal-based AbitibiBowater released its first full year results since the company came into existence through the merger of Abitibi-Consolidated and Bowater – a deal approved by the United States Department of Justice in October 2007. In the fourth quarter alone, the new company saw a loss of $250 million based on a total of $861 million worth of sales. For the full fiscal 2007, AbitibiBowater experienced a loss of $490 million.
The 2007 loss includes a $130 million fallout related to asset closures, $27 million severance and merger-related costs and a $31 million charge related to tax adjustments. The company states its year-end results reflect the full quarter and year-end results for Bowater Incorporated and the results for Abitibi-Consolidated. This year-end loss comes even after sales in 2007, totaling $3.9 billion, increased by 11 percent from 2006 sales of $3.5 billion. Abitibi also posted a financial loss of $138 million for fiscal 2006.
"While markets for wood products remain challenging, market conditions for pulp and paper products are improving significantly and we are pleased with our ongoing progress to make our company a more globally competitive organization," stated chairman John Weaver, in a press release. "Our recently announced agreement with Catalyst Paper, to sell our Snowflake, Arizona newsprint mill for approximately $180 million, including retained working capital, is another important milestone. We remain committed to our debt reduction target of $1 billion over the next three years."
Also in its press release, Abitibi cautioned that continued negative conditions in the credit and capital markets, as well as the difficult industry-operating environment, are challenging its ability to obtain needed, “satisfactory” financing.
Jim Flaherty, Canada’s Finance Minister, unveiled the Federal Budget on February 26. The budget includes an extension to accelerated capital cost allowance (CCA) treatment for investment in machinery and equipment for manufacturers. The previous two-year, 50 per cent, straight line accelerated capital cost allowance rate is extended by a year in the new budget. Recent budgets have targeted the undeniable effect on manufacturing – especially on those industries related to forestry – that the surging value of the Canadian Dollar has had. Flaherty expects the CCA extension to provide $1 billion in tax relief to the manufacturing and processing sector, while domestic institutions update their facilities.
R.R. Donnelley & Sons Company has entered into a $122-million agreement to acquire Pro Line Printing Inc., a privately held producer of newspaper inserts headquartered in Texas. "Pro Line Printing's respected capabilities expand our geographic footprint for offset-printed tabloid inserts and even better position us to serve national advertising programs," said RRD’s president and CEO Thomas Quinlan III.
The all-cash deal, which adds to RRD’s gravure-based insert production platform, is subject to customary closing conditions. Pro Line has production operations in Arlington, Texas; Reno, Nevada; Avon, Connecticut and Pineville, North Carolina.
In a separate deal, just days earlier on February 26, RRD announced it has been awarded an $800 million contract by McGraw-Hill Education. Building on an existing 45-year relationship, the new 7-year agreement includes a wide range of products including textbooks, workbooks, testing materials, teachers' editions and ancillary products. About that deal, Quinlan said, "We have increased the flexibility, geographic reach and service capabilities of our platform.”
On February 27, RRD announced results for its 2007 fiscal year, including a net loss from continuing operations of $48.4 million. For the fourth quarter, RDD experienced a net loss from continuing operations of $292.9 million on net sales of $3.1 billion.
Litho Quebec, a Pointe-Claire, Quebec, commercial printer, has installed a KBA Rapida 105 41-inch six-colour press with UV capabilities. After testing the sheetfed press in Vermont and touring the KBA headquarters in Germany, the company bought the press through KBR Graphics, the eastern Canadian distributor for KBA North America.
“We’re very excited to be getting our new KBA press,” says Gary Zacard, who co-owns Litho Quebec JGB with his brother Bruce. “It is going to provide us with more consistency, faster makeready times, and more automation. Plus we now have UV capability, a specialty that is not widely seen in Quebec.” Zacard says the 50-employee company went with UV because it would be useless to just install another 40-inch to compete with the rest of the city. “While a majority of our work is for the trade, we believe we can expand our book and packaging printing, even gaining U.S. customers.”
The press is equipped with two position-variable interdeck UV lamps and end-of-press UV lamps, allowing a variety of UV inks and UV coatings.
