UV Systems

Just Falafel has more than 650 franchise agreements in the Middle East and across 15 countries worldwide with 12 outlets opening in the UK over the past few weeks alone.

The company intends to grow its UK presence to 200 stores over the next three years and selected LightBrigade, through a competitive tender, to handle all of its brand development, PR and printed materials, such as menus, lightboxes, window applications, store branding, mailers and flyers.

Following the roll-out of the brand across the UK, Just Falafel will look at extending the refreshed identity across its global network.

LightBrigade director of strategy Matt Walker said that winning the contract with Just Falafel had given the company a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate its strategic and creative capabilities.

He added: "Their revolutionary ambition to change the fast food industry mirrors our own ambition to deliver as a really integrated agency that offers both flexibility and scale across the UK and globally."

Launched in 2009 as a result of Surrey-based litho firm Total Print acquiring B&P LightBrigade in Chertsey, the company employs around 50 staff and has an annual turnover of £5m, which it aims to double year-on-year - a feat it achieved last year.

The business has a client list that includes Samsung, Kuoni, John Lewis, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols and provides a range of services PR, design, brand management and print services from its Covent garden headquarters and its 1,100sqm Surrey print facility, which houses both large-format and litho kit, including four-colour Heidelberg presses alongside large-format flatbed and superwide roll-to-roll printers.

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Zolfo Cooper has confirmed to PrintWeek that nobody from the company has, as of midday today (24 May), been appointed as administrator.

There has been no official statement from MPG.

Workers at the firm's Bodmin and King's Lynn plants were said to have been trying to help customers with work-in-progress, according to a source, even though staff at these facilities appear unlikely to receive their wages this month.

According to local reports the 60 staff at Bodmin were told not to come into work today.

At MPG's Cambridge facility, workers are paid two weeks in arrears and two weeks in advance under an arrangement agreed with then-employer Cambridge University Press when it moved over to monthly pay, so staff there have already been paid for this month.

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Decorating an aluminum can with pressure-sensitive labels is a progressive trend in the flourishing craft beer market. It allows small batch brewers to deliver clear and quality messaging to consumers that is more cost effective and flexible.

Global trends, sustainable packaging and the benefits and challenges mergers and acquisitions bring were the main topics of conversation as 623 delegates gathered for Label Summit Latin America 2013. Held in Brazil’s Sao Paulo, between 14-15 May, the fifth edition of the table-top exhibition and conference was attended by label and package printing converters and printers, brand owners, label designers and industry suppliers.

Swedish finishing systems manufacturer Grafotronic will run demonstrations of its latest HI (Horizontal Inspection) rewinder in Barcelona in cooperation with its Spanish/Portuguese agent Lapeyra & Taltavull Comercial.

SATO has acquired Nexgen Packaging in a deal designed to strengthen both companies global presence in their respective markets.

Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC) has promoted Mark Zastrow to the position of vice-president of sales for the company's Green Bay, Wisconsin, operations.

Administrators from Zolfo Cooper are understood to be on-site at the firm, which was formerly known as MPG Books.

However, there has not yet been official confirmation that the business has gone into administration.

A source close to the situation said that while administrators were on-site, they might not be officially appointed until Tuesday, after the bank holiday weekend.

MPG has plants in Bodmin, King's Lynn, and recently opened a new plant in Cambridge following its takeover of the Cambridge University Press (CUP) printing operation last year, which resulted in a major restructuring of the group's manufacturing sites.

Chief executive Tony Chard was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, and the company's phones were diverting to an answerphone service.

The takeover of the CUP facility, and the resulting costs involved with relocating equipment and setting up a new MPG plant in Bar Hill, Cambridge, appears to have resulted in a cash crisis at the company.

Nigel Gawthrope, FOC at the Cambridge site, said: "There was a £500,000 budget to set the factory up, and it actually cost £1.7m. They didn't allow enough time for the machines to bed in and go into production.

"We knew there was a bit of a cashflow problem, but we thought it had turned the corner," he added.

Cambridge University Press operations director Sandra Waterhouse issued a statement this morning on behalf of the publisher.

