Hot Topics, Management Tips and Newsmakers

TIDBITS…
» Looking for a new job? Quad/Graphics has been named one of Fortune magazine’s “100 Best Companies to Work For.”

» The PaperMill Store.com (TPMS) now offers several of Mohawk’s flagship grades for purchase online. These include BriteHue, Color Copy, Digital Photo, Navajo, Strathmore, Superfine, Tomohawk and Via papers. See www.thepapermillstore.com.

» Michael Neff, chief information officer (CIO) at Heidelberg Druckmaschinen, has been voted “CIO of 2005” by IT magazine Computerwoche.

» Copy Print Co. has moved into a larger, state-of-the-art production facility in Warwick, RI.

» X-Rite is the official color management sponsor for the 2006 Epson Print Academy traveling school.

» The Committee for Graphic Arts Technologies Standards (CGATS) has elected Ken Elsman as chairman of its Objective Color Matching Committee. The committee seeks to find a way to use colorimetry to estimate the probability that hardcopy images reproduced by single or multiple systems, using identical input, will appear the same to the typical human observer.

» The Thai Printing Assn. and Thai Packaging Assn. have partnered with Messe Düsseldorf Asia to organize Pack Print Intl. 2007, a package and printing trade fair in Bangkok, Thailand, set to take place April 26-29, 2007. See mdna.com.

» Xitron dealers and distributors can visit the company’s online forum, featuring discussion groups for Xitron’s primary product lines. See www.xitron.com.

» Ken Boone has purchased Tidewater Publishing Corp. The company now is called Tidewater Direct.

» Vertis’ Chalfront, PA, direct marketing facility celebrates its 20th anniversary. » The Allied Group has acquired the assets of Newsletter Press of New England, Inc.

» MetalFX has accredited Fujifilm’s FinalProof GxT digital contract proofer as an approved technology for proofing metallics.

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Adobe hosts inaugural event
Momentum in Print, Adobe Systems Inc.’s (San Jose, CA) symposium for users of its print, design and publishing software, debuted in San Francisco, January 22-24.

Bryan Lamkin, senior vice president of Adobe’s Creative Solutions business unit, says, “The communications matrix has grown dramatically in depth and breadth, with new input sources and more output options emerging daily. Adobe is committed to harnessing this change and transforming it into new technologies, products, services, and business opportunities that will help printers be more productive, profitable, adaptable, and successful.”

In his opening session Monday, January 23, Lamkin cited demographics, innovative new business models, industry standards and relationship building among the keys to successfully serving modern communications needs. “The modern communications creator is using multichannel communications and will be demanding more commmunication modes from service providers,” he said.

RIT professor emeritus Frank Romano was among the many presenters during the three-day conference to discuss the rapid pace of technological development in the print communications business. He offered a humorous and historical view of print technology and trends, along with his expectations for the next generation of industry professionals. “We already have an electronic publishing base in the United States,” he said, “and it’s the PDF.”

Lamkin notes the recent combination of Adobe and Macromedia is enabling the company to push the boundaries of digital communications.

See www.adobe.com/print/events/momentum.html.

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NAPL acquires eKG Research Associates
NAPL (Paramus, NJ) has acquired eKG Research Associates. The eKG flagship product, Competitiveness eKG, is used to enhance customer loyalty, identify new ways to add value for clients, and strengthen competitive positioning.

“In today’s hypercompetitive marketplace, it’s more critical than ever for printing companies to gain insights into how they’re perceived by their customers and how they can bolster their competitive standing with those clients,” says Joseph P. Truncale, NAPL president and CEO. “There is no better way to gain these insights than through the Competitiveness eKG.”

For more information about the eKG Competitive Index, contact John Hyde, managing director of NAPL Professional Services Group, at (800) 642-6275, ext. 1313 or jhyde@napl.org.

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X-Rite to acquire GretagMacbeth
X-Rite, Inc. (Grandville, MI) and Amazys Holding AG (Regensdorf, Switzerland) have announced they will merge. Amazys develops, markets and supports hardware, software and services to measure and communicate color under the GretagMacbeth brand. X-Rite will offer to purchase all of the outstanding registered shares of Amazys Holding AG for a purchase price of approximately $280 million or CHF 77 per share plus 2.11 shares of X-Rite, Inc. stock per share.

The companies provide color management technologies to the graphic arts and printing sector through partners including Fuji, Xerox, Hallmark Cards and Kodak. The combination will create an organization with 90 years of IP and technology leadership, 200 worldwide patents and applications, and 190 color scientists and engineering personnel.

