Monthly Archives: April 2009

Signs of the times

By , Thursday, 30 April 2009, Be the first to comment

An unusual experience yesterday, after a fruitful day exploring the Sign & Digital UK exhibition at Birmingham’s NEC. On the way out of the car park the attendant complimented me on my “nice tattoo”. Cue much hilarity among the PrintWeek colleagues I was chauffeuring to and from the show.

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Web-to-print worries for some

By , Wednesday, 29 April 2009, 1 Comment

Web-to-print is easier said than done for some, as evidenced by a recent conversation with someone working at a high street print chain. Frustrated by a lack of action on this front from head office, they were investigating how they could implement such a system themselves.

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Brooms old and new sweeping in

By , Monday, 27 April 2009, Be the first to comment

April has involved interesting personnel moves aplenty. Last week’s news that Les Pipe is returning to Wyndeham wasn’t entirely unexpected – his name was in the frame for some sort of return to the group, although speculation had centred on Pipe perhaps being involved with a buyout of the pre-media side of the business.  Once he gets his feet properly under the table next month I’m sure a lot of people will be watching closely to see precisely what his new group development role will entail.

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Espresso needs more than novelty value

By , Friday, 24 April 2009, 2 Comments

While hanging out with some non-print friends earlier this week the subject turned to books. Surveying the heaps of weighty scientific tomes on the desk of one chum, whose job involves something unfeasibly complicated to do with structural molecular biology, I asked whether he could conceive that such volumes would become e-books or be transferred entirely into some sort of online resource. The answer was no, he felt that some of the information he needs as a scientist will always be best delivered in print.

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More to see at Northprint than you might think

By , Thursday, 23 April 2009, Be the first to comment

Greetings from Yorkshire, where the sun is indeed shining. I’ve finished my stint at Northprint but if you’re within striking distance of Harrogate and haven’t been to the show yet, IMHO it’s worth popping along to have a look around.

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Entry-level options abound

By , Monday, 20 April 2009, 6 Comments

I had to do a double-take when reading the Product of the Week feature on the EFI Jetrion 4000 in the current issue of PrintWeek.

The Jetrion costs around £300,000, and the alternatives range from the same sort of price up to more than £700,000. With one notable exception, that being the Mimaki CJV30-60 costing just £9,995. Upon first reading I thought that surely a couple of digits were missing from the price. But they aren’t.

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Quad displays its ambition

By , Thursday, 16 April 2009, Be the first to comment

Revisiting a topic from eight months ago – that of North American giant Quad/Graphics bringing its brand to Europe – I note that the group is getting more active here in the UK with an advertising campaign currently running in PrintWeek no less.

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Printco share price goes up, shock

By , Wednesday, 15 April 2009, Be the first to comment

A flurry of excitement, in my office at least, as St Ives’ share price jumped by 14.25p – almost 30% – to 62.5p yesterday. What could have caused such a leap? The shares have been bumping along in the 45-50p range for a month or more. Visions of a break-up bid, one of those much-talked-about consolidation plays, or some sort of private equity swoop, danced before me. Just the other day I read in the FT that there’s supposedly somewhere between $300bn-$400bn in private equity funds kicking around looking for something to be spent on.

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It’s (almost) show time

By , Tuesday, 14 April 2009, Be the first to comment

A week today Northprint will throw open its doors. I see the 10-day weather forecast for Harrogate is sunny intervals, and can but hope the show provides a brighter spot than has been anticipated.

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Green shoots sprouting many column inches

By , Tuesday, 14 April 2009, Be the first to comment

Further to last week’s “green shots” blog I see this is a topic exercising many commentators at the moment, see links below for some diverse views.

http://business.timesonline.co.uk/tol/business/columnists/article6087954.ece

http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/apr/12/recession-recovery-growth-signs-uk

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/b1a1ab38-2631-11de-be57-00144feabdc0.html

http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/edmundconway/5129148/great.html

 

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