She said: "The management team of MPG today announced it is to go into administration. In July 2012 Cambridge University Press placed a large proportion of its UK printing with MPG Books Group. The agreement also saw the Press's in-house printing department, and most of the staff, transferred to MPG.

"This transfer was undertaken in good faith and, as well as allowing the publishing groups the flexibility they need, was seen as a way of securing continued employment for staff otherwise facing redundancy through the potential closure of the Press's printing operation.

"Throughout the contract to date we have offered every support to MPG and we are sorry that the business is now facing administration as a result of cash flow problems. Our production directors are considering what this means for our production requirements and will be taking steps to minimise the immediate impact."

At the same time as setting up the new Cambridge facility MPG was also carrying out a £4m investment plan that involved a new Timsons T-Press and HP Indigo 10000 B2 digital press for its Biddles site in King's Lynn.

Just three months ago Chard said the group was "still highly acquisitive" and planned to use its revamped manufacturing platform to expand its services into "book-like products".

It was also poised to invest in high-speed colour inkjet technology with KBA, HP and Kodak in the frame as potential suppliers.

Its most recently-filed results are for the year to 31 December 2011, so exclude the major restructuring carried out over the past 18 months. In 2011 the business made a pre-tax profit of £813,000 on sales of £19.4m and had 238 employees.

Check printweek.com for updates on this story.

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Parent company Daily Mail Group Trust (DMGT) said the decline was partly mitigated by the MailOnline's 61% revenue growth to £20m (2012: £12m), although this is still dwarfed by printed revenues.

Combined revenue for the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline declined by 4% to £306m, which was attributed to an 8% decline in overall print advertising revenue and the 6% decline in circulation revenue.

London's free paper Metro was hit by a post Olympics revenue decline of 8% to £40m (2012: £44m).

Overall DMG Media, the division comprising DMGT's newspapers, Zoopla, Wowcher and digital recruitment firm Evenbase, posted a 6% increase in operating profit on revenues of £406m (2012: £435m).

DMGT chief executive Martin Morgan said good overall underlying performance reflected the strength of the group's B2B companies and the resilience of its national consumer titles.

He added: "As expected, reported operating profit increased despite a decline in reported revenue resulting from recent disposals.

"Our UK consumer business, DMG media, continued to experience challenging conditions and underlying revenues were slightly down, although the increase in digital revenues more than offset the decline in print advertising revenues."

"We have continued to actively manage our portfolio of businesses and have made several acquisitions and disposals during the period and into the second half, to improve the overall quality and growth prospects of the group."

Morgan said that he expected comparatives in the second half of the year to be adversely impacted by the timing of biennial events and the Olympics, which were one-off benefits in the second half of the last financial year.

"Overall, the outlook for the full year remains unchanged," he added.

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"Our customers are buying paper to print on and therefore add value to, their customers may well want to buy packaging, copier paper or whatever and we can facilitate that and fulfil those orders," said Paperlinx UK managing director Phil Carr.

"Printers have deep relationships with their customers so we're just trying to make that relationship stickier. What we're doing is providing an income stream that printers would not have had access to before, importantly, without tying up their cash. It really is that simple," he added.

The service is known internally as "printers' webstores" and the first webstore is expected to go live in the coming days, although Carr declined to reveal the name of the first user. PaperlinX is currently also in advanced discussions with another six customers.

In essence the service is a white label online storefront that printers can add to their websites. The storefronts will offer around 500 Paperlinx products, ranging from blank packaging, office paper, consumables and other media.

"Everyone we've spoken to sees the value in it, because we're all experiencing a decline in volumes. It's a low cost, no risk opportunity and people get that," said Carr.

"It stems from us trying to develop initiatives to enable our customers to bolt on new revenue streams. Of course if it's good for their business, it's also good for us because it continues our evolution from simply being a supplier of paper," added Carr.

The webstores will be branded in line with the printer's own branding. They will be full e-commerce enabled sites where customers can pay by credit card, although invoice options will also be available.

Once placed, the orders will be delivered direct to the printer's customers via Paperlinx's 250-strong logistics fleet, based across DeliveryCo's 24 distribution hubs.

