The statement went on to respond to each of the four questions posed by the CWU to its members in the ballot, point by point.

On the issue of a possible boycott by CWU members of mail from DSA providers, Royal Mail said that it was committed to the delivery of DSA mail and that any disruption to that service would "adversely impact the business, our reputation and that of our employees".

It also highlighted that DSA mail accounted for almost half of the mail it handled and, while previously a loss-making service, it made a profit of £80m after it had been modernised.

Royal Mail also mirrored the concerns of the DM industry by stating that if the Royal Mail didn't deliver DSA mail its "customers may look for alternatives, including using more email".

However, a Royal Mail spokesman declined to be drawn on what action it would take should the CWU instigate a boycott of DSA mail.

Regarding the potential sale of Royal Mail, it said that as the government had indicated that it had no plans to invest in the postal provider, then a sale or partial sale, with the resulting private-sector backing, offered the best opportunity for Royal Mail to continue its evolution and "secure as many good quality jobs as possible".

It also dismissed any sale representing a threat to its universal service as it was "enshrined in law" and that Ofcom had ruled out any changes to the scope of the universal service.

Ofcom also responded to CWU's charge that it had ‘no strategy for dealing with end-to-end competition' referring the union to its previously published guidance.

"We also outlined the steps that could be taken in the event that competition poses a threat to the sustainability of the universal service, which it is our duty to secure. If such a threat emerges, we have clear powers to intervene," added an Ofcom spokesman.

On the final two issues of the CWU's pay claim and policy of non-co-operation - Royal Mail claimed it was committed to seeking an agreement and wanted to work with the union and its members to make it a more efficient business.

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There has been no official statement from MPG.

Workers at the firm's Bodmin and King's Lynn plants were said to have been trying to help customers with work-in-progress, according to a source, even though staff at these facilities appear unlikely to receive their wages this month.

According to local reports the 60 staff at Bodmin were told not to come into work today.

At MPG's Cambridge facility, workers are paid two weeks in arrears and two weeks in advance under an arrangement agreed with then-employer Cambridge University Press when it moved over to monthly pay, so staff there have already been paid for this month.

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Fire is the latest in the Ultra Board range of display panels, which the company said are sustainably manufactured and ideal for retail, internal signage and exhibition stand applications, and is "100% fire-retardant". Like the rest of the Ultra Board range, the new product uses a honeycomb structure for a strong yet light material.

The company said that Fire is ideal for applications that require an eco-friendly, fire-rated alternative to PVC, adding that it was well-suited to a range of uses including POS, exhibition and retail displays and stand-alone signs in fire safety locations.

The surface facing is also appropriate for digital and screen printing as the product has been developed to have a whiter surface designed specifically to take coloured ink.

Marketing manager Alex Brownhill said: "Ultra Board Fire gives our customers great quality print with that extra reassurance of a fire-rated product, and also as it is 100% recyclable."

Tamar operations director Ricky Hann described the new press as a "productivity platform" and said it had already enabled the company to win a series of lucrative new contracts.

"With the inline foil and screen capability, we saw the LP3000 as a giant leap forward. Just having this press has already opened the doors to new markets for the production of luxury and other primary product labels in sectors such as packaging, cosmetics, and healthcare," he said.

The Mark Andy press will sit alongside Tamar's existing fleet of Edale narrow web flexo and Nilpeter eight-colour UV flexo presses and HP Indigo digital label presses.

Managing director Robert Lee said the LP3000 would provide Tamar with enough high-quality capacity to enable the company to continue moving the business forward.

"We're looking to consolidate our production capabilities with an aggressive company-wide reinvestment strategy that will include investments in new speciality coating lines, along with improvements to workflow solutions that will serve to deliver greater flexibility on how we operate as a business," he said.

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However, there has not yet been official confirmation that the business has gone into administration.

A source close to the situation said that while administrators were on-site, they might not be officially appointed until Tuesday, after the bank holiday weekend.

MPG has plants in Bodmin, King's Lynn, and recently opened a new plant in Cambridge following its takeover of the Cambridge University Press (CUP) printing operation last year, which resulted in a major restructuring of the group's manufacturing sites.

Chief executive Tony Chard was unavailable for comment at the time of writing, and the company's phones were diverting to an answerphone service.