“We feel that UV will be a growing area for us and separate us from our competition,” says Zacard. “UV has a number of attributes that we like; it is environmentally friendly, and that caters to our ‘green’ society. It protects the printed sheet and it gives us instant drying for the sheet to move directly into the bindery.”
Litho Quebec replaced its 4-colour, 40-inch Heidelberg SM with the KBA Rapida, and retained its five-color 29-inch Roland 300 with aqueous coating, which handles a large volume. The Zacard brothers spent more than a year investigating the different sheetfed presses on the market that could be equipped with inline UV capability.
Litho Quebec has been in the printing business for 36 years, established by Bruce and Gary Zacard’s father. It specializes in printing packaging, business stationery, corporate literature, checks, invoices, statements, and other types of corporate documents.
Photo (L-R): Karl Belafi Jr., KBR Graphics Ltd., KBA’s eastern Canadian distributor; John Raithel, KBA regional vice president; Gary Zacard, co-owner of Litho Quebec JGB; Bruce Zacard, co-owner of Litho Quebec JGB; and Holger Garbrecht, KBA CEO and president.
Founded in 1975 within 200 square feet, Winnipeg’s The Prolific Group has updated its prepress department, located within a 43,000-square-foot plant. Key to the upgrade are two Fujifilm Javelin 8600S thermal CTP engines, one with multi-cassette autoloader and the other with single-cassette autoloader. In addition to the CTP installations, which replace first-generation platesetters, Prolific added two Epson Stylus 9800 printers, Trueflow PRO workflow, and MegaRip into its prepress department – all of this technology was installed by Fujifilm.
In 1991, Proflic acquired Parkland ColorPress Limited of Lacombe, which specializes in magazine production. In May 1998, this operation moved to its current 18,000-square-foot location in Red Deer. In 1999, Prolific's Alberta base expanded again when it acquired Calgary-based Petro-Tech Printing Ltd. The Prolific Group now employs approximately 165 people in the Winnipeg, Red Deer, and Calgary locations.
Left to right: Fujifilm Canada’s Gary Thompson with Proflic’s Keith Gauthier, prepress manager, Al Alexandruk, president, and Mike Lesyshen, technical manager.
Also last month, Pierre Verreault, owner of Imprimerie Moderne de Beauce, purchased a Fuji Luxel V-6 violet CTP platesetter along with Celebrant frontend software. Founded in 1945, Imprimerie Moderne de Beauce serves not only the Beauce region of Quebec but all of eastern Canada and the United States. The 25-employee company, owned since 1980 by Verreault, was the first printer in the Province of Quebec to achieve ISO 9001 - 2000 certification.
Photo: Timmy Quingley, plant manager of Imprimerie Moderne de Beauce.
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François Olivier officially took over as president and chief executive officer of Transcontinental at the company’s February 20th annual shareholders' meeting. Former CEO Luc Desjardins is leaving the company after eight years. Desjardins became CEO of Transcontinental after the retirement of Transcontinental’s founder Rémi Marcoux, who remains as executive chairman of the board.
At the shareholder meeting, attending by around 400 people, Marcoux said, "Luc successfully guided Transcontinental through an important stage in its growth. Since 2000, Transcontinental's performance has been a remarkable achievement, and I wish to personally thank him today, as well as on behalf of the board of directors… Because we have a strong management team, we were able to identify an internal successor, in this instance a member of my family, which guarantees the continuity and stability that are so crucial in today's economy."
On the same day, Transcontinental announced plans to invest $60 million in equipment at its Transmag newspaper printing facility in Montreal. The facility, which mainly produces daily and weekly newspapers and specialty publications, is scheduled for completion in 2009. "This investment of $60 million is part of our strategy to become North America's leader in newspaper printing outsourcing," said François Olivier. “Over the past five years, Transcontinental has invested approximately $250 million in its printing facilities in the Montreal region alone."
Transcontinental Transmag will acquire a MAN Roland CIC 8 web press with full colour capacity, as well as a new ultra violet (UV) dryer, a process never before used in North America. In order to accommodate the new press and peripheral equipment, the facility will be expanded to 145,000 square feet from its current size of 80,000 square feet.
