IN THIS ISSUE... Things I Hear Loyalty (by Doug Picklyk) Poll Formal graphic arts industry education? Quick Hit All Media Moving to Digital Grafikom Acquires Speedfast Color Press Multi-plant operation expands Edmonton presence Committing to Books and Flyers Transcontinental keeps busy investing and opening new facilities Executive Director Named for Printing's Sector Council Marie Eveline takes on new role Business Index Dropping NAPL indicator reveals slow down.   Supplier News Fuji, Agfa, Heidelberg... . Resources Metal CtP Update. Awards Bindery leaders, PIXIs Events Get out there...

Things I Hear

Loyalty

A common complaint I hear from printers is the total lack of customer loyalty in the market today. We wrapped up our annual TOP Printers survey in late May this year, and among the variety of questions we asked printers was, "How would you describe your customer loyalty factor?"

Surprisingly, 75% of our respondents rated customer loyalty from good to excellent, contrary to the impressions I've been receiving from printers lately. Sure enough, 13% of our respondents directly linked customer loyalty to price, some going so far as to say there's no such thing as loyalty anymore. The remaining respondents cited either poor or declining loyalty among their customers. A couple of the comments included: "younger purchasers shop around too much, [they have an] E-bay mentality" and "Our major customers are very loyal, average customers are not loyal."

Customer loyalty must be earned in today's market by exceeding a customer's expectations, and there's a lot more to it than offering the lowest price. It appears the majority of those on our TOP Printers list have figured that out.

If you missed our TOP Printers issue in the mail, you can visit http://www.canadianprinter.com to see the entire issue online, or look on the site for an updated version of our TOP Printer listing with analysis as a PDF file.

Best regards,
Doug Picklyk
Editor, Canadian Printer

Poll

Variable Interest

Last time we asked you, our readers, if your customers have ever asked you about variable data printing. Almost two-thirds of our respondents (65%) said yes. One would believe that asking this same question even three years ago would have drawn far fewer yes votes. No doubt, the variable data marketing push by the major vendors of digital printing equipment is having an impact.

All Media Moving to Digital
"Virtually every segment of the entertainment and media industry is shifting from physical distribution to digital distribution of content," says Wayne Jackson, global leader of PricewaterhouseCoopers' Entertainment & Media Practice.
The group has released its 7th annual report featuring five-year growth projections for 14 industry segments including magazine publishing, newspapers and book publishing. Here are a few highlights: "(for consumer magazines) Circulation spending in Canada rebounded in 2005 with a 0.9 percent increase following five years of decline." For newspapers: "In Canada cutbacks in household delivery together with competition from free papers will adversely affect paid circulation, but strength among smaller papers will limit the decline." And in the book market, "Rising college enrollments and increased school spending will boost the educational book market in Canada."

http://www.pwc.com/outlook

Bon voyage paper tickets
The International Air Transport Association wants to say good-bye to paper airline tickets by 2007. According to the IATA, 100% e-ticketing will save the industry up to US$ 3 billion per year. It estimates that an e-ticket costs US$1 to process, whereas paper tickets cost up to US$10 to process.

www.iata.org

Grafikom Acquires Speedfast Color Press

Aivars Beikmanis

Toronto-based Grafikom, the multi-plant commercial sheetfed and digital printing company that emerged from Quebecor World last year, has acquired Edmonton's Speedfast Color Press, a $12.5 million sheetfed shop with 65 employees.
Mike Steiner, owner of Speedfast remains on as president of both Speedfast and grafikom.Jasper, which is also located in Edmonton.
"Speedfast shares the same dedication to customer satisfaction and innovation that are at the core of Grafikom," said Aivars Beikmanis, president and CEO of Grafikom in a company release.
Grafikom has positioned itself as one of the largest print producers in Alberta now with its Edmonton facilities and two Calgary locations as well.
The company is also in the midst of a multi-million dollar investment spree including the installation of a new eight-colour 40-inch Heidelberg in Toronto and a new six-colour 40-inch Komori with UV at its Sherbrooke facility. New Xerox digital colour technology is being implemented at its digital printing sites and multiple prepress upgrades are occurring across the organization including the integration of EFI's Hagen MIS throughout all divisions.

