- De La Rue has recorded a surge in underlying profits in its preliminary half-year results as the impact of its three-year Improvement Plan took hold.
- Italian flexo press manufacturer Gidue will officially launch its MX entry-level label printing press next month.
- Goss International has declared Drupa a success after taking orders for 11 web presses at the show, although none of those were from the UK.
- MBA Group has bought two Pitney Bowes APS inserters and an FX10 encloser to kick off an investment programme that is expected to top £3m over the next nine months.
- The bonfire of employment law proposed in the Beecroft Report is unlikely to be realised to anything like the extent its author has envisaged. For one thing, relations within the Coalition are strained enough as it is without heaping more pressure on in the form of legislation that is unthinkable to many Lib Dems, particularly in the wake of the 'granny tax' fiasco.
- Agfa Graphics has signed up to distribute Australia-based Serendipity Software's Veripress on-press softproofing system to its worldwide newspaper customers.
- Two envelope converters have become embroiled in a dispute over internet domain names.
- Memjet unveiled two partnerships at Drupa this month with the potential to accelerate the mainstream adoption of its high-speed, single-pass inkjet technology.
- The curious case of the Landa Nanographic presses continues to baffle and excite in equal measure. Having attended one of Benny Landa's five daily theatre presentations at Drupa, I can see what the excitement is about. There are dancers, drummers, contraptions that blow giant smoke rings at the audience, and print's own Steve Jobs, Benny Landa himself, not to mention two huge touchscreens beaming out at the auditorium.
- Kodak's Rochester, New York, headquarters was home to a secret nuclear reactor for 30 years prior to its dismantling in November 2007, it has emerged.
- KBA has posted a return to profit in its first quarter results, transforming last year's loss in both its operating and pre-tax figures into a small surplus, despite sales coming in "below target".
- Carrier bag and security printer Dynaflex has ordered a second flexo press from Comexi.
- Fuji Xerox has become the latest company to announce a wide-format printer powered by Memjet's waterfall printhead technology.
- What is more important: the future or the present? At Drupa 2012, the answer depends on who you're talking to and where they are in their product development cycle. Digital manufacturers like Xeikon and Landa, who are several years away from commercial availability with their Trillium and Nanographic presses respectively, talk about the future of print - the inference being "don't buy now what you'll regret later".
- Lexon Group has placed one of the first UK orders for a B2 Landa Nanographic printing press following a flying visit to Dusseldorf last Thursday (3 May).
- Luscher has teamed with Heidelberg to launch a new UV platesetter that uses elements of both manufacturers' CTP technologies.
- Arlon Graphics, the US-based pressure-sensitive, cut-vinyl, flexible substrate manufacturer, has appointed New South Wales-based Graphic Art Mart as a new distribution partner in Australia.
- Ilford, the recyclable wide-format substrate specialist, has expanded into laminates and screen printing with the launch of two new products at Drupa (Hall 7, E15).
- Banner Managed Communication (BMC) has been awarded a three-year print management contract by Best Buy Europe, the joint venture between Best Buy and the Carphone Warehouse.
- Communisis has announced the £1.1m acquisition of two businesses, Kieon and Yomego, designed to further boost the non-print services offered by its Intelligence Driven Communications division.