The takeover of the CUP facility, and the resulting costs involved with relocating equipment and setting up a new MPG plant in Bar Hill, Cambridge, appears to have resulted in a cash crisis at the company.

Nigel Gawthrope, FOC at the Cambridge site, said: "There was a £500,000 budget to set the factory up, and it actually cost £1.7m. They didn't allow enough time for the machines to bed in and go into production.

"We knew there was a bit of a cashflow problem, but we thought it had turned the corner," he added.

Cambridge University Press operations director Sandra Waterhouse issued a statement this morning on behalf of the publisher.

She said: "The management team of MPG today announced it is to go into administration. In July 2012 Cambridge University Press placed a large proportion of its UK printing with MPG Books Group. The agreement also saw the Press's in-house printing department, and most of the staff, transferred to MPG.

"This transfer was undertaken in good faith and, as well as allowing the publishing groups the flexibility they need, was seen as a way of securing continued employment for staff otherwise facing redundancy through the potential closure of the Press's printing operation.

"Throughout the contract to date we have offered every support to MPG and we are sorry that the business is now facing administration as a result of cash flow problems. Our production directors are considering what this means for our production requirements and will be taking steps to minimise the immediate impact."

At the same time as setting up the new Cambridge facility MPG was also carrying out a £4m investment plan that involved a new Timsons T-Press and HP Indigo 10000 B2 digital press for its Biddles site in King's Lynn.

Just three months ago Chard said the group was "still highly acquisitive" and planned to use its revamped manufacturing platform to expand its services into "book-like products".

It was also poised to invest in high-speed colour inkjet technology with KBA, HP and Kodak in the frame as potential suppliers.

Its most recently-filed results are for the year to 31 December 2011, so exclude the major restructuring carried out over the past 18 months. In 2011 the business made a pre-tax profit of £813,000 on sales of £19.4m and had 238 employees.

Check printweek.com for updates on this story.

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The mammoth initiative resulted in 200,000 children's self-portraits, which had been submitted through UK schools and charities such as Mencap and Kids Company, being projected onto the front of Buckingham Palace for the Queen's Diamond Jubilee celebrations in 2012.

Each child's portrait was then included in an online photo-gallery, created by Photobox, from which visitors could buy mugs, t-shirts or mouse mats printed with the images. 20% of all revenue from the purchases went to The Prince's Foundation for Children and the Arts.

PhotoBox co-founder Graham Hobson said the project, which took nine months of preparation, had been a refreshing change.

"It was great for us to do something so creative rather than just for commercial purposes. We needed to think about how to interact with children rather than our usual target audience, particularly when it came to the type of products we were offering from the online gallery," he explained."

Hobson said that receiving the award was a great honour and the experience had been unforgetable, not only for the children whose self-portraits were projected onto the palace, but for the staff at PhotoBox.

"It was really a proud moment for us and our families," he added.

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"Printers have deep relationships with their customers so we're just trying to make that relationship stickier. What we're doing is providing an income stream that printers would not have had access to before, importantly, without tying up their cash. It really is that simple," he added.

The service is known internally as "printers' webstores" and the first webstore is expected to go live in the coming days, although Carr declined to reveal the name of the first user. PaperlinX is currently also in advanced discussions with another six customers.

In essence the service is a white label online storefront that printers can add to their websites. The storefronts will offer around 500 Paperlinx products, ranging from blank packaging, office paper, consumables and other media.

"Everyone we've spoken to sees the value in it, because we're all experiencing a decline in volumes. It's a low cost, no risk opportunity and people get that," said Carr.

"It stems from us trying to develop initiatives to enable our customers to bolt on new revenue streams. Of course if it's good for their business, it's also good for us because it continues our evolution from simply being a supplier of paper," added Carr.

The webstores will be branded in line with the printer's own branding. They will be full e-commerce enabled sites where customers can pay by credit card, although invoice options will also be available.

Once placed, the orders will be delivered direct to the printer's customers via Paperlinx's 250-strong logistics fleet, based across DeliveryCo's 24 distribution hubs.

The products will be supplied at a fixed price, to ensure a common pricing structure, which will be set by Paperlinx across all printers' webstores. Printers will then generate a pre-determined "healthy" commission based on order value, which will then be either paid directly to the printer or credited to their Paperlinx account.

