October 28, 2005
Printing awards honour Calgary’s best
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| Team Transcontinental Calgary celebrates its award. Pictured left to right are Tim Smith, general manager; Debbie Nicholls, sales manager; Dean Andersen, manager operations, master of ceremonies and past president of again, Gerry Federow, trainer; Eva Hopkins, sales representative; and Grant Hallgrimson, pressroom manager. |
Hemlock wins Sappi International Printer of
the Year.
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| From left, Jonathan Leslie, CEO, Sappi Limited; Dick Kouwenhoven, president and CEO, and Brad Fleming, account executive, Hemlock Printers; and Ronee Hagen, CEO, Sappi Fine Paper North America. |
October 25, 2005
Quebecor World warns investors of low
quarters to come
MONTREAL—Quebecor World announced to shareholders last week that earnings in the third and fourth quarter of 2005 will be lower than expected in the same periods last year and below current market expectations. The company blames the lower profits ahead on high energy prices, pricing and continuing underperformance in its operations in France and the United Kingdom. The company says it is implementing a retooling program, which includes a North American plan announced in 2004 already underway. New web offset presses, equipped with the latest technology are being installed in facilities in California, Texas, Arkansas and Kentucky, which the company expects will improve operational efficiency and competitiveness. Quebecor also plans to announce a similar retooling plan in Europe in the first quarter of 2006. For several years the company has been streamlining by cutting costs and jobs around the world. However, reports from analysts suggest that restructuring and cutting jobs in Europe, especially France, will not be easy due to local laws.
The Printing House pitches in to help community
TORONTO—110 TPH employees, including family and friends, volunteered on Thanksgiving weekend at the Daily Bread food bank. The group delivered 2,700 kilos of food, a haul collected at TPH’s various Toronto area branches, and sorted 9,000 kilos of items at Daily Bread’s new warehouse. The Printing House volunteer group was organized through the company’s Charitable Office by Anita da Costa. The company’s Charitable Office, a division started in 1983, encourages TPH employees nationwide to participate in its volunteer days. The next food bank volunteer day will be in Ottawa in December. The company’s annual holiday greeting card campaign will donate 100% of the profits raised to this year’s chosen charities: the Childhood Cancer Foundation Candlelighters Canada and the Eating Disorder Program at Sick Kids Hospital. The Charitable Office also recently organized an AIDS walk in Vancouver. A couple of its other regular initiatives include collecting aluminium pull tabs to raise money to purchase wheelchairs and collecting clothing at its locations to donate to schools, women’s shelters and homeless shelters.
October 21, 2005
Hemlock environmental top dog, International Printer of the Year contender
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| “The other finalist in our category, Hewlett Packard Canada, is a large corporation. This just goes to show that both big and small businesses can make changes to their corporate cultures. We can all become more sustainable if we put our hearts and minds into it,” said Richard Kouwenhoven, chair of Hemlock’s sustainability committee. |
Transcontinental to print home-grown guides
MONTREAL—Transcontinental Media has teamed up with Yellow Pages Group to create new publications which will have both editorial and directory advertising sections. The first two issues will be using Transcontinental’s Decormag and Style at Home brands with the Yellow Pages brand, allowing the companies “to tap into advertisers who want to target homeowners,” Ezana Raswork, vice president, business development, Yellow Pages said in a statement. The annual home improvement guides are scheduled for distribution in early 2006 and will have print runs of 150,000 for the Montreal market and 200,000 for the Toronto market. The guides will be sent to magazine subscribers, other targeted homeowners and will be distributed at trade shows.
October 18, 2005
Seybold Seminars cancelled
Seybold Seminars, the once-popular print industry seminar series south of the border, has cancelled all events for the remainder of 2005 and 2006. Speculation among U.S. industry pundits suggests that the seminars are gone for good. The Seybold conference at Print 05 in Chicago was poorly attended and general attendance at the seminars has reportedly been declining over the last several years. Seybold Seminars is owned by parent company MediaLive, which also runs The Seybold Bulletin, a weekly online report of printing headlines and The Seybold Report, an industry publication established in 1971 by Jonathon Seybold, who launched Seybold Seminars in 1981. During their heyday, the seminars thrived on educating printers on the revolutionary impact computers were making on the industry.
Six print shop employees win $22 million
BURNABY, B.C.—Six employees at Hemlock Printers won $22 million in the Lotto 6/49 jackpot on Saturday. As reported in local newspaper, The Province, three of the winners will keep working at Hemlock and the other three plan to retire. Pictured in the publication are Hemlock’s Peter Doroschin, Randy Squires, Hans Schut, Brian Heckl, Kevin Rutherford and Stewart Beresford, smiling behind an over-sized cheque. The group had a Lotto subscription, in which each person paid $87 and picked two numbers, giving the group two chances in each of the 104 draws over 12 months.
October 14, 2005
OPIA, CPIA work on resolving issues
TORONTO—OPIA president Tracey Preston has denied rumours that the provincial association is planning to pull out of CPIA while acknowledging that the two bodies are working to resolve certain issues. These relate to providing member value and clarifying the level of input that provincial associations have at the national level. She also confirmed that OPIA notified CPIA in June that Ontario would stop collecting dues for CPIA on October 1. That deadline has since been extended to January 1. A working group has been struck between the two associations to try and resolve their differences by that date. Preston said that while everyone at OPIA is committed to having a strong national association, Ontario is also looking for transparency so that members understand what services they receive at the provincial and national levels and how funds are allocated.
