2015 review: May

All the business news, from acquisitions to liquidations, investments to divestments, from a year in the industry.

Wyndeham Group owner Walstead expanded onto the continent – and into gravure printing – with the acquisition of Be Printers’ £100m-turnover Spanish operations from Bertelsmann...

Adare Group revealed it was to unite its Kalamazoo Secure Solutions and Adare operations under a single brand and management team...

Artisan Press went into administration just three months after the family owners announced a plan to “right size” the Leicester web offset printer...

Kodak said it expects Prosper revenues to overtake that of Versamark to deliver the majority of its inkjet systems division turnover during 2015. Kodak expects to ship 25 Prosper systems in 2015...

Shop Direct stopped printing the Littlewoods catalogue, which was print managed by RR Donnelley, after more than 80 years...

Antalis bought packaging businesses 1st Class Packaging, Donington Packaging Supplies and Parkside Packaging, which had been part of Paperlinx UK...

Whistl suspended its end-to-end mail delivery service blaming a funding shortfall...

Surrey digital printer Four Point Printing was bought by US-based Imperial CRS in a deal brokered by specialist M&A advisors Evolution CBS...

Sappi announced an 8% price rise on coated fine paper and coated mechanical paper reels, effective from 1 July, citing “unsustainable” margins...

Digital agency Born Group appointed Pureprint and Geoff Neal Group to print and finish Sotheby’s catalogues after it won the multimillion-pound global contract...

Precision Colour Printing more than doubled its perfect binding capacity with the installation of a new binding line from Kolbus. The web printer has bought a new 12-station Kolbus KM 412C high-speed binder, in a £1.5m-plus spend...

Macfarlane Group was on the hunt for another acquisition “to fill geographical gaps” following its successful purchases of Lane Packaging and Network Packaging in 2014...

Two European papermakers, Sappi Europe and Lecta, announced plans to implement further price rises over the summer...

De La Rue boss Martin Sutherland described polymer as “the substrate of the future” for banknotes...

Artisan Press was set to close as administrator Deloitte confirmed that there had been no interest in a purchase of the company as going concern Heidelberg UK fined over accident...

Heidelberg UK was fined £11,000 and ordered to pay £7,000 in costs in relation to a courier driver who was injured at its Brentford site...

Royal Mail blamed increased competition for “lower than anticipated UK parcel revenue” in its results for the year to 29 March 2015...

A new paper agent emerged from the ashes of Paperlinx UK, and has teamed up with newly independent German mill Feldmuehle Uetersen. Paper2print was set up by joint directors David Melville and Richard Wilson, formerly key account directors at Paperlinx’s web division...

Tullis Russell Papermakers looked certain to close after administrators to the Scottish paper mill received no offers for the business and assets by the 18 May deadline...

The government revealed plans to create a new body, the Small Business Conciliation Service, to help settle disputes between small and large businesses, especially over late payment, as part of a new Enterprise Bill...

Brother’s proposed £1bn acquisition of Domino Printing Sciences was approved by the European Commission. Domino subsequently held a meeting on 4 June to seek approval from shareholders...

An “acute” decline in business card sales contributed to an 80.4% drop in pre-tax profits at Tangent Communications in the 12 months to 28 February 2015...

Polar revealed that it planned to launch an entry-level laser cutter, the Digicut Laser in autumn, which would be available for around £40,000...

Yaçar Guvenen was inaugurated as the Fespa president for the next two years...

At Fespa Delta Group signed for two HP Scitex 11000 flatbed presses and a Durst Rho 512R roll-to-roll printer...

Multi Packaging Solutions installed the UK’s first seven-colour Domino N610i UV inkjet label press at its Bristol label printing site...

Wide-format specialist Exhibit Graphics signed for the first Hollanders ColorBooster 320 digital textile printer at Fespa...

Clicks became the first company in the world to install a Screen Truepress Jet W3200UV HS with a roll-to-roll option, after it signed for the press at Fespa...