Committing to Books and Flyers

In mid-June Transcontinental announced results for the second quarter of its fiscal year (ended April 30), reporting revenues down 1% compared to the same quarter last year. The impact of foreign exchange and the competitive commercial and retail printing markets were held responsible. On the heals of this financial news, Transcontinental celebrated the grand opening of its 153,000-square-foot book printing plant in Louiseville, Quebec. Focused on one- and two-colour trade books, this facility has been operating since May and has a workforce of 325 employees.
"We are convinced that in this era of rising competition from emerging countries and a strong Canadian dollar, our main competitive edge is having a skilled, motivated and committed workforce that can quickly adapt to new technologies," noted Rémi Marcoux, Transcontinental's founder, in his opening remarks.
Transcontinental has also completed the installation of the first 64-page Goss Sunday 4000 press system featuring Automatic Transfer on all eight of its units at its Interglobe book plant in Beauceville, Quebec.
In yet another announcement, Transcontinental's retail business (flyers, inserts) will see a $25 million investment in its Saint-Hyacinthe printing plant (outside Montreal) including an 8-unit KBA Compacta 618 heatset web press destined to start operating in the spring of 2007.

The official ribbon cutting at Transcontinental Gagné in Louiseville, Quebec. From left to right: Ms. Francine Gaudet, member for Maskinongé in the Quebec National Assembly; Jean-Paul Diamond, reeve of the Maskinongé regional county municipality and mayor of Saint-Alexis-des-Monts; Rémi Marcoux, founder and executive chairman of the board of Transcontinental Inc.; Luc Desjardins, president and CEO of Transcontinental Inc.; Guy Richard, mayor of Louiseville; Sylvain Paquin, representative for the member for Berthier-Maskinongé in the House of Commons.

Executive Director Named for Sector Council


Marie Eveline has been appointed executive director of the Canadian Printing Industries Sector Council (CPISC). Eveline has over 20 years of experience in the not-for-profit education and association sectors, including 11 years as executive director of the Canadian School Boards Association. She was a founding member of the Canadian Alliance of Education and Training Organizations; an organization committed to assisting sector councils in linking with the education community, and also served a one-year term as Chair.

NAPL Business Index Dropping

Andrew Paparozzi

After a promising start to 2006 the National Association of Printing Leadership's (NAPL) Printing Business Index, a barometer of overall printing industry activity, has been showing signs of decline. The Index rose to 59.1 in March from 56.5 in February and 55.9 in January. Since then both April and May reveal a drop, falling to 57.4 in April and 55.6 in May. However printers on NAPL's Printing Business panel reveal that sales have been growing at a greater pace this year than last, yet profitability continues to suffer.

"There's no mystery to what's contributing to the ongoing pressure of profits—broad, persistent cost inflation. And markets are still very resistant to price increases because our competition is more diverse and intense than ever," notes Andrew Paparozzi, NAPL vice president and chief economist, who forecasts that "the profit squeeze will tighten over the next year, as our industry slows with the economy."

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• X-Rite, Inc. has completed its acquisition of Amazys Holding AG (holder of the GretagMacbeth brand).
  
• Flint Group's North American Publication Division has announced price increases from 8% to 12% for all publication inks, effective July 15, 2006, due to continuing escalation of raw materials, energy, and freight costs.
  
• Cascades Resources, a division of Australian-owned PaperlinX Canada Ltd., has changed its name to Spicers, a Division of PaperlinX Canada Ltd. The name change affects operations from Manitoba east to the Maritimes. A new corporate image, logo and company colours are being rolled out. The Roll-O-Vert operating unit will keep its name and image.
  
• Fuji Photo Film has acquired Dimatix, U.S.-based manufacturer of Spectra industrial inkjet printheads. This adds to Fujufilm's industrial inkjet portfolio following the acquisitions of Sericol and Avecia Inkjet ink manufacturers.
  
• Agfa is closing an analogue Lastra plate factory in Sulmona, Italy as a result of the industry's rapid conversion to digital plates.
  
• Heidelberg announced a 12% sales increase over last year to 3.6 billion Euro for its fiscal year 2005/2006 (ended March 31, 2006), reporting 135 million Euro net profit earnings, more than doubling previous year results. "We expect the positive trend in the print media industry to continue for 2006," said Dr. Herbert Meyer, the company's CFO.
  