The products will be supplied at a fixed price, to ensure a common pricing structure, which will be set by Paperlinx across all printers' webstores. Printers will then generate a pre-determined "healthy" commission based on order value, which will then be either paid directly to the printer or credited to their Paperlinx account.

"It's a simple value added service for the printer to their customers, it plays into our strengths of logistics and breadth of products. We as merchants should be helping our customers to offer solutions to their customers and this does exactly that, it really is a win-win for all concerned," said Carr.

The pilot "printers' webstores" service will initially be offered to 50 pre-selected Paperlinx customers, but Carr said over time it would be opened up. In terms of initial set up costs to the printer, Carr described them as "minimal", but he added that they would depend on a variety of factors, such as volumes.

While the service will initial focus on 500 products, Carr said that more products will be added over time - once the demand has been identified.

The scheme is being launched in the UK, but Paperlinx expects to roll it out across Europe by the end of the year.

Carr hinted that Paperlinx might introduce other similar initiatives in the near future, however he declined to reveal further details.

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Located near Hamburg, the new location will provide additional office and manufacturing space.

IPT has more than 25 years experience in the printing and hot stamping industry.

Kimoha Entrepreneurs, located south of Dubai, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with its third Gallus press.

Drying and curing specialist IST Metz will stage its sixth UV Days event on June 17-20, focusing on multi-functionality and sense perception.

Ink manufacturer Ruco has launched a new opaque white product intended for use in combination printing processes.

Durst has appointed Christoph Gamper as its new chief executive officer (CEO).

Rotocontrol is moving to new headquarters in the coming weeks as it looks to handle increased demand for its finishing equipment.

The company attributed the fall in pre-tax profits to "significantly increased non-recurring expenses" relating to the acquisition of rival web-to-print firm Goodprint UK, in November last year, and the subsequent closure of the Goodprint facilities and transfer of operations into its sites in Newcastle and London.

Underlying operating profit saw a modest 6% increase to £1.62m (2012: £1.53m), including a £230,000 contribution from the acquisition of Goodprint, which fell short of company expectations.

Revenues for the group, including marketing agency Tangent Snowball, Printed.com, Tangent On Demand, and the company's Newcastle printing division Ravensworth, were up almost 12% to £24.3m (2012: £21.72m).

Of this, Printed.com contributed £3.95m, with sales growth increasing by 99% boosted by the integration of Goodprint, including the brands of Goodprint and Smileprint. Between 13 November 2012 and 28 February 2013 Goodprint contributed £1.2m in revenue. The company said that with its loyalty scheme tie-up with Avios, signed in March this year, and a high level of returning customers, Printed.com was making a consistent profit.

Sales for Tangent Snowball meanwhile declined from £10.8m in 2012 to £10.65m while revenues at printing arm Ravensworth slid 7% in line with market decline to £6.25m.

The company said that any spare capacity in its Newcastle facility was being used by its retail websites. Additionally the firm has reviewed its work for the estate agency market and plans to migrate all templates online so that estate agents can place orders online for a broader range of products.

Tangent On Demand, the company's on-demand digital print service, showed strong growth with sales up 5.2% to £2.24m. The company said that the increase of higher margin products on a range of substrates improved the competitive edge of the business with gross margin expected to improve further through 2013 and 2014.

The board proposes a final dividend for the year to 28 February 2013 of 20p per share (2012: 20p). If approved at the company's AGM shareholders will be paid on 2 August.

Chief executive Timothy Green said the year had been "transformational" for Tangent. "Our retail websites printed.com and goodprint.co.uk now generate a large proportion of our sales and profits. We aim to capitalise on our position in the UK market and gain a greater share of the European markerts we now service," he added.

Green said that Tangent was entering the new financial year with clear "vision" and an exciting business proposition.

He added: "Tangent will grow as our online customers buy from an expanded range of products on printed.com and goodprint.co.uk. We will continuously optimise our websites to acquire and convert customers more efficiently."

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The plant is the 46th facility to achieve TLMI LIFE Certification.

A new facility will provide shorter lead times and reduced costs for label converters in Australia and New Zealand.

Just Falafel has more than 650 franchise agreements in the Middle East and across 15 countries worldwide with 12 outlets opening in the UK over the past few weeks alone.