“Together, we plan to leverage our combined technical resources to deliver the best possible solutions to help drive our clients’ businesses,” says Amazys CEO Thomas J. Vacchiano, Jr.

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Xplor awards 2006 winners
Xplor Intl. (Miami Beach, FL), the worldwide electronic document systems association, honored the recipients of its 2006 awards February 1st at Xplor’s Global Document Exchange conference, held in conjunction with Graphics of the Americas. This year, Xplor recognized President’s Award, Chairman’s Award, Innovator of the Year, Technology Application and Xplorer of the Year award winners.

Now in its second year, the Technology Application of the Year award is given for an imaginative application of current technology that establishes an industry direction. This year’s recipient, PrintSoft Americas, Inc., was selected for the DeskDirect application, an integrated system for moving desktop mail to a low-cost, automated production environment. Honorable mentions in this category were received by Bowe Bell & Howell, IBM Printing Systems and Cincom Systems, Inc.

For a full list of winners, see www.xplor.org.

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AFP Color Consortium publishes open standard
The AFP Color Consortium (Boulder, CO), a 27-company print industry effort, has begun releasing key color components of IBM’s Advanced Function Presentation (AFP) architecture, used for high-speed printing of bills, statements and other customer communications. Created by IBM in October 2004, the consortium is publishing the new open standard as part of an effort to spur innovation in the rapidly accelerating high-end digital color print arena.

Members—including IBM, Kodak, Lexmark, Océ, Xeikon and Xerox—are designing the architecture to help businesses develop device-independent color applications, resources and workflows that can be printed initially with high-quality grayscales and, eventually, in color.

See www.afpcolor.org.

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Hamm to head up PIA/GATF Digital Print Business Services
John M. Hamm has joined Printing Industries of America/Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (PIA/GATF) (Sewickley, PA) as senior advisor for digital printing. During his 20-year tenure with Balmar Printing & Graphics, one of the largest graphic arts service providers in the Washington/Baltimore region, Hamm grew the business through diversified offerings coupled with the company’s traditional sheetfed and non-heatset web offset business. According to PIA/GATF, Hamm’s two stints with Xerox—in sales and sales management, then in developing marketing strategies for Xerox’s Production Printing division—give him a unique insight into the forces driving both change and success in today’s commercial print markets.

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Cap Ventures brand retired, InfoTrends takes the lead
InfoTrends (Weymouth, MA), a global market research and strategic consulting firm for the digital imaging and document solutions industry, has retired the CAP Ventures name, consolidating the firm’s brands under the InfoTrends name.

“About four years ago, we purchased InfoTrends and combined the companies,” explains Charles A. Pesko, managing director, InfoTrends. “We always intended to change the name, and, as we kicked off 2006, the timing was right to make the full transition and better reflect what we do for the industry.”

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Sappi awards North American printers
At the 2005 North American Sappi Awards sponsored by Sappi Fine Paper, print and finishing firm Darwill (Hillside, IL) received a 2005 Midwest region Silver Sappi Printer of the Year award for print excellence and innovation.

Darwill was honored for its work on the University of Chicago Hospitals’ 2004 annual report. The 8.5 x 11-inch, 48-page report was printed on strobe silk paper and features a one-color PMS cover and spot-tinted varnish with a double-helix deboss, a four-color body with one PMS megtallic silver and overall satin aqueous, and a two-color PMS vellum insert. The report was designed by Words&Pictures, Inc., a marketing communications firm based in Chicago.

For a complete list of award winners, see www.sappi.com/printersoftheyear.

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Workflow Management completes Relizon purchase
Workflow Management, Inc. (Greenwich, CT), parent company of WorkflowOne, United Envelope and Freedom Graphics, has announced its completion of the purchase of The Relizon Co. This acquisition creates one of North America’s largest end-to-end supply chain and logistics powerhouses serving the communications, fulfillment, logistics and process improvement needs of large, medium and small companies.

The resulting company is a market leader in North America, with more than $1.2 billion in annual revenue, 5,000 employees and 32,000 clients. The company holds strong positions in several vertical markets, including the financial services, healthcare, retail and government/nonprofit sectors.

The terms of the agreement were not disclosed.

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Quad/Graphics launches QuadSystems
Quad/Graphics (Sussex, WI) has merged several client-facing tool sets into a new business unit called QuadSystems (www.QuadSystems.com). The new unit focuses on developing, marketing and supporting publication management systems designed to help magazine publishing, book publishing, advertising and catalog businesses improve operational and cost efficiencies. Steve Jaeger heads up QuadSystems and serves as Quad/Graphics’ vice president of Information Systems.

