Large Format Review - Business News

Trading in shares of Breaston-based Litho Supplies, who are perhaps best known to LFR readers as the owners of sign and display print systems and consumables supplier Andersons, remained suspended yesterday as the Breaston company sought to clarify its financial position.

The print and graphic design supplies company, which employs 120 people, called in administrators and is now up for sale as a going concern. It blamed a downturn in the printing industry.

In a statement, it said: "Major credit insurers have withdrawn cover from the sector and a number of our suppliers decided it was appropriate to reduce our credit terms, again affecting the cash flow of the business.

"The indications in quarter three of this year that some green shoots were starting to appear did not live up to expectations."

Sales in the half year to the end of June were £18.93m, down from £25.38m leading to a pre-tax loss of £1.31m after re-organisation costs against a pre tax profit of £340,000 in the first half of 2008.

After 20 years located on Maylands Avenue, Hemel Hempstead, Epson moved to new premises a short distance away in Apsley on 7th December 2009.

The new Westside location will be home to over 250 Epson UK and Epson Europe staff and better suits the needs of the company with a larger demonstration area and improved facilities to run its popular ‘Print Academy’ courses. The distinctive atrium incorporates a staff restaurant giving a light, bright area in which staff can relax.

A number of specially commissioned contemporary art works have been installed around the new offices. These include, in the atrium, ‘The Singing Singing Tree’ by Build, which has been printed on frosted brushed aluminium. The artworks which have been produced by Limited Ltd, an interior design company, are a perfect showcase for Epson’s digital imaging technology and demonstrate the versatility of the Epson Stylus Pro GS6000 in the production of high quality decorative art.  Using eco-solvent type ink, the Stylus Pro GS6000 is the only wide format printer on the market that can deliver signage and decorative art to an extremely high quality using a variety of different substrates and applications, from traditional signage through to printed metals, plastics and textiles.

The extensive refurbishment of the Westside offices has enabled Epson to adopt further green measures. The lighting is fitted with movement sensors so that it switches off if no-one is using that area and the new office furniture has been produced in the most  environmentally friendly way possible  New heating and air conditioning plant serving the meeting rooms area has been installed to reduce energy usage and improve efficiency and, over the next twelve months, new air conditioning units will be installed in the remainder of the building. All of the energy used in the building will be from renewable sources.

These measures reflect Epson’s Environmental Vision 2050 which was established in 2008 to help guide the company’s environmental activities over the next four decades. The aim of the vision is to reduce CO2 emissions by 90% across the lifecycle of all products and services by the year 2050.

The new address is:
Westside
London Road
Hemel Hempstead
Hertfordshire
HP3 9TD

All contact details; telephone and email addresses remain the same.

JCDecaux SA (Euronext Paris: DEC), the No.1 outdoor advertising company in Europe and in the Asia-Pacific region, No.2 worldwide in this industry, and No.1 in transport advertising, announces that its subsidiary JCDecaux Airport, the leading company in the airport advertising segment, recently won the advertising concession contract for Nice Côte d’Azur airport.

This new contract, awarded after a competitive tender process, covers all advertising space both within and outside the airport buildings for a period of 7 years.Handling an annual total of 10.4 million passengers in 2008, Nice Côte d’Azur airport is the second largest airport in France on the 36 French airports where JCDecaux operates.This contract allows JCDecaux Airport to reinforce the scope of its advertising solutions within the airport and to offer a new range of displays specially designed for this facility in the south of France.

These new displays, due to replace all the existing units, embody the principles of ecologically sustainable, energy-efficient design and fully comply with Persons with Reduced Mobility (PRM) standards.Digital displays and interactive projections will further boost the appeal of the advertising solutions available to advertisers.Didier Monges, Chief Operating Officer of Nice Côte d’Azur airport made the following statement: “We were impressed by the quality of the offer made by JCDecaux Airport.

Their solutions correspond to our expectations regarding their integration in our airport environment while offering advertisers high-calibre, innovative advertising solutions whose environmental impact – notably regarding energy consumption – has been the focus of considerable attention.”Isabelle Fourmentin, Executive Vice-President of JCDecaux Airport, said: “We are delighted that Nice Côte d'Azur airport has again reasserted its trust in JCDecaux Airport. Our new, high-quality range of advertising displays will provide this airport with advertising media of a calibre enjoyed by the largest airport facilities worldwide and will allow us to reinforce our ability to serve the needs of the advertising market. Airports are becoming key venues for innovative, digital and interactive advertising solutions for the benefit of advertisers.”

 

The market for digital print for textiles is forecast to grow from €114.6m in 2009 to just under €1bn by 2014, according to a new study by Pira International published in association with FESPA.

Based on primary research and expert analysis The Future of Digital Print for Textiles: market forecasts to 2014 breaks down the global market by end-use sector, print process, region and country, with five-year forecasts to 2014.

The study also provides an up-to-date overview of the latest technology developments, analysis of the competitive landscape and identifies specific market opportunities for raw material and print technology suppliers. FESPA members can benefit from a special 15% discount.

The key findings from the study include:

• The display/signage sector is driving the development of digital print for textiles as inkjet printers have had a longer experience in the market
• Textiles production has moved to countries with low labour rates, but digital printing may change that. Short runs and agile manufacturing are set to force some production back to North America and Western Europe. More of the cotton that is shipped from the US to China will stay at home, to be made into fabric that will be digitally printed locally to satisfy design-savvy consumers locally, while digital print will allow more designers to create and test new designs more quickly.
• Eco-solvent inks are replacing solvent-based inks as many of the older solvent machines are replaced, and environmental regulations in Europe and North America support the continued development and use of eco-solvent approaches.
• The total installed base of digital printers for textiles is forecast to grow to 52,800 units globally by 2014, a CAGR of 23.1%

Digital printing of textiles has been in effect since the mid 1990s with electrostatic (e-stat) and early wide format inkjet printers, either by direct printing (in the case of inkjet) and via dye sublimation transfer (inkjet and e-stat). Direct to fabric printers, combined with growth in textile applications such as soft signage and garments are driving the market for digital textile printing.

