May 31, 2002
Second quarter sales down at Transcontinental
MONTREAL—Transcontinental's printing revenue dropped 3% in the second quarter ended April 30. Sales were $312.6 million compared to $321.8 million for the same quarter in 2001. Declined advertising spending was cited for falling business. Recent acquisitions, namely Winnipeg's Coronet Printers and O'Keefe Group's Toronto and Montreal plants, added $11 million to revenues during the quarter. Transcontinental also recently announced it had purchased a business in Mexico. Éditorial Offset, a book printer with annual revenues of $28 million and 350 employees, joins two other Transcontinental plants in Mexico, positioning the company as the largest printer in that country.

Communicorp posts declining sales in Q1
TORONTO—Communicorp's sales fell in the first quarter ended March 31. Revenue declined $789,000 from the same quarter the previous year to $3.1 million. Early in the quarter, the company completed a private placement of one million common shares for proceeds of $700,000, pushing earnings per share to 6¢ from 4¢ in 2001. In order to cut costs, Communicorp will also consolidate its non-print operations at its Markham, Ont., location.

May 28, 2002
Supreme grows with purchase of Lansdowne
VANCOUVER—Prepress shop Supreme Graphics has expanded operations to include printing with its purchase of Lansdowne Press. Lansdowne is a 12-year-old commercial printer that specializes in catalogues and brochures. Over the last two years Supreme has been buying print on behalf of its customers. Gregory Don, Supreme's sales manager, says the acquisition was a natural progression, positioning the company as a one-stop solution for its clients—it now offers prepress, photography, Web applications and sheetfed printing. The two companies will remain separate and operate independently. "Our objective has always been to split our business units apart rather than to combine them," Don says. In fact, Supreme has noticed considerable growth in its Web division and Don says that may be the next area of expansion and separation. "Whether it is through another acquisition or through Supreme's own growth, that is still uncertain," he says.

Printer restructures and gets new name
CONCORD, Ont.—Beta Print & Copy Shop has changed its name to Northview Print and Copy after the company restructured its operations. The 15-year-old instant and commercial printer, with a staff of 11, was listed as being in receivership by Consumer and Corporate Affairs in March of this year. Peter Cintar, owner, confirmed the company had run into some problems but said he had dealt with them. "We are still in the same location with the same staff. We've dealt with our situation and put it behind us and we're looking forward to the future and to continuing to serve our customers."

May 24, 2002
CopyDot remains independent company
Vancouver—West coast prepress house CopyDot has confirmed that it is no longer being purchased by Skinny Technologies, developer of SkinnyScript file size-reduction software. The acquisition had been rumoured since the beginning of the year but CopyDot president Rick Gagner says there were financial complications and conflicts with the software that couldn't be resolved. "We had to move on," he says. "We couldn't wait around any longer." Although the company is not actively trying to sell the business, Gagner says he wouldn't refuse an offer without looking into it first. "We have a business and we're quite happy to continue to build it." Meanwhile, CopyDot, a 6,000 sq. ft. operation with a staff of 10, is working with a developer to create its own file size-reduction software for the publishing industry.

Sales fall at Printera and Datamark
TORONTO—Printera Corp. reported sales of $11.7 million for the second quarter of fiscal 2002—a $6.4 million drop from the same period the previous year. A decreased volume of work at its Aluglass-U.S. division is cited for the shortfall, but the company has since gained a printing contract from Coors Brewing Company to pick up the slack. At Datamark Systems Group, a large contract also expired causing first quarter sales to decrease for the Toronto-based company. Sales slid 15.9% to $28.5 million from $34 million the same period in 2001.

May 22, 2002
Johnstone-Adams files for bankruptcy
MARKHAM, Ont.—PrintCan has learned that Johnstone-Adams Graphics filed for bankruptcy early last week. A receiver, Harris & Partners of Richmond Hill, Ont., has moved in to wrap up company operations and dispose of assets. A list of equipment to be liquidated will become available next week, according to a spokesperson from the receiver. No auction is planned, but the assets will be put out for offers. Johnstone-Adams, a 40" shop, had been operating under the Companies' Creditors Arrangement Act since last November. At the time it agreed to repay creditors 25¢ on each dollar owed payable over the next 40 months but the company was not able to meet those commitments. A commercial sheetfed operation, Johnstone-Adams had annual sales of about $6 million.

St. Joseph revenue up in Q1
CONCORD, Ont.—With cost reduction efforts in place, St. Joseph Corp. saw its first quarter sales rise over last year. Revenue for the term ended March 31 was $79.5 million—an increase of $3.4 million over the corresponding period in 2001—while net income increased 50% to $2.4 million. Tony Gagliano, executive chairman and CEO, said in a prepared release that he expects Key Media, the company's most recent acquisition, to create significant profit in the coming year.

May 17, 2002
Embassy completes acquisition of Stafford
WINNIPEG—Embassy Graphics now has a Toronto presence with its acquisition of prepress shop Stafford Graphics. Embassy president and COO Bryan Payne Jr. says this acquisition is part of a larger strategic plan to develop an advanced visual communications company with locations across North America. With Stafford on board, Payne hopes Embassy will be recognized as a major competitor in Toronto within 24 months. He says this purchase is a merger of equals and has no plans to “Emba-size” the acquired company. “What we’re going to do is cross-pollinate and take a best-brand approach. It's much more empowering this way.” Combined sales of the two shops will exceed $10 million with a staff of 100 people. With an 80% (pre-acquisition) U.S. presence, Embassy is now looking toward New York for its next acquisition and possibly even another location in Toronto.

