March 30, 2001
Quebecor acquires Brazilian book printer
MONTREAL - Quebecor World Inc. announced Monday it has acquired 75% of Sao Paulo, Brazil book printer Grafica Melhoramentos S.A. Original owner Companhia Melhoramentos de Sao Paulo will retain a 25% equity interest in the company. Tony Ross, director of communications for Quebecor World, said the acquisition, "will fit well into our [existing] book network in Colombia, Mexico and Peru." Graphica Melhoramentos currently employs approximately 280 people at its 86,080 sq. ft. facility and has annual sales of US$16 million.

Norske Skog makes takeover bid for Pacifica Papers
VANCOUVER - Norske Skog Canada is about to acquire Pacifica Papers, Inc. Norske Skog is one of the largest producers of newsprint and groundwood specialty papers in Western North America, owns three mills in B.C. and employs 2,100 people. Pacifica Papers Inc. produces lightweight coated paper, newsprint and telephone directory paper. It owns two mills in B.C. and has 1,800 employees. The combined company will have a 2.7 million tonne pulp and paper capacity and annual sales of $2.5 billion.

March 26, 2001
Caxton Group makes first acquisition
TORONTO — Caxton Group, a new company formed by Gordon Griffiths and Michael Hill (formerly of St. Joseph Corp. and Transcontinental Printing, respectively) has announced its first acquisition. In February, the company bought PG(E) Tools Inc. for an undisclosed sum.
Griffiths said he approached the company last summer while doing research for his new company. PG(E) Tools provides e-procurement software and procurement assistance to large organizations and aids customers with purchasing their marketing supplies, the majority of which is printing, said Griffiths.
PG(E) Tools is based in Markham, Ont. and has more than 40 employees. The 17-year-old company has sales in excess of $30 million.

Digital colour printing to soar: GATF forecast
PITTSBURGH, Pa. — GATF, the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation, has released its 2001 Technology Forecast. It includes 62 articles and such predictions as a 30% growth in high-end digital colour printing from 2001 to 2005. Other predictions include advancements in single-fluid and UV hybrid inks; a “make or break” period for prepress and printing; and growth in variable printing and “finishing-on-demand.”

March 23, 2001
Feds move to make archived material last longer
OTTAWA - The federal government announced this week a set of requirements to increase the lifespan of printed material slated for libraries or archives. The National Standard of Canada for the Permanence of Paper specifies that alkaline paper be manufactured for records, books and other documents; that there be no restrictions on the cotton, linen or wood fibre type or lignin content for paper types that are required to have maximum strength; and that appropriate labelling be used to help identify and enhance the awareness of permanent paper.

St. Joseph maintains status quo at Thorn Press
CONCORD, Ont. - Rumours that St. Joseph Corporation is dismantling Thorn Press Ltd.-its recent acquisition-and selling off its assets, are untrue. According to CEO of St. Joseph, Tony Gagliano, there is "no truth to it [the rumours] at all." An unidentified staff person at Thorn Press added that no one at the plant had heard the rumours and the only change made to the company so far has been the name to St. Joseph Thorn Press.

March 20, 2001
Bowne & Co. sells commercial printing in Montreal
MONTREAL — New York-based Bowne & Co. Inc. has sold the commercial printing division of its Bowne de Montreal Inc. operations. The facility also has a financial printing component. The new owners include Jamie Barbieri, former vice president and general manager, who is the majority shareholder, and six other former staff who will be minority shareholders. “It’s part of their strategic plan to divest out of commercial print activities,” says Barbieri. “[Bowne has] never really been a commercial printer.” Bowne & Co. acquired the facility in 1984 from a company called Plow and Watters, a financial and commercial printer. It was the first site Bowne held in Canada.

Canadian Bank Note raises profile in Middle East
OTTAWA — Canadian Bank Note Company Ltd. has signed a contract with Saudi Arabia for an undisclosed sum. Michael Southwell, senior vice president of sales and marketing, says CBN is supplying 1,050 Falcon travel document readers to the country and actually began installing them in late January. The contract is expected to last until the end of this year. Southwell says it raises the company’s profile because Saudi Arabia “is the leader of the Muslim world and clearly it’s been extremely good from that point of view because other Muslim countries would tend to look towards Saudi Arabia automatically.”

March 16, 2001
J.B. Deschamps acquires Imprimerie Bilodeau
QUEBEC CITY — J.B. Deschamps Inc., a 75-year-old full-colour, sheetfed and security printer, acquired Montreal-based Imprimerie Bilodeau Feb. 28. The deal is to officially close March 19—provided due diligence is successful, says COO of Deschamps, Jean Deschamps. With the acquisition, Deschamps explains, the company now has a presence in the Montreal market.
Thirty-six year-old Imprimerie Bilodeau has close to 15 employees and $2.5 million in sales. The high-end commercial printer has two 40” MAN Roland presses. J.B. Deschamps started as a security printer, but then added prepress and sheetfed printing capacity about 15 years ago. Sales are $18 million on about 175 employees.