Catalyst Paper, which began operating in 2005 in Richmond, BC, after several preceding M&As, and eventually the 2006 share sell off by Norske Skog to a new management group, announced it will spend $12 million to upgrade and restart its No. 4 paper machine in Port Alberni. Catalyst’s board also approved a $14-million cost associated with early retirement and severance packages under a new labour agreement.
“The two union locals – CEP 592 and 686 – are to be commended for reaching a landmark agreement that puts in place modern work practices and brings labour costs to competitive industry levels,” said Catalyst CEO Richard Garneau. “Knowing we have the support of our employees means we can move forward with the thermo-mechanical capacity increase project and return to a 2-machine mill.”
Its No. 4 paper machine was shut down in September 2007 following concern about more competitive property tax for the mill in Port Alberni. As the city’s largest taxpayer, Catalyst paid $7.1 million in 2007, which the company claims to be approximately three times the Canadian average and more than twice the BC average in property tax per tonne. Port Alberni’s city council approved a gradual reduction of major industry property taxes over five years.
On February 13, 2008, Catalyst announced a net loss of $31.6 million on sales of $1.7 billion during 2007. This compared with a net loss of $15.9 million on sales of $1.9 billion in 2006. The company also posted a 2007 operating loss of $149.4 million compared to operating earnings of $3.9 million in 2006. In 2007, the company induced a 15 percent staffing reduction, relocation of the head office from Vancouver to Richmond, and the consolidation of some mill support functions in Nanaimo.
On February 11, 2008, Catalyst entered into an agreement to acquire AbitibiBowater’s Snowflake Arizona recycled newsprint mill for US$161 million in cash. The merger between Abitibi and Bowater was only recently cleared. The Snowflake mill produces recycled newsprint with annual production capacity of 375,000 metric tonnes on two paper machines. In addition to its market kraft pulp and ownership of Western Canada’s largest paper recycling facility, Catalyst claims to be a leading producer of mechanical printing papers. With five mills at sites within a 160-kilometre radius on the south coast of BC, Catalyst has a combined annual capacity of 2.4 million tonnes.
Quebecor World Inc. has announced a five-year contract with home renovations and hardware retailer RONA, and its affiliates across Canada. This new agreement, which expands the scope of the existing partnership between Quebecor World and RONA, will have Quebecor World printing 100% of RONA’s advertising material, including its retail flyers.
In addition to printing RONA’s advertising material, Quebecor World will provide services such as the “Coficio” advertising campaign management software.
“Quebecor World’s bid was selected because it enabled us to maintain a profitable partnership – extending well beyond the traditional customer-supplier relationship,” stated Michael Brossard, RONA’s Senior Vice-president, Marketing and Development.
“Our relationship with RONA is truly a strategic cooperation between two businesses. Over the years, we have made every effort to enhance the standards of our shared values while seeking means of creating more value for both companies,” added Tony Galasso, president of Quebecor World Canada. “The specialised services we offer will enable us to strengthen our ties beyond our traditional printing services.”
Kodak has revealed details about its upcoming Colorflow Software, set to debut at drupa this year. With Colorflow, Kodak promises to handle colour management from prepress to output while reducing the need for costly reapprovals and reruns.
Once the Colorflow software is in place, it maintains and manages relationships among the control elements and device print conditions, managing colour setups throughout the workflow and between devices to eliminate mismatched settings.
When a print condition is refined for a specific device, Colorflow Software can update all the colour control elements automatically, ending the breakdowns in communication between colour management tools that hampered colour matching in the past.
"Not only can Colorflow Software simplify the setup and optimization of colour control across the entire print production workflow, but it also performs a new level of print condition management that moves colour into a new era," said Arjen Van Der Meulen, director of colour at Kodak's Graphic Communications Group. "Colorflow Software supports the continued evolution of print as a manufacturing process."
Colorflow software connects with the company's Spotless Printing Solution with improved spot colour recipes and accurate n-colour profiles for image separation. Furthermore, it can use colorimetric information to build curves that optimize colour and grey balance, providing more uniform color reproduction across devices. It is also built to support ISO, ICC, PDF/X and JDF standards.
The software will be available as a standalone product, as well as an integrated element of Kodak's Prinergy workflow 5.0, also being launched at drupa.