The company intends to grow its UK presence to 200 stores over the next three years and selected LightBrigade, through a competitive tender, to handle all of its brand development, PR and printed materials, such as menus, lightboxes, window applications, store branding, mailers and flyers.

Following the roll-out of the brand across the UK, Just Falafel will look at extending the refreshed identity across its global network.

LightBrigade director of strategy Matt Walker said that winning the contract with Just Falafel had given the company a fantastic opportunity to demonstrate its strategic and creative capabilities.

He added: "Their revolutionary ambition to change the fast food industry mirrors our own ambition to deliver as a really integrated agency that offers both flexibility and scale across the UK and globally."

Launched in 2009 as a result of Surrey-based litho firm Total Print acquiring B&P LightBrigade in Chertsey, the company employs around 50 staff and has an annual turnover of £5m, which it aims to double year-on-year - a feat it achieved last year.

The business has a client list that includes Samsung, Kuoni, John Lewis, Selfridges and Harvey Nichols and provides a range of services PR, design, brand management and print services from its Covent garden headquarters and its 1,100sqm Surrey print facility, which houses both large-format and litho kit, including four-colour Heidelberg presses alongside large-format flatbed and superwide roll-to-roll printers.

Tweet

Zolfo Cooper has confirmed to PrintWeek that nobody from the company has, as of midday today (24 May), been appointed as administrator.

There has been no official statement from MPG.

Workers at the firm's Bodmin and King's Lynn plants were said to have been trying to help customers with work-in-progress, according to a source, even though staff at these facilities appear unlikely to receive their wages this month.

According to local reports the 60 staff at Bodmin were told not to come into work today.

At MPG's Cambridge facility, workers are paid two weeks in arrears and two weeks in advance under an arrangement agreed with then-employer Cambridge University Press when it moved over to monthly pay, so staff there have already been paid for this month.

Tweet

Decorating an aluminum can with pressure-sensitive labels is a progressive trend in the flourishing craft beer market. It allows small batch brewers to deliver clear and quality messaging to consumers that is more cost effective and flexible.

Global trends, sustainable packaging and the benefits and challenges mergers and acquisitions bring were the main topics of conversation as 623 delegates gathered for Label Summit Latin America 2013. Held in Brazil’s Sao Paulo, between 14-15 May, the fifth edition of the table-top exhibition and conference was attended by label and package printing converters and printers, brand owners, label designers and industry suppliers.

Swedish finishing systems manufacturer Grafotronic will run demonstrations of its latest HI (Horizontal Inspection) rewinder in Barcelona in cooperation with its Spanish/Portuguese agent Lapeyra & Taltavull Comercial.

SATO has acquired Nexgen Packaging in a deal designed to strengthen both companies global presence in their respective markets.

Paper Converting Machine Company (PCMC) has promoted Mark Zastrow to the position of vice-president of sales for the company's Green Bay, Wisconsin, operations.

Administrators from Zolfo Cooper are understood to be on-site at the firm, which was formerly known as MPG Books.

However, there has not yet been official confirmation that the business has gone into administration.

A source close to the situation said that while administrators were on-site, they might not be officially appointed until Tuesday, after the bank holiday weekend.

MPG has plants in Bodmin, King's Lynn, and recently opened a new plant in Cambridge following its takeover of the Cambridge University Press (CUP) printing operation last year, which resulted in a major restructuring of the group's manufacturing sites.

Chief executive Tony Chard was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, and the company's phones were diverting to an answerphone service.

The takeover of the CUP facility, and the resulting costs involved with relocating equipment and setting up a new MPG plant in Bar Hill, Cambridge, appears to have resulted in a cash crisis at the company.

Nigel Gawthrope, FOC at the Cambridge site, said: "There was a £500,000 budget to set the factory up, and it actually cost £1.7m. They didn't allow enough time for the machines to bed in and go into production.

"We knew there was a bit of a cashflow problem, but we thought it had turned the corner," he added.

Cambridge University Press operations director Sandra Waterhouse issued a statement this morning on behalf of the publisher.