"It's a simple value added service for the printer to their customers, it plays into our strengths of logistics and breadth of products. We as merchants should be helping our customers to offer solutions to their customers and this does exactly that, it really is a win-win for all concerned," said Carr.

The pilot "printers' webstores" service will initially be offered to 50 pre-selected Paperlinx customers, but Carr said over time it would be opened up. In terms of initial set up costs to the printer, Carr described them as "minimal", but he added that they would depend on a variety of factors, such as volumes.

While the service will initial focus on 500 products, Carr said that more products will be added over time - once the demand has been identified.

The scheme is being launched in the UK, but Paperlinx expects to roll it out across Europe by the end of the year.

Carr hinted that Paperlinx might introduce other similar initiatives in the near future, however he declined to reveal further details.

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The 32-page publication will cover all of the show news as it happens: the deals, the launches and everything in between. In addition, it will offer insightful and thought provoking analysis of some of the key trends at the landmark event.

The six-strong editorial team's key objective will be to ensure that no delegate's visit to the show is complete without securing their copy of FespaDaily, which will be available at all of the entrances, registration points and other high-traffic areas.

"Fespa is the key international event in the wide-format sector in 2013 and it will offer an unparalleled opportunity to see where the industry is heading now and in the future. So actually reporting the latest news live from the show floor is critical - and it's what we do best," said PrintWeek editor Darryl Danielli.

For the first time, PrintWeek will be producing the FespaDaily in collaboration with Digital Textile magazine, part of the World Textile Information Network. The Digital Textile team will be producing textile news live from the show, as well as a number a textile focussed features for the Daily.

As well as producing the FespaDaily, the PrintWeek team will also be producing a daily email bulletin that will be sent to more than 40,000 key players in the wide-format sector, which, along with the Daily, will ensure that all the latest news and views of the world's largest wide-format show will be broadcast to the global industry's leading players. You can register for the Fespa bulletin here.

If you have any news during or in the run-up to and during the show, please email fespa.daily@markallengroup.com or complete the attached press release template available here.

For advertising enquiries, email angela.koduah@markallengroup.com.

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The manufacturer said it would be demonstrating the Truepress JetW1632UV's 94sqm per hour speed on its stand, and highlighting the benefits of its latest super-fine droplet printheads that deliver 1200 dpi text as well as the printer's photographic quality.

Also on show will be Screen's PDF Polisher software, which automatically applies different levels of contrast, sharpness and colour correction according to whether the image features faces or jewellery for example.

Commenting on Screen's presence at Fespa this year president of Screen Europe Brian Filler said: "It's exciting to be unveiling a new printer at FESPA that expands our range perfectly and enables us to give the market a choice of precision printers to suit their businesses."

"Screen's Truepress Jet wide-format printers feature precision inkjet imaging and engineering to give the market the best combination of quality, productivity and reliability to deliver fast return on investment," he added.

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While the ballot is primarily targeted at strengthening CWU's hand in negotiations with Royal Mail on pay, privatisation and working conditions - a strong yes vote on the question of boycotting DSA mail would give the union the mandate to introduce a boycott.

"This ballot is about protecting the interests of our members and the future of the UK postal service. It is time to challenge Royal Mail and send a strong message to the government and regulator. The consultative ballot deals with the complex issues facing our members and the postal industry. We're asking postal workers to support the union or allow Royal Mail a free hand to determine their future - there is no fence to sit on," said CWU deputy general secretary Dave Ward.

The ballot will run until 18 June, with the result expected the following day. The union stressed that the vote is not a ballot for industrial action.

The union claims that Royal and regulator Ofcom have no policy to deal with DSA competition and it fears that when TNT rolls out its own delivery network nationally, profits from DSA will be "wiped out". It also said that "Unfair competition has undermined the universal service obligation and the jobs of our members" and it hoped that a boycott will force the government and Ofcom intervene on the issue.

According to a CWU spokeswoman, the union would rather not take strike action. However, she added that a "strong yes vote" on the boycott would give it enough of a mandate to introduce it and, as the boycott would not be legally classed as industrial action, there was no requirement to give the mandatory seven days notice to Royal Mail.

"Anecdotally, at a lot of the conferences and forums we've had in the past four or five months there has been a lot of support for a boycott, but as there would be so many people involved in it, 112,000, we really would like to them to be able to have their say," she said.

