2016 and all that... March

No guesses as to which story dominated the news in 2016, the 20 most read stories on printweek.com for 2016 are all about Polestar. Nevertheless there was plenty else going on, not least of all Drupa...

Communisis executive assistant fraudulently who used a company credit card to fund a £250,000 spending spree was jailed for three-and-a-half years... EFI bought Bradford-based dye and colour products specialist Rialco... Holmen Paper restarted its PM 11 production line at its Hallsta Paper Mill in Hallstavik, Sweden, following a fire the previous November... Nelson Packaging went into administration blaming the introduction of the plastic bag levy in England... The MBO team at Tangent Communications responded to Writtle’s bid with a revised offer of 4p per share, prompting Writtle to pull out. Later in the month the MBO bid was declared unconditional... William Gibbons wrestled the Haymarket consumer division’s web offset contract from Wyndeham Group... Greetings card company Moonpig had to apologise after customers complained of undelivered, late or damaged cards and gifts on Mother’s Day... Elephant Print & Display installed 600 solar panels at its Lewes facility allowing its presses to run on renewable energy... YM Group installed a Goss Sunday 4000 web press at its Lettershop operation... Pureprint said it was to close the manufacturing side of its Houghton Regis site as part of a circa £5.5m restructure... MBA Group signed for the UK’s first Ricoh Pro VC60000 colour inkjet webs, part of a circa-£5m spend... Stephens & George signed a multimillion-pound deal for new Muller Martini equipment for its bindery in what was described as the UK’s biggest finishing spend for a decade... SPS Print Group entered a company voluntary arrangement... Jones & Brooks marked its 140th anniversary with the purchase of a five-colour Speedmaster SX 74 with coater... Imagenet, the graphics services division of packaging giant Coveris, acquired graphics business Rivendell Europe... PBL Print undertook a production “metamorphosis” costing £2.3m replacing five ageing Heidelberg presses... Stuart Still, the co-owner and director of Zeta Colour, an East Sussex-based print company, and business partner Marianne Van Santé were found guilty of overseeing the production of brochures that promoted fraudulent investment schemes worth £1.5m... Nearly 100 staff who worked at Aylesford Newsprint in Kent were awarded around £750,000 after being dismissed without consultation... Johnston Press confirmed shareholder approval of the acquisition of newspaper i... Anthony Cockcroft bought Hull-based GKD Litho out of administration...

Polestar: six months of mayhem

A second pre-pack deal is mooted... Click here for the full story