She said: "The management team of MPG today announced it is to go into administration. In July 2012 Cambridge University Press placed a large proportion of its UK printing with MPG Books Group. The agreement also saw the Press's in-house printing department, and most of the staff, transferred to MPG.

"This transfer was undertaken in good faith and, as well as allowing the publishing groups the flexibility they need, was seen as a way of securing continued employment for staff otherwise facing redundancy through the potential closure of the Press's printing operation.

"Throughout the contract to date we have offered every support to MPG and we are sorry that the business is now facing administration as a result of cash flow problems. Our production directors are considering what this means for our production requirements and will be taking steps to minimise the immediate impact."

At the same time as setting up the new Cambridge facility MPG was also carrying out a £4m investment plan that involved a new Timsons T-Press and HP Indigo 10000 B2 digital press for its Biddles site in King's Lynn.

Just three months ago Chard said the group was "still highly acquisitive" and planned to use its revamped manufacturing platform to expand its services into "book-like products".

It was also poised to invest in high-speed colour inkjet technology with KBA, HP and Kodak in the frame as potential suppliers.

Its most recently-filed results are for the year to 31 December 2011, so exclude the major restructuring carried out over the past 18 months. In 2011 the business made a pre-tax profit of £813,000 on sales of £19.4m and had 238 employees.

Check printweek.com for updates on this story.

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Parent company Daily Mail Group Trust (DMGT) said the decline was partly mitigated by the MailOnline's 61% revenue growth to £20m (2012: £12m), although this is still dwarfed by printed revenues.

Combined revenue for the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday and MailOnline declined by 4% to £306m, which was attributed to an 8% decline in overall print advertising revenue and the 6% decline in circulation revenue.

London's free paper Metro was hit by a post Olympics revenue decline of 8% to £40m (2012: £44m).

Overall DMG Media, the division comprising DMGT's newspapers, Zoopla, Wowcher and digital recruitment firm Evenbase, posted a 6% increase in operating profit on revenues of £406m (2012: £435m).

DMGT chief executive Martin Morgan said good overall underlying performance reflected the strength of the group's B2B companies and the resilience of its national consumer titles.

He added: "As expected, reported operating profit increased despite a decline in reported revenue resulting from recent disposals.

"Our UK consumer business, DMG media, continued to experience challenging conditions and underlying revenues were slightly down, although the increase in digital revenues more than offset the decline in print advertising revenues."

"We have continued to actively manage our portfolio of businesses and have made several acquisitions and disposals during the period and into the second half, to improve the overall quality and growth prospects of the group."

Morgan said that he expected comparatives in the second half of the year to be adversely impacted by the timing of biennial events and the Olympics, which were one-off benefits in the second half of the last financial year.

"Overall, the outlook for the full year remains unchanged," he added.

Tweet

"Our customers are buying paper to print on and therefore add value to, their customers may well want to buy packaging, copier paper or whatever and we can facilitate that and fulfil those orders," said Paperlinx UK managing director Phil Carr.

"Printers have deep relationships with their customers so we're just trying to make that relationship stickier. What we're doing is providing an income stream that printers would not have had access to before, importantly, without tying up their cash. It really is that simple," he added.

The service is known internally as "printers' webstores" and the first webstore is expected to go live in the coming days, although Carr declined to reveal the name of the first user. PaperlinX is currently also in advanced discussions with another six customers.

In essence the service is a white label online storefront that printers can add to their websites. The storefronts will offer around 500 Paperlinx products, ranging from blank packaging, office paper, consumables and other media.

"Everyone we've spoken to sees the value in it, because we're all experiencing a decline in volumes. It's a low cost, no risk opportunity and people get that," said Carr.

"It stems from us trying to develop initiatives to enable our customers to bolt on new revenue streams. Of course if it's good for their business, it's also good for us because it continues our evolution from simply being a supplier of paper," added Carr.

The webstores will be branded in line with the printer's own branding. They will be full e-commerce enabled sites where customers can pay by credit card, although invoice options will also be available.

Once placed, the orders will be delivered direct to the printer's customers via Paperlinx's 250-strong logistics fleet, based across DeliveryCo's 24 distribution hubs.