Presstek Inc. has announced the filing of a complaint with the International Trade Commission (ITC) against Israeli printing plate manufacturer VIM Technologies, Ltd. and its manufacturing partner Hanita Coatings RCA, Ltd. for infringement of Presstek’s patent and trademark rights. Presstek also sued three U.S.-based distributors of VIM products: Guaranteed Service & Supplies, Inc., Ohio Graphco Inc., and Recognition Systems Inc., as well as one Canadian distributor, AteCe Canada. Presstek is seeking, among other things, an order from the ITC, forbidding the importation and sale of the VIM printing plates in the United States; such an order would be enforced at U.S. borders by the U.S. Customs Service.
Presstek’s ITC complaint alleges that VIM’s Di-R Waterless Processless Thermal Plate Rolls infringe Presstek’s U.S. Patent Nos. 5,339,737 and 5,487,338. Presstek also claims that VIM is infringing Presstek’s DI trademark, which it has held since 1992. “Our intellectual property is a valuable company asset, and we will continue to take legal action to protect our rights,” said Jeff Jacobson, president and CEO of Presstek. “We will enforce our rights against VIM and its distributors not only in North America, but in Europe and other parts of the world as well,” added Jacobson.
In other legal news, the Securities and Exchange Commission (SEC) has begun a formal investigation of Presstek’s Q3, 2006 announcements, after a more informal investigation that began in late 2007. A year after the company discovered financial control problems relating to its 2006 accounting, Presstek said its “disclosure controls and procedures were not effective.” Reportedly, the quarterly SEC filing should bring the company into compliance with NASDAQ rules, and help the company from being delisted.
Citing a continued increase in raw material, energy, and transportation costs, Sun Chemical has announced it will be raising prices globally for its Performance Pigments Division, effective March 31.
The affected pigments, which include Classical Azo Red, Yello, Phthalo, High Performance, Pearlescent and Costmetic colors, will increase between three and eight percent. Consequently, ink producers sourcing pigments from Sun Chemical will likely have to pass on the increased cost to its user base. The price increase applies to all markets that purchase pigments including the ink, coating, plastic, and cosmetics industries.
“At Sun Chemical, we’re working to control our own costs through the improvement of internal operations,” said Brian Leen, vice president and general manager of Performance Pigments at Sun Chemical. “While these efforts have helped to offset some rising raw material costs, the increased cost of energy and transportation combined with the rising cost of raw materials have forced us to pass some of these costs on to our customers.”
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Transcontinental and Rogers announced today that they have signed a six-year, $210-million contract for Transcontinental to print Rogers’ complete magazine portfolio in Canada. The publications in question, which include Chatelaine, Macleans, L’actualité and Canadian Business, were formerly printed by Quebecor World.
"This contract to print Rogers magazine portfolio underlines the positive results of our commitment to being leaders in technology and to continuous improvement across our Canadian network of printing facilities," said Luc Desjardins, president and chief executive officer of Transcontinental. "This contract is also the result of teamwork led by Guy Manuel, president, Marketing Products and Services Sector, and Brian Reid, Senior Vice President, Catalogue and Magazine Group, Transcontinental Printing."
The contract will take effect on February 1 of next year and the publications (over 70 in all) will be printed at Transcontinental locations across Canada. Rogers’ former contract with Quebecor was signed in November, 2002 and the magazines were primarily printed at Quebecor’s plants in Aurora and Richmond Hill, Ontario. That deal was worth $240 million for its 67 publications at that time.
Grafikom LP, based in Don Mills, Ontario, has closed its Carlsbad plant, located about 30 miles north of San Diego. This particular plant was a piece of the late-2005 deal that created Grafikom via a management buyout of six Quebecor World sheetfed facilities. That deal was lead by the former president of the Quebecor World Specialty Group in Canada, Aivars Beikmanis, who recently left the company after the appointment of industry-veteran Gord Griffiths as CEO.