Print Atlantic acquires Centennial Print & Litho
DARTMOUTH, N.S. — Print Atlantic, a division of Newfoundland Capital Corporation, acquired Fredericton, N.B.-based Centennial Print & Litho Ltd. for an undisclosed sum.
“Centennial fills a void for us in that part of New Brunswick...where we didn’t have a real presence and certainly didn’t have any press capacity,” said Mark Lever, director of business development for NCC.
Centennial, which has now changed its name to Print Atlantic, is a 34-year-old, medium-run, sheetfed printer. It has three quick print locations in Fredericton, Saint John and Moncton. Print Atlantic is an amalgamation of Atlantic Nova Print, McCurdy Printing and TK Printing. Print Atlantic was established in Nov., 1999. NCC acquired Nova Print and McCurdy a year ago, and TK Printing about eight months ago.

March 13, 2001
More on the failed Cenosis-Communicorp deal
MONTREAL — The acquisition of Communicorp Corporation by Cenosis Inc. fell through because the due diligence process showed not all of Communicorp’s shareholders approved of the deal. CEO Richard Corbo said Cenosis was “facing a hostile situation,” so they backed out rather than face a legal battle. The due diligence was completed late February and Cenosis decided to terminate the deal the first weekend in March.

OPIA unleashes new direction
MISSISSAUGA, Ont. — The Ontario Printing and Imaging Association announced that it has approved a new “strategic plan” for the organization. The plan outlines six goals that include new membership targets, partnerships with affiliated organizations, industry awareness, operational excellence, products and services. The plan will form the direction of the OPIA for the next seven years.

March 09, 2001
Printer turned off by controversial content
VANCOUVER — A spoof manifesto on digital culture referring to Jesus Christ and Satan in a sexual context was just too much for Concord. Ont.-based St. Joseph Printing. The printer has therefore terminated printing negotiations with Adbusters, an anti-consumerism magazine based in Vancouver.
After ending a three-year printing arrangement with Transcontinental Printing’s Owen Sound facility, Adbusters editor-in-chief Kalle Lasn says he approached St. Joseph vice-president John Gagliano in early February. However, having reviewed Adbusters “manifesto” (contained in the March/April issue), Gagliano declined to do business with the magazine.
Lasn says Adbusters has annual printing needs of about $500,000. The magazine is now printed by Quebecor World.

Hill’s and Griffiths’ excellent venture
TORONTO — Gordon Griffiths, former president of St. Joseph Corp., confirmed this week that he and Michael Hill, former senior vice president of the business development group at Transcontinental Printing, have formed a venture called Caxton Group Inc.
Griffiths said they’re not open for business just yet, “but what we are going to open is a project-management company.” Griffiths said Caxton will evaluate the most effective marketing strategies for large organizations and companies, and will help these companies “reduce their printing costs.” Caxton will also acquire marketing and communications companies. Griffiths said there is a deal in the works but could not elaborate.

March 06, 2001
Cenosis-Communicorp deal falls through
TORONTO — Cenosis Inc.’s acquisition of Communicorp Corporation “will not proceed” according to a press release issued by Communicorp yesterday. The acquisition was announced in late February. Communicorp is a graphic arts and multimedia communications company. Cenosis specializes in developing software and is wholly owned by KangaCom Inc., an applications service provider.

West Star closes U.S. plant
TORONTO — An industry source has informed PrintCan that West Star Printing Ltd. closed the print facility it had opened about two months ago in Buffalo, N.Y. West Star had taken over an almost 20-year-old newspaper printing shop with about 40 employees after the original owners retired. West Star closed the shop in late February.

March 02, 2001
St. Joseph acquires Toronto publisher
CONCORD, Ont. — St. Joseph Corp. has moved into the Canadian publishing scene after acquiring Multi-Vision Publishing on Feb. 22.
Multi-Vision publishes such magazines as Elm Street, Shift, and several custom publications for Acura, Shoppers Drug Mart and Imperial Tobacco Canada. Multi-Vision had sales of nearly $20 million last year.
The deal gives St. Joseph a majority stake in the company and will lead to 100% ownership after about five years, said CEO, Tony Gagliano.

The $10 bill’s ghost
OTTAWA — About 40 of the new $10 bills have what is being called a “ghost” image of our first prime minister Sir John A. Macdonald due to a missed step in the printing process. Hutch Holton, chief technical officer at Canadian Bank Note Co., says “one of the processes, it’s called Intaglio, that produces the heavy ink that you see on bank notes...—that is the one that’s missing.”
He believes two sheets of bank notes stuck together causing one of them to miss the step that applies the heavy ink to John A.’s image. Two of the notes have been recovered, so 38 are still in circulation. If you’re fortunate to come across one with the flaw, it’s worth more than its face value among collectors.