Ward Griffin, newly elected chairman of CPIA, said the issues have to do with communication and member value adding that it’s not always clear to members what the CPIA provides. However, he said, he is confident that the two associations can work together in the future. For its part, the CPIA has agreed to work on improving how it shares information with the rest of the country and to develop affinity programs with provincial associations.
Gord Griffiths back in Canada
TORONTO—Gord Griffiths, an industry veteran who has headed up the commercial printing division of Cenveo in Denver, Colorado, for the last three and a half years, is back in Toronto. Griffiths returned two weeks ago following what he describes as an amicable split from Cenveo when Bob Burton moved into the executive office and brought in his own team to run the company. Asked about his plans, Griffiths replied that he’s “not looking for 9 to 5, but not looking for a rocking chair either.”
October 12, 2005
IMS acquires Source ID/Admiral
MONTREAL—IMS (Industrial Marking Systems), a label products provider, has acquired Source ID/Admiral Printing and will be handling its operations. Source ID/Admiral, which, for the last three years, has manufactured adhesive labels and tags, is now part of the IMS Group. IMS prints commercial labels and flexible thermoformed packaging and provides specialized labels for industrial applications. In August PrintCAN reported that Admiral went into bankruptcy. A spokesperson from IMS says Admiral went into bankruptcy as a branch of Source ID and the acquisition by IMS did not include the assets of Admiral.
VistaPrint goes public
TORONTO—VistaPrint, an online supplier of printing services and customized printed products, has sold slightly more than 10 million shares in its initial public offering. The company began trading on the Nasdaq index on September 30, under the symbol VPRT. VistaPrint has been in business for 11 years and has a large printing plant in Windsor, Ont.
October 07, 2005
Desjardins resonates with members at CPIA convention
OTTAWA—The recent CPIA convention in Montreal made an impression on members with its opening speaker, Luc Desjardins, president and CEO of Transcontinental. His open and frank discussion was a speech aptly titled The Printing Industry at a Crossroads. In discussing consolidation within the industry, Desjardins pointed out that there has been a 20% reduction in North American printing plants since 1990 and an average of 1,000 plants have left the market each year since 2000. He feels that the future will see the “pie split between small niche players and large consolidators.” He noted that between 1997 and 2005, businesses calling themselves “digital printers” accounted for most of the industry’s growth, highlighting a widening gap being created by digital technology, which ultimately accelerates industry consolidation. He said it’s the industry’s job, as printers, to understand how they can be on the winning side of this transformation and learn how to make digital work for them. He also discussed how rich ROI data, created by digital media, is creating two major market trends printers can anticipate and prepare for: more short-run jobs due to increased targeting and specialization; and decreased waste for the customer allowing print-buyers to put more money into their product rather than wasted volume.
Thomas, Walker and Hazeldine named honorary life members of CPIA
OTTAWA—Ruby Thomas, Dave Walker and the late Jack Hazeldine were granted the highest honour the CPIA can bestow at its recent annual convention in Montreal. Ruby Thomas of Toronto-based Harmony Printing has had a long-standing involvement in industry associations. She was CPIA Chairman in 1995-96 and was recognized with the CPIA Distinguished Service Award in 1996. Walker is the former president of Louson-Desonite, a graphics arts and supplies firm in Don Mills, Ont. He served the CPIA as supplier representative on the Board of Directors and was on the Graphics Canada show committee for several years. He is a Past Chairman of PESDA and of the CPIA Awards Committee. Walker has also championed education and has raised funds and awareness for the Canadian Printing Industries Scholarship Trust Fund for many years. Hazeldine passed away on June 10, 2005. He was a Past Chairman of CPIA (1992-93) and received the CPIA’s Distinguished Service Award in 1994. Prior to his national level involvement Hazeldine had served the BCPIA as Chairman in 1982-83 and was named BCPIA’s first Honorary Life Member in 2003. Jack Hazeldine was particularly passionate about education. He was an avid supporter and participant in scholarship funds at both the provincial and national levels for many years. This is only the second year that the honour has been in existence with Lyman Henderson and Warren Wilkins having been tapped in 2004 to receive this honour.
October 05, 2005
CPIA elects new board of directors
OTTAWA—The CPIA recently elected its new board of directors for the 2005-2006 season at its annual convention, which took place this year in Montreal. Ward Griffin of Lowe-Martin Group in Ottawa is the new chairman of the board; Lorne Patterson from Bowne of Vancouver is vice chair; Jamie Barbieri of Integria in Saint-Laurent, Que., is treasurer; Jeff Ekstein of Willow Printing is immediate past chair; Bob Kadis of Bowne of Canada in Toronto is in charge of government affairs and Curwin Friesen of Manitoba-based Friesens Corporation is director at large.
October 04, 2005
Transcontinental appoints new executive
MONTREAL—Transcontinental has promoted François Olivier, 40, to the role of president of the company’s information products printing sector, replacing Serge Bragdon. The sector handles mainly printing for publishers, has 25 plants and nine service centers in Canada and Mexico and about 5,000 staff. The sector reported revenues of $714 million in 2004. The new position also puts Olivier on the corporation’s executive management committee. Olivier has been at Transcontinental since 1993 and was recently senior vice president of the newspaper group in the information products printing sector, overseeing a coast-to-coast network of 17 printing plants.
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