Amid taking over leadership of Grafikom in October 2007, Griffiths faced the sudden departure of Beikmanis and six of the company’s top executives. He has since brought in the leadership of Rael Fisher as vice president of sales. Grafikom continues to operate as one of Canada’s largest networked printing companies, which is well-suited to Griffiths' past experience with Mail-Well (before the Robert Burton-led Cenveo disruption) and St. Joseph Printing. With capabilities in commercial, digital, packaging and specialty printing, Grafikom employs over 600 people at facilities in Toronto, Calgary, Edmonton, Sherbrooke and Guadalajara, Mexico.
Ruben Silva
RUBEN SILVA TO LEAD AGFA GRAPHICS CANADA
Ruben Silva has been named the new managing director for Agfa Graphics Canada. “Ruben has done a great job. He has been with us for about two years and has proven his worth as a strong business leader,” said Tom Sagiomo, the president of Agfa Graphic Systems, North America. Silva joined Agfa as its regional sales manager for Eastern Canada in June 2006, after positions at Presstek Canada, AB Dick, Itek Graphics and Gestetner. He has more than 18 years experience in the printing industry.
Former managing director Jack Baraczek, who has been with Agfa for eight years, heads back to the United States. “Jack has done his job in Canada. He is going to assume the position as director for the Eastern Region of the U.S.,” said Sagiomo. Baraczek has more than 25 years' experience in the graphic arts industry. Before coming to Canada, he was in charge of Agfa’s Midwest region.
Xerox Canada has appointed Emechete Onuoha to director of federal government relations and sustainability.
“Xerox’s commitment to the environment dates back more than 30 years. Our core value of responsible corporate citizenship is so embedded in company culture that we sometimes take our record of achievement for granted,” said Kevin Warren, newly minted president and CEO of Xerox Canada. “Eme’s analytical background and depth of experience with Canadian public policy make him ideally suited to be at the forefront of Xerox Canada’s future environmental strategy.”
Onuoha joined the company in 2007 after serving 12 years in the federal government in roles including the chief of staff in the office of the minister of National Defence and the adviser on trade and consultation policy in the office of the Minister of International Trade.
Eastman Kodak Company, Hewlett-Packard and Ricoh Company are listed on The Global 100 list, an annual tally of the most sustainable corporations in the world put out by Toronto-based Corporate Knights magazine. Among its other research lists of The Best 50, The Top 100 and The Carbon 50, etc., the magazine initiated The Global 100 Most Sustainable Corporations in the World with Innovest Strategic Value Advisors Inc., a research firm specializing in analyzing “non traditional” drivers of risk and shareholder value, including companies’ performances on social, environmental and strategic governance issues. The firm has published related studies showing the correlation between sustainability and financial performance.
Eastman Kodak, HP and Ricoh have all made the list in consecutive years since its inception in 2005. The 2008 list, whittled from a pool of 1,800 securities, also included companies such as Mitsubishi Heavy Industries, BASF, Toppan Printing of Japan and Deutsche Post. “The Global 100 is a list of publicly-traded, MSCI World-listed companies that, based on research and analysis by Innovest Strategic Value Advisors, have the best developed abilities, relative to their industry peers, to manage the environmental, social and governance (ESG) risks and opportunities they face,” according to Corporate Knights.
Polaroid, iconic instant-camera maker announced this week that it will be ceasing production of its instant camera film by closing its three remaining production factories and laying off the 450 workers. Fujifilm of Japan will be the sole supplier of instant film as a result.
The first instant camera from the company was unveiled in 1948 and has enjoyed great popularity until the mid-1990s. The company faced uncertainties after the introduction of digital cameras on the marketplace which led to its bankruptcy in 2001. Since then, the Polaroid brand has been licensed by various equity groups. As a result, the brand continues to live on in rebranded digital cameras, scanners, televisions and even DVD players.
Polaroid is left with approximately 150 employees at its Concord headquarters, according to the Chicago Sun Times, a mere shadow of the 21,000 employees back in 1978. The film is expected to remain in stores through the next year, but fans of the product have already expressed an interest in hording the remaining stock.
Domtar Corporation announced that it suffered a net loss of $26 million for the fourth quarter of 2007, compared to a net income of $36 million in its third quarter. The company attributes the loss to the continuing strength of the Canadian dollar.