According to Quad/Graphics president and COO Joel Quadracci, organizing publication management systems like AdSync, Impoze, PlanSystem3 and R.A.P.S. into a single entity allows for more effective use of resources that will result in more powerful products for clients.

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Printware LLC to acquire HighWater Designs Ltd.
Printware LLC (St. Paul, MN) has agreed to acquire HighWater Designs Ltd. (Cheltenham, England). HighWater is a developer, manufacturer and distributor of prepress products and services specializing in software, interface solutions and metal computer-to-plate systems for small and midsize commercial printers. HighWater also is an OEM partner to Global Graphics.

Upon completion of the acquisition, HighWater Designs Ltd. will continue to operate under the HighWater name and will service its worldwide distribution channels and OEM partners from its headquarters in Cheltenham, England. The current HighWater Designs management team and its workforce will remain in place.

Beginning immediately, HighWater-manufactured metal platesetters will be sold in the United States under the Printware PlateStream brand.

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The CGI Group America, Inc. acquires ADP Graphic Communications, Inc.
The CGI Group America, Inc. (Jersey City, NJ) has completed its purchase of ADP Graphic Communications, Inc., the financial and commercial printing services business of ADP Brokerage Services Group, in a cash-for-stock transaction. Terms of the transaction were not disclosed.

Concurrent with the closing of the transaction, the affiliates of The CGI Group and ADP have entered into an exclusive joint reseller arrangement to continue to service financial print clients that currently use a single-source solution combining planning, printing and distribution of shareholder communications for corporations and investment companies.

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100 WORDS OR LESS:
How does a printing company avoid having more press power (capacity) than its particular market can handle?
“Marketable capacity is the key. First, the printer must be producing products and formats for which there is demand, and stay out of pricing quagmires unless they have a demonstrable cost advantage. Second, if demand declines, they must quickly get rid of [equipment], and not cling to the hopes and dreams that accompanied its original purchase. Profitable printing companies have no more equipment than they need. They work equipment hard over multiple shifts, constantly, and send other work out. The days of owning a press with a 10-year lease, followed by 10 years of lease-free operation, are gone.”
—Dr. Joe Webb, president of Strategies for Management Inc., www.printforecast.com

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PEOPLE
David Padgett has been promoted to director of strategic planning at Padgett Printing (Dallas).

Enovation Graphic Systems (Valhalla, NY) has appointed Daryl Franks as president of the Assn. for Graphic Arts Training (AGAT).

Bill Tyson and Paul LaCerda have joined Vertis (Baltimore) as vice president of sales and senior vice president of sales, respectively.

Eric Scherner has joined MAN Roland (Westmont, IL) as service manager, Commercial Web Segment.

BÖWE Bell + Howell (Wheeling, IL) has hired John Sadler as director of Postal Relations.

Richard Carroll has joined IO Integration (IOI) (San Francisco) as systems engineer for the Chicago region. Linda Manes Goodwin is the newest sales representative for the San Francisco Bay area.

Xaar (San Antonio, TX) has added Chris Lynn as vice president of sales and marketing for Xaar Americas, and Edsel Lonza as sales manager for Latin America.

Kelly Kubisiak will serve as marketing communications manager for Wausau Paper (Wausau, WI).

Robert M. Amen, president of International Paper (Stamford, CT), has retired. Also, Wayne Brafford has been named senior vice president, Printing and Communications Papers; Paul Herbert has been named senior vice president, Strategic Initiatives; and Carol Roberts has been named senior vice president, Packaging Solutions.

Atlantic & Hasting Printers (Salisbury, MD) has appointed Robert A. Love as chief financial officer.

Firstlogic (La Cross, WI) has appointed Cheri Mallory as strategic data quality consultant, Peter Deckers as European system engineer and Michelle Lindsey as commercial mail product specialist.

CC1 (Portsmouth, NH) has appointed Alex M. Hoppe as sales engineer for its Midwest region.

The Electronic Document Systems Foundation (EDSF) (Rolling Hills Estates, CA) has awarded William J. Delgado, an instructor in the Digital Printing Technology program at Cuyahoga Valley Career Center in Brecksville, OH, with the Educator of the Year Award for post-secondary education.

Bob Wientzen has joined MetroGroup Corp.’s (Lincoln, NE) board of directors.

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