Because display/signage has been one of the first markets for inkjet printing, it is naturally the largest today. It is only in the last few years that dedicated fabric printers evolved and began to affect the garment, household, and other markets.

Inkjet printing is distributed globally. According to the study, the fastest-growing regions are the emerging markets of Eastern Europe and Asia, though it is important to remember that the pattern of growth is not the same for each country and region. Although there is a correlation between nations that are large textile exporters, it may not follow that digital printing will be dominant in those countries.

Marcus Timson, corporate communications director at FESPA explains FESPA’s support for the Pira study: “It was important for FESPA to gain a scientific view of the future direction of the digital textile market, and Pira was a credible partner to undertake such a comprehensive piece of analysis. FESPA’s screen printing heritage is such that printing onto textile has always been a very significant element of our events. More recently, our FESPA Digital shows have reflected the market’s migration towards digital textile printing for the short-run applications identified in the Pira study, and we have encouraged our community to explore the market’s potential through two Digital Textile conferences in parallel with these shows. The textile area of our flagship FESPA show has grown to the point where FESPA is now effectively the largest textile printing event in Europe, and the garment decoration segment will now have a dedicated zone at FESPA 2010, under the distinct FESPA Fabric banner. The Pira study, which is available at a discounted price of €3,555 for members of FESPA’s national associations, will help us to shape the events, products and services that FESPA creates to address the textile printing marketplace, and help our global community of print service providers to understand the opportunities that may exist for them in this segment.”

Reference is made to the joint press release by Canon Inc. (trading symbol CAJ) ("Canon") and Océ N.V. (trading symbol OCE) ("Océ") dated 16 November 2009 in respect of the intended fully self-funded, public cash offer for all issued and outstanding ordinary shares in the capital of Océ (the "Shares") by Canon at an offer price of € 8.60 per Share (the "Offer").

Canon and Océ confirm that good progress is being made on the preparations of the Offer. Canon and Océ filed notifications with the competition authorities of the European Union, the United States, Switzerland and Taiwan. The Océ Merger Committee (Fusiecommissie), the Océ European Works Council (Europese ondernemingsraad) and the relevant Océ works councils have been and are being provided with information regarding the Offer in accordance with the applicable rules and regulations.

Canon expects to submit a request for approval of the offer memorandum in respect of the Offer to the Netherlands Authority for the Financial Markets (Stichting Autoriteit Financiele Markten or "AFM") before 8 February 2010, which is the date by which under Dutch law a request for approval must be submitted to the AFM. Senior management of both companies is working side by side to ensure the process runs as smoothly as possible.

Keying on the evolution of piezoelectric drop-on-demand (Piezo DOD) inkjet printhead technology from low-density scanning architectures to single-pass printing, a presentation made by FUJIFILM Dimatix CEO and President Martin Schoeppler was selected for top honors by attendees of the Information Management Institute's (IMI) Europe 17th Annual Ink Jet Conference held November 4-6, 2009 in Barcelona.

His presentation, titled "The Paradigm Shift To Single Pass," can be downloaded at www.imieurope.com free of charge.

Piezo DOD inkjet is an extremely versatile digital printing technology that knows few boundaries and can be used in a broad range of applications from basic coding to graphic communications on a grand scale, and for printed electronics manufacturing, photovoltaics and assaying biological substances at the molecular level. "This broad capability also poses a unique set of challenges – such as for new manufacturing methods and materials required to deposit a diverse and growing range of fluids and inks with increasing precision and speed," Mr. Schoeppler remarks. "I am pleased to have had the opportunity to present this information, and honored that the audience found it so valuable."

In the presentation, Mr. Schoeppler highlights FUJIFILM Dimatix' 25 years of innovation and excellence in inkjet printheads design and manufacturing to take his audience on a guided tour of the increasingly sophisticated printhead architectures, fabrication methods, jetting technologies and market forces that have led to new generations of Piezo DOD inkjet printhead products aimed at an expanding spectrum of applications.

He also explores FUJIFILM Dimatix' expertise in three areas pivotal in paving the way to single-pass implementations – advanced jet design and modeling; silicon MEMS and machined carbon fabrication; and its VersaDropTM jetting technology.

FUJIFILM's implementation of these and many other advanced technologies applies to many of its products, including the PerformaTM Sapphire printheads and ScanPAQ Head Array for high-performance graphics, the InspiraTM series for specialty printing applications and EnduraTM series for materials deposition. Its new-generation SAMBATM inkjet technology – a single-pass implementation being developed jointly by FUJIFILM Dimatix and FUJIFILM Corporation – is a "printhead on a MEMS chip" that packs 2048 jets per module at 1200 dot-per-inch spacing, and is capable of pulsing fluids higher than  100,000 cycles/second (100 kHz) – the highest jetting frequencies yet developed.

The IMI Europe conference is one in the IMI series covering ink jet, thermal, laser, high speed digital printing, textile, industrial and other forms of digital printing that draw more than 2,000 professionals to various events in the United States and Europe annually. Designed to give participants a thorough assessment of technology and market development trends that will determine inkjet's role in the overall printing marketplace, the formal and informal sessions provide a unique, interactive environment for leading hardware, consumables, components, system integrator and user company representatives to network and to develop an improved understanding of the forces shaping the evolving digital printing industry.