“In the fourth quarter, our results were impacted by the unprecedented run-up in the value of the Canadian dollar against the U.S. dollar and by continued pressure on fiber, chemical and energy related costs," said Raymond Royer, CEO of Domtar. "Nonetheless, we benefited from a better supply-demand balance in our system with reduced lack-of-order downtime, paper production in sync with our shipments and pricing momentum despite the seasonally slower period of the year.”
Excluding items related to goodwill, lawsuit and insurance claim settlements, and debt restructuring, the company earned $29 million in the quarter. In the same period just last year, Weyerhaeuser (which combined with Domtar Inc. in March 2007 to become Domtar Corp.) earned $102 million.
In related news, European paper giant Stora Enso also announced a fourth-quarter net loss of EUR50.8 million. The company’s CEO Jouko Karvinen called the year 2007 one of its most challenging in recent years. The company’s near-term market outlook estimates steady demand in Europe for newsprint, while overseas newsprint prices have increased this year.
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Record amounts of snowfall in Toronto caused a scheduled speaker to cancel his appearance at Ryerson University’s Heidelberg School of Graphic Communications Management’s (GCM) yearly student-run Colloquium event. Peter Lewis, technical consultant at EskoArtwork, was replaced at Ryerson's Student Centre on Wednesday evening, where third-year GCM students produced Colloquium 2008: Unwrapping Innovations (UI08), on the growth of the packaging industry.
The Flexographic Technical Association’s Joe Tuccitto, education director at the FTA and advisor to GCM, filled in for Lewis with a short speech that debunked the idea that flexo is still the ”red-headed stepchild of printing,” based on the rapid changes in the industry. He notices changes in educational initiatives as well, such as the impending expansion of the Phoenix Challenge to the college level.
Flanking Tuccitto’s time at the podium were speeches by Gillian Mothersill, an associate dean at Ryerson and graduate of the GCM program, and by Ron Schroder, who opened with a few Jeopardy-style questions about printing. Schroder is the strategic markets manager at Williamson Printing Materials, and a regular columnist for FlexoAction magazine. While stressing the basic factors of successful flexo printing, he also touched on the growing educational field in mentioning a high school course available in Winnipeg, and Mothersill mentioned Ryerson’s plans for a minor in flexo and packaging. Topping off the night were speakers Henry Laszutko, sales director for Toronto CCL Label, and PAC’s president and CEO, James Downham, who spoke on sustainable packaging.
Official numbers upcoming, an estimated 175 people attended the event. The Colloquium project is a requirement of the GCM program’s Management in the Graphic Arts class, taught by professor Art Seto, who has worked for Quebecor World and Metropolitan Fine Printers. Project managers Keri MacLellan and Tiffany Sine oversaw the organization of UI08, including $2,500 in grants and sponsorship by the fundraising team, literature (printed on the school’s Heidelberg DI) and multimedia by the graphic design team, and expansive campaigning by the promotions team.
Toronto’s Medical Officer of Health, Dr. David McKeown, has proposed an environmental reporting and disclosure program for the city that will involve printing companies, among others, that use a number of toxic substances in their processes. “The current systems of tracking and reporting chemicals that industries use and release into the environment are missing valuable information at the local level,” writes McKeown in his public report. Toronto Public Health has researched similar programs across North America, and consulted with businesses, governmental organizations and NGOs to identify their concerns.
The proposed bylaw, which will go before the Board of Health in May, would “require affected businesses to report to the City every year if they use or release any of 25 priority chemicals above specified thresholds; encourage businesses to become more aware of their use and release of these chemicals and find ways to prevent this pollution; and assist the public in obtaining access to the information that is collected,” according to McKeown’s report. The priority substances include:
The printing and publishing industries are listed in the report as typical users of one or more of these substances. The program would target small and medium-sized facilities, which are not included in other reporting programs such as the National Pollutant Release Inventory (NPRI). Toronto Public Health estimates that more than 80 per cent of emissions to air of these 25 priority substances are not reported at all.
Aligning with the city’s Green Economic Development Strategy, “Toronto businesses of all sizes stand to benefit from pollution prevention activities” according to the report. “Small and medium-sized businesses, which may not have the same knowledge and resources as larger companies, should benefit most.”