PLM clears more debt in first quarter
MARKHAM, Ont.—Continuing to reduce its debt, PLM Group has posted its seventh consecutive profitable quarter. Net earnings for the first quarter of 2002 ended March 31 were $0.7 million, or 2.3¢ per share, compared to $0.3 million a year ago. PLM’s sales dipped slightly to $26.3 million from $31.2 million the previous year, citing a discontinued client for the decline. The company managed to shave its long-term debt by $1.8 million to $20.5 million, while also receiving approval to repurchase and cancel about 1.4 million of its common shares. That represents about 5% of its current issued and outstanding common shares.

May 14, 2002
Quebecor World enhances Atlantic platform
ST. JOHN, N.B.—Quebecor World is enhancing its Saint John, N.B., facility with the installation of two new Goss web presses. With a printing capacity of 208 million impressions per year, they will be used primarily to produce retail inserts for customers in Canada and the U.S including Shoppers Drug Mart, Canadian Tire and Sears. Tom Holmes, pressroom manager at Quebecor World Atlantic, says the new presses, expected to be up and running by June 1, will be added to its current capabilities of prepress, print and finishing services to provide a one stop solution for its clients.

CCL Label Q1 sales up
TORONTO—CCL Label posted a 3.4% sales increase in its labels division for the first quarter of 2001 ended March 31. Sales grew from $104.8 million during the same period last year to $108.4 million this year. The company acquired four label plants in Europe earlier this year and has just completed the purchase of another plant in France from Avery Dennison. The 25,000 sq. ft. facility houses a nine-colour rotogravure press that will be used to produce labels for the food and beverage market. All of CCL’s divisions combined, including custom manufacturing, label and container, had net sales of $427.8 million for the first quarter.

May 10, 2002
HSP consolidates after acquisition of Eclipse
BURLINGTON, Ont.—Large-format printer HSP has purchased Eclipse Colour of Hamilton, Ont., a digital prepress company specializing in direct-to-plate manufacturing for large format. “This is a natural evolution for us to expand to the digital arena,” says HSP president Eddie Black. HSP has also constructed a 75,000 sq. ft. facility in Burlington to house its four divisions, and invested $7 million to upgrade its equipment. Along with the upgrades, it has just purchased a five-colour, large-format, in-line silk press with digital imaging capabilities. “What we are trying to build here is a one-stop shop where a client can get all of his large-format work done,” Black explains. “We’ll have digital presses for short runs, silk screen presses for medium runs and large-format 77" presses for longer runs.” Black says with this restructuring, HSP will be the only large-format printer with all three processes controlled by one central prepress system, under one roof.

Communicorp halts Motivus deal
TORONTO—Citing irreconcilable issues, PrintCan has learned that Communicorp will no longer proceed with its acquisition of Motivus, a Toronto-based branding and marketing firm. This announcement isn’t distracting Communicorp though, as president Harvey Wortsman says the company has a mandate to grow. “We're on the hunt looking at several other companies to buy,” he says. “Certainly by year-end we will be a larger entity than we are today.” Communicorp is a graphic communications firm offering digital and pre-media services.

May 07, 2002
Anstey Bookbinding buys C&W Embossing
TORONTO—Anstey Bookbinding recently purchased C & W Embossing. The staff and equipment of C & W was moved to Astey's premises about three weeks ago. Jay Mandarino, co-owner of Anstey with Neil Stewart, said the purchase rounds out the services offered by Anstey, which currently include book repair, binding, foil stamping, die cutting and the only Deckler machine in Canada. The company has also added a perfect binder to its operations. According to Mandarino, who also owns C. J. Graphics in Toronto, Anstey now offers everything under one roof.

Newfoundland Capital to sell printing assets
DARTMOUTH, NS—Newfoundland Capital Corporation (NCC), owner of one of the largest printing operations in Eastern Canada, reportely has put its printing and publishing assets up for sale. NCC owns Robinson-Blackmore, with three printing plants in Newfoundland, and Print Atlantic, with one location in Dartmouth, N.S., and one in Moncton, N.B. Rob Steele, the newly appointed CEO and son of founder Harry Steele, was not available for comment yesterday. NCC racked up printing sales of $47.8 million in 2001. The exit from print is to allow the company to expand its broadcasting operations in order to improve market valuation. NCC currently owns 57 radio stations across Canada.

May 03, 2002
Newfoundland Capital sales up in Q1
DARTMOUTH, N.S.—Newfoundland Capital Corp. posted printing and publishing revenues of $12.7 million the first quarter ended March 31, an increase from $11.4 million in the previous year. The company’s total revenues reached $21.3 million for the quarter, a $2.5 million jump from 2001. On the whole, the company’s net earnings for the quarter rose slightly to $286,000 compared to a loss of $718,000 from 2001. Meanwhile, Robert Steele has been named CEO and will continue on as president, while Scott Weatherby has been appointed CFO and corporate secretary.

Rob Young joins Mail-Well
TORONTO—Rob Young has followed Gord Griffiths to the Mail-Well Print Group. PrintCan has learned that Young, former chief operating officer of the print management division at Caxton Group, has joined the Denver-based company as vice president of sales for the print group. He took up his new position on April 22. Prior to Caxton, Young worked for St. Joseph Printing and Quebecor.