GERMANY—

 Print globally is doing well. There are regions and markets that struggle but the overall condition is good. The drupa Printer Barometer of economic confidence shows a positive net balance of +27% Actual in 2018. To explain; 40% of printers described their company as in a ‘good’ condition and 13% described it as ‘poor’. The balance answered ‘satisfactory’. Regionally the results are uneven; North America is forging ahead.

CHICAGO—

Labelexpo and Brand Print Global trade shows (Tarsus Group)  and  PRINT 2020 ( Association for PRINT Technologies )  have  announced that they will combine efforts to launch Brand Print Americas. This will take place in lieu of PRINT® 2020 and will be co-located with the 2020 edition of Labelexpo Americas, at the Donald E Stephens Convention Center in Chicago, from September 15-17 2020.

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 Heron Printing buys it's first HP Indigo 7900. Heron Printing has added a fully-configured 7-colour HP Indigo 7900, with capabilities including raised/textured print, One Shot printing on synthetics and specialty inks such as White, Silver, Clear, Fluorescents, Invisible and Pantone spot colours. These products are currently not available elsewhere .

OTTAWA— 

The Canadian Government is changing how it purchases and manages its office printing services and equipment. The Government has announced new agreements with Xerox, Konica Minolta, and Ricoh to deliver managed print services to the Government of Canada. These six-year agreements are worth an estimated $60 million annually.

WASHINGTON—

Bureau of Labor Statistics unit of the U.S. Department of Labor announcement that commercial printing, screen printing, and print support activities for printing have become “too small or too concentrated to be tracked” in the Current Employment Statistics database.According to the Printing Industries of America (PIA) approximately 800,000 workers in the printing, packaging, and publishing industry who's jobs are relevant to the nation’s manufacturing economy.

JAPAN—

Fujifilm's  operating income and net income  reached record highs, of ¥209.8bn (up 70.1% year-on-year from ¥123.3bn) and ¥157.1bn (up 8.9% year-on-year from ¥144.2bn) respectively.Fujifilm’s . Document Solutions segment recorded revenue of ¥1.006tn, down 4% year-on-year. The segment’s operating income was ¥96.4bn, 11.5 times the level of the previous fiscal year.In the Document Solutions segment’s production services business,  sales were strong for the Iridesse, which is a Fuji Xerox product,

POINT- CLAIRE— 

 Graf-Pak Inc, of  Quebec, have  announced the addition of a new Komori GL640C to Graf-Pak’s operations. The new Komori is currently being installed. The Komori GL640C utilizes such automation features as Fully Automatic Plate Changers, PDC-SX Closed Loop Colour Control, Komori’s Automatic Makeready System (AMR), as well as KHS-AI - Komori’s productivity enhancement system, which automatically optimizes various press presets by self-learning.

TORONTO—

 Southwest Business Products (Southwest Bindings) announce that they have purchased the Binders and Index Tabs Business from DATA Communications Management Corp (DCM) In addition, Southwest has entered into a long-term supply agreement with DCM whereby Southwest has become the preferred vendor to DCM for the supply of binders, index tabs and related products.

MONTREAL—

Transcontinental has  announced  the closure of it's Brampton  plant  at the end of December 2019.The closure of Transcontinental Brampton, located at 138 East Drive, in Brampton, Ontario, will take place in two phases. Starting July 7, 2019, only one of the two presses will remain in operation, resulting in the permanent layoff of about 60 production and support employees. As for the approximately 65 production and support employees who will still be employed after this date,

GERMANY—

German antitrust authorities have decided to block the planned takeover of the MBO Group by Heidelberger. After a lengthy investigation the German Federal Cartel Office has announced its decision to block the planned takeover because it would have given Heidelberg a dominant market position. The two companies will continue as independent entities as a result.