2007 has seen an immense surge in interest for environmentally conscious paper choices, but print producers have a long way to go to gain the public’s trust, says a new report from Markets Initiative, a Vancouver-based firm working to shift paper purchasing practices in the book, magazine and newsprint sectors.
“The only bright light for the paper industry this past year has been a green light,” said Nicole Rycroft, executive director of Markets Initiative. “The forestry and paper industries are often deemed to lack innovation, but with green product demand rising as it is, there are a number of Canadian mills already benefiting from environmental innovation. This is good news for the climate and Canada’s Boreal Forest.”
Today, more than 520 Canadian publishers of books, magazines and newspapers have Ancient Forest Friendly or eco-paper purchasing policies in place, up from a mere 172 at the start of 2007.
In spite of this encouraging news, the report also found that 78 per cent of Canadians believe companies are marketing themselves to be greener than they really are in practice. The report recommends companies not underestimate the ramifications of what it calls “greenwashing,” or deceiving the increasingly informed public in regards to a company’s eco-policies.
Among the report's recommendations to printers: - Stock Ancient Forest Friendly, FSC and recycled house sheets at competitive prices - Become a knowledgeable source on environmental papers and certification schemes - Train sales staff to encourage customers to choose Ancient Forest Friendly papers
After signing a deal in September, Calgary-based Liberty Graphics has now installed its new Presstek 34DI. Jesse Schneider, who is a partner in the company with Brian Kerr, said, “Our customers began asking for run lengths that were not economically feasible to produce on our digital toner-based press with its click-charge model. We needed something that would handle run lengths of 500 to 10,000, which falls in that profitability gap between digital and conventional offset.”
Presstek introduced the 34DI back in 2005, built around its new ProFire Excel DI technology, as its first self-branded press, alongside the larger, landscape-focused press, the 52DI. Liberty Graphics’ machine handles portrait sheet sizes up to 13.39 x 18.11 inches. The press can reproduce an image resolution of 2,540 dots per inch (line screens up to 300 lines per inch or FM screening), while it generates automated changeovers at 10 minutes (for the 34DI-X model) or 14 minutes (34DI-E model).
Liberty Graphics partners, Jessie Schneider (left) and Brian Kerr.
Kevin Warren
NEW XEROX CANADA CEO
Xerox Canada is now under the leadership of chairman and CEO Kevin Warren, who has been with the company for 23 years. Before his new posting in Toronto, Warren drove Xerox Corporation’s $1.5-billion acquisition of Global Imaging Systems, a U.S. office technology dealer that Xerox acquired in May. He led this acquisition based largely on the direct sales and sales management experience he gained serving as Xerox’ senior vice president for Eastern U.S. sales.
Warren will report to James Firestone, president, Xerox North America. “Xerox Canada has a history of outstanding leaders,” said Firestone in a press release. “During his tenure, Doug Lord was instrumental in driving Xerox Canada’s profitable growth, with annual revenue of close to $1.2 billion. Kevin’s extensive sales leadership experience makes him the logical choice to continue to lead Xerox’s customer-focused success in the Canadian marketplace.”
Former Canadian CEO Doug Lord now takes on the role of president, U.S. Solutions Group.
The third annual Environmental Printing Awards concluded its entry process last week and has seen a record number of entries in its 14 categories. More than 130 entries have been received from the community, about double the amount received last year.
The entries are now in the hands of an independent panel of judges and the awards will be handed out at the gala at the Palais Royale Ballroom in Toronto on February 27.
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INDIGO NOW GOE LICENSED
QUEBECOR ESTIMATES $779-MILLION HIT
FEDERAL BUDGET AIDS MANUFACTURING SECTOR
QUEBECOR WORLD'S RONA CONTRACT
TRANSCONTINENTAL SIGNS ROGERS FOR SIX YEARS
Xerox Canada has appointed Emechete Onuoha to director of federal government relations and sustainability.
POLAROID CEASES PRODUCTION OF INSTANT FILM
DOMTAR HIT WITH LOSS IN Q4
RYERSON COLLOQUIUM RUNS SMOOTHLY DESPITE HARSH WEATHER
TRACKING THE GREEN WAVE