The products will be supplied at a fixed price, to ensure a common pricing structure, which will be set by Paperlinx across all printers' webstores. Printers will then generate a pre-determined "healthy" commission based on order value, which will then be either paid directly to the printer or credited to their Paperlinx account.

"It's a simple value added service for the printer to their customers, it plays into our strengths of logistics and breadth of products. We as merchants should be helping our customers to offer solutions to their customers and this does exactly that, it really is a win-win for all concerned," said Carr.

The pilot "printers' webstores" service will initially be offered to 50 pre-selected Paperlinx customers, but Carr said over time it would be opened up. In terms of initial set up costs to the printer, Carr described them as "minimal", but he added that they would depend on a variety of factors, such as volumes.

While the service will initial focus on 500 products, Carr said that more products will be added over time - once the demand has been identified.

The scheme is being launched in the UK, but Paperlinx expects to roll it out across Europe by the end of the year.

Carr hinted that Paperlinx might introduce other similar initiatives in the near future, however he declined to reveal further details.

Tweet

Located near Hamburg, the new location will provide additional office and manufacturing space.

IPT has more than 25 years experience in the printing and hot stamping industry.

Kimoha Entrepreneurs, located south of Dubai, is celebrating its 25th anniversary this year with its third Gallus press.

Drying and curing specialist IST Metz will stage its sixth UV Days event on June 17-20, focusing on multi-functionality and sense perception.

Ink manufacturer Ruco has launched a new opaque white product intended for use in combination printing processes.

Durst has appointed Christoph Gamper as its new chief executive officer (CEO).

Rotocontrol is moving to new headquarters in the coming weeks as it looks to handle increased demand for its finishing equipment.

The company attributed the fall in pre-tax profits to "significantly increased non-recurring expenses" relating to the acquisition of rival web-to-print firm Goodprint UK, in November last year, and the subsequent closure of the Goodprint facilities and transfer of operations into its sites in Newcastle and London.

Underlying operating profit saw a modest 6% increase to £1.62m (2012: £1.53m), including a £230,000 contribution from the acquisition of Goodprint, which fell short of company expectations.

Revenues for the group, including marketing agency Tangent Snowball, Printed.com, Tangent On Demand, and the company's Newcastle printing division Ravensworth, were up almost 12% to £24.3m (2012: £21.72m).

Of this, Printed.com contributed £3.95m, with sales growth increasing by 99% boosted by the integration of Goodprint, including the brands of Goodprint and Smileprint. Between 13 November 2012 and 28 February 2013 Goodprint contributed £1.2m in revenue. The company said that with its loyalty scheme tie-up with Avios, signed in March this year, and a high level of returning customers, Printed.com was making a consistent profit.

Sales for Tangent Snowball meanwhile declined from £10.8m in 2012 to £10.65m while revenues at printing arm Ravensworth slid 7% in line with market decline to £6.25m.

The company said that any spare capacity in its Newcastle facility was being used by its retail websites. Additionally the firm has reviewed its work for the estate agency market and plans to migrate all templates online so that estate agents can place orders online for a broader range of products.

Tangent On Demand, the company's on-demand digital print service, showed strong growth with sales up 5.2% to £2.24m. The company said that the increase of higher margin products on a range of substrates improved the competitive edge of the business with gross margin expected to improve further through 2013 and 2014.

The board proposes a final dividend for the year to 28 February 2013 of 20p per share (2012: 20p). If approved at the company's AGM shareholders will be paid on 2 August.

Chief executive Timothy Green said the year had been "transformational" for Tangent. "Our retail websites printed.com and goodprint.co.uk now generate a large proportion of our sales and profits. We aim to capitalise on our position in the UK market and gain a greater share of the European markerts we now service," he added.

Green said that Tangent was entering the new financial year with clear "vision" and an exciting business proposition.

He added: "Tangent will grow as our online customers buy from an expanded range of products on printed.com and goodprint.co.uk. We will continuously optimise our websites to acquire and convert customers more efficiently."

Tweet

The plant is the 46th facility to achieve TLMI LIFE Certification.

A new facility will provide shorter lead times and reduced costs for label converters in Australia and New Zealand.