"We won't be holding a separate industrial action ballot, as this is something different."

However, the union is entering uncharted territory by deeming the boycott as exempt from industrial relations legislation because it's unclear whether the boycott could mean that CWU members are in effect breaking their contracts of employment.

"It's never been done before, so it's very much a bridge to be crossed, so we're going to have to see how things pan out," said the spokeswoman.

"If we don't have to take the action, then we won't just take it bloody minded. The whole reason we're staging the ballot is to flag up what we see as unfair competition. If we can get that resolved [with regulator Ofcom] without having to take this action, then of course we will do that. But we haven't seen any movement on that in the past year," said the spokeswoman.

In March, Ofcom set out its measures to protect the universal postal service. However, the measure only applied to competitors providing an end-to-end service, not DSA operators.

CWU ballot questions

• Do you support the CWU Pay claim?
• Do you oppose the privatisation of Royal Mail?
• Do you support the boycott of competitors' mail?
• Do you support the policy of non-cooperation?

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DXG has recently completed a major upgrade of its facilities, which included the installation of a five-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster CD102 LX2 and the latest version of Heidelberg's ImageControl system, which has also been linked to its existing five-colour Speedmaster CD74 LX.

The CD102 is a 2011 model and came from an Italian printer with just 18m impressions on the clock. It was supplied by Albion Machinery. "I can't speak of them highly enough, they've been absolutely excellent," Goncalves said.

DXG gained a 20% Regional Growth Fund grant for the purchase through Lombard, a process Goncalves described as straightforward and "really user-friendly". "I'd encourage other companies to look at it," he said.

The firm employs 30 staff and runs 24/5. It specialises in rapid turnaround, high-quality litho and digital printing and serves a range of blue-chip clients, predominantly in the North West.

"Quality and service are important to us. There is no point in trying to compete on price with the really cheap people out there," Goncalves stated.

"We always use triple-coated stock, and clients love the results we get with hybrid screening. Having a 24-hour finishing department means we can produce a lot of work, incredibly quickly."

DXG has also revamped its MIS and recently went live with Tharstern's Primo system.

"Primo gives me instant information, real-time figures that will help us to make better decisions," he added.

Goncalves also said he had noticed a change of sentiment about media spend among some of the firm's key clients.

"Big companies are starting to spend on print again. It's all very well doing emails and having a nice website, but print is effective even as a standalone communication. It's still got life in it."

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Each webinar will be held at different times on 20 June, then repeated again on 12 July. The new sessions will join topics already established in April and May webinars ‘How to keep your database tidy' and ‘How to set up events and filters to manage customer service and sales,' which will both be repeated on 18 June and 2 July.

Dawn Safford, implementation and marketing at Shuttleworth, said the developer expected the enhanced programme to boost webinar attendance, from around 350 attendances throughout the year in 2012, to around 450 this year.

She said: "Webinars are a great way to keep informed; they are environmentally friendly, save time and users get to appreciate new developments that otherwise they would not see.

"The webinar attendance is increasing year on year and we have experienced a record number of customers registering to attend the new 2013 webinar programme."

The webinars are free for Shuttleworth customers, with each taking around 30 minutes to complete.

Meanwhile Shuttleworth will also exhibit at Fespa next month with the latest developments in its MIS software, which it claims is the "ultimate tool" for customer facing wide-format printers. Other developments on show will be its new supply chain management product, a new iPhone and iPad CRM app and its new Business Intelligence suite.

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It is designed to be simple to slot together, disassemble and dispose of and is claimed to be 100% recyclable.

The product complements Oriam Green's other, more robust signage and stand board Reboard, by offering a cheaper alternative, said Oriam director Craig MacWilliam.

"This will be ideal for the printer with a digital flatbed printer and cutting machine that wants to go green but in a very cost-effective way," he said.

"Previous honeycomb boards might not have been strong enough and don't react well to going under lamps in the digital process, but this does."

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Tangent On Demand, the company's on-demand digital print service, showed strong growth with sales up 5.2% to £2.24m. The company said that the increase of higher margin products on a range of substrates improved the competitive edge of the business with gross margin expected to improve further through 2013 and 2014.

The board proposes a final dividend for the year to 28 February 2013 of 20p per share (2012: 20p). If approved at the company's AGM shareholders will be paid on 2 August.