• At the Koenig & Bauer AG (KBA) AGM president and CEO Albrecht Bolza-Schünemann reaffirmed an upbeat prognosis for 2006 despite the fact that in the first five months demand had been relatively modest. Although the volume of new orders failed to equal the last year's pace, sales of sheetfed and commercial presses picked up in the second quarter.
  
• Agfa-Gevaert is splitting its group in three independent businesses (Graphics, HealthCare and Materials) with expected annual cost savings of around 250 million Euro by 2008. Graphics and HealthCare were already operating independently, the Materials group will manufacture film and related products for the other two divisions as well as third parties.
  
• Day International has announced a price increase for its Varn pressroom chemical line affecting virtually all Varn product categories. The increase is attributed to the rise in the cost of materials, energy and transportation.
  
• Quebec-based Unigraph International Inc . has opened UNIGRAPH WEB, a new division to focus exclusively on serving web printing business, offering new equipment and products, including fountain solution, solvent and silicone.
  
• Domino Printing Sciences has acquired Enterprise Information Systems, Inc., Dallas-based systems integration specialists in the deployment of RFID technology to provide traceability solutions throughout the supply chain.
  
• International Paper is selling its coated and supercalendered papers business to CMP Holdings LLC, an affiliate of Apollo Management for around US$1.4 billion (includes mills in Jay, Maine; Bucksport, Maine; Quinnesec, Michigan; and Sartell, Minnesota).
  
• The new Pamarco Global Graphics facility in Vaughan, Ontario, is producing laser engraved anilox rolls. The new plant, just north of Toronto, houses two lasers plus all the preparation and support equipment necessary to produce high quality anilox rolls.
  
• Heidelberg has begun construction of its 45 million Euro 375,000 sq. ft. assembly hall at its Wiesloch, Germany, site for its new large-format presses (Speedmaster XL 142 and Speedmaster XL 162). Construction is to be finished by June 2007.
  
• Montreal's Polkadots Software, has released PrePage-it NewsFlo 2.0 for newspaper production workflows.
  
• Montreal-based Objectif Lune has acquired Prout Software of Germany, expanding its support for transactional variable data printing solutions to PCL platforms.
  
• Newspaper printers using MAN Roland web presses now have a 24/7 source for certified parts and consumables, manrolanddirect.com, a service launched at the MAN Roland Users Group Conference.
  
• Ontario-based Imaging Alignment Corp . (IMAC) is now distributing HumanEyes Technologies solutions for 3D lenticular effects.
  
• X-Rite, Inc.'s new PlateScope dot measurement and plate process control device is now available in Canada.
  
• Ricoh Japan is using plant-based plastics in parts of a multifunction printer. The plastics are derived from sources such as corn, sugar cane or potatoes, as opposed to common plastics that are derived from petroleum. Ricoh is testing two b/w and one colour multifunction printer with a plant content of more than 50% and plans to incorporate plant-based plastics in an broader range of copier models and components.
  
• Horizon International has invested $20 million opened an expanded post-press equipment factory in Japan, 25% larger housing an investment of US$20M in new assembly technology. Manufacturing capacity is expected to increase by nearly 30%.
  
• Apple CEO Steve Jobs will headline the kick off the company's annual Worldwide Developers Conference (Monday, August 7) with a keynote preview of Mac OS X "Leopard".
  
• Fusion Systems International has released Print Production Manager, a Web-browser-based production management tool for prepress that allows job status viewing, queueing and more.
  
• PowerFile has unveiled the Permanent Storage Appliance, a network-attached storage system using a scalable DVD-based subsystem with the capability to store files online for many years.
  
• The Xerox Research Centre of Canada (XRCC) has been awarded its 1,000th U.S. patent, surpassing a key milestone in the facility's 30+ year history.

Canadian Printer E-News

Keep up to date on the big picture of the printing industry in Canada with a voice you can trust in Canadian Printer magazine. The national business publication for printers since 1892, Canadian Printer is recognized for leadership on business issues and editorial integrity.
For more information get in touch with editor Doug Picklyk (phone: (416) 764-1530, email: doug.picklyk@printer.rogers.com).
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