Chief executive Timothy Green said the year had been "transformational" for Tangent. "Our retail websites printed.com and goodprint.co.uk now generate a large proportion of our sales and profits. We aim to capitalise on our position in the UK market and gain a greater share of the European markerts we now service," he added.

Green said that Tangent was entering the new financial year with clear "vision" and an exciting business proposition.

He added: "Tangent will grow as our online customers buy from an expanded range of products on printed.com and goodprint.co.uk. We will continuously optimise our websites to acquire and convert customers more efficiently."

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Print IT! programme director for Proskills, Richard Moore said: "The entries this year were of a really high standard and all of the finalists were worthy of the overall prize so the judges thought long and hard before reaching their decision."

The PrintIT! Awards, which can form part of the curriculums for GCSEs and A Levels in Media Studies and Graphic Products/Product Design, were launched in 2005. Since then, more than 2,000 schools and 140,000 students have taken part in the scheme.

Outgoing PrintIT! chairman Tony Lock, who is group commercial director at Duplo International, added: "The entire print and paper industry should be very proud that it has the largest schools into industry programme in the UK. Encouraging talent, youth and energy into our industry is critical to the continued success of print and paper in this digital world."

"Education is an investment in the future-our future. Let's all get behind the fantastic initiative and continue the great work that has already started. I have been proud to be a small part of the programme."

A key element of the scheme is the twinning programme, where a school is twinned with a local printer to help the students develop a better understanding of the career opportunities in print.

This year's ‘Best Twinner' winner was Learn to Dream (LtD) in East London, which was twinned with Newstead Wood School in Orpington, Kent.

"We weren't sure what to expect, but from [LtD director] Seymour Reeves' point of view, he was really keen to give something back to the industry. And in the end it went really well as they got involved with every step of the process of producing their work," said LtD office manager Jane Edwards.

As part of their involvement, around 30 schoolchildren visited large-format specialist LtD and saw their PrintIT! projects being produced. Two of the students have subsequently undertaken work placements at the 20-staff company, with another two set to follow suit in June.

"It gives us a chance to show them all of the career options in print, and it's a great for us too because it's a fun thing to do," added Edwards.

2012/13 PrintIT! Category Winners

• Royal Opera House - Best Postcard Winner - Alex Pace from St Ives School in Cornwall
• Royal Opera House - Best Flyer Winner - Jake Turner from Bungay High School in Suffolk
• Royal Opera House - Best Poster Winner - Joseph Dann from St Ives School in Cornwall
• Royal Opera House - Best Design Concept - Hester Baird from Arthur Mellows Village College in Cambridgeshire
• PrintIT! Scotland - Best Graph - Kathryn Spain, Kinross High School in Kinross
• PrintIT! Scotland - Best Table Talker - Georgie Beavan, Kinross High School in Kinross
• Best Poster - Natasha Bates, Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire
• Best Free Design - Mahima Patel, The Beauchamp College in Leicestershire
• Best Packaging - Sophie Sanford, The Tiffin Girls' School in Surrey
• Best Floor Graphic - Tom Burnett, Chris Gardner, Andrew Francis, The Duchess's High School in Northumberland
• Best Use of Brand - Lucy Stokes, Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire
• Best Environmental Awareness - Katrina Lail, The Beauchamp College in Leicestershire
• Best Understanding of Printing Techniques - Lucy Eaton & Chloe Smith in Kirk Balk Community College in South Yorkshire
• Overall Presentation - Drew Smith, Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire
• Best Teacher - Tina Hill, Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire
• Best Twinner - Learn to Dream

Overall Winner of PrintIT! 2013
Natasha Bates, Wycombe High School in Buckinghamshire

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"In a competitive tender where experience, innovation and quality were integral, EDF Energy's decision to choose Opus Trust Marketing underlines the strength of our solution," she added.

An EDF representative said Opus had won the tender because of experience and innovation. He added: "Opus Trust Marketing's wealth of experience is very impressive and showed early on as they demonstrated a clear understanding on the specific needs of our industry and the key issues we face.

"It is evident they are committed to continual investment and intent on leading and innovating their industry; from the unique IntelliJet T20s and the quality, flexibility, speed to market they provide, to the quality assurance controls and extensive postage options."

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