2015 review: July

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

The Stationers’ Company appointed its first female Master, Helen Esmonde, publishing director at Esmonde Publishing, in a history that stretches back more than 600 years...

Former ESP Colour managing director Anthony Thirlby joined Pureprint Group as chief operating officer as part of the £60m business’s growth plan...

The Tullis Russell Papermakers taskforce established by the Scottish government agreed an action plan to spend the £6m pledged in state assistance...

News UK renewed contracts to print both the London Evening Standard, at Broxbourne, and the Financial Times at Knowsley and Eurocentral...

NME joined the growing ranks of free distribution publications in an attempt to reverse its steadily declining readership...

BPIF president Gerald White urged all the federation’s 1,300 members to take on “at least one” new apprentice in order to plug the industry’s looming skills gap...

Iconic poster company Athena re-launched as a web-to-print operation printing high-quality licensed album art from a facility in York...

The family owners behind Artisan Press were facing an investigation into the legal ownership of some associated farmland as part of the administration process, as it emerged the firm had an estimated total deficiency of £7.5m when it failed...

Witherbys celebrated 275 years in business with a rebrand and party at St Bride Foundation. The business was founded in 1740...

Xerox was awarded a three-year £40m managed print services contract by the NHS Business Services Authority...

Sun Chemicals SunJet division won the Stationers’ Company overall Innovator of the Year Award for its low-migration inkjet ink...

Moonpig.com owner PhotoBox Group was reviewing plans to float on the stock market after private equity firms expressed an interest in buying the business...

Web-to-print company Moo secured a £3m revolving credit facility from Barclays to help it grow its global business...

Eastland Colour engaged insolvency practitioner Kelly Burton of restructuring specialist Wilson Field...

The BPIF celebrated the success of more than 120 printing industry professionals who are the first graduates of its Level 5 graduate management programme at a ceremony in London...

Stephens & George opted for a fifth 10-colour Speedmaster XL 106 perfector to replace its last remaining XL 105...

Pensord Press ordered the UK’s first 10-colour Heidelberg Speedmaster SX 102 long perfector, which is due to be delivered early next year...

Barnard & Westwood became employee-owned via an Employee Ownership Trust...

BW Papersystems was to acquire Bielomatik’s paper processing group, which filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection earlier this year, for an undisclosed sum...

Heidelberg UK and Masterwork Graphic Equipment (UK) agreed a partnership that enables the German firm to sell a wide portfolio of the Chinese manufacturer’s post-press products to UK customers...

A printing error was blamed for missing text in the first 25,000 UK copies of one of this century’s most hotly anticipated books: Harper Lee’s Go Set a Watchman...

Webmart appointed two new directors to support its continued growth. Paul Dykes has been made category director, while Damian Sorgiovanni joined as customer services director...

Former Mitsubishi and KBA sales manager Phil Murphy passed away after more than 40 years in the printing industry...

Woodford Litho went into administration in what was described as a “managed process”. Steven Law of Baker Tilly was appointed as administrator, on the instructions of Woodford chairman Simon Fox...

Roberts Mart chairman John Roberts was lauded with the BPIF’s Outstanding Contribution to the UK Printing Industry Award...

Precision Group completed a £2.8m investment programme to revamp its operations with new kit such as a second £1m HP Indigo 10000...

Vale Press ordered its second Heidelberg Speedmaster SX 74...

Cimpress established its first UK manufacturing base with the acquisition of Tradeprint in a deal worth up to £20m...

CFH Docmail acquired the assets of BSS Scotland out of administration after posting a 37% increase in sales in 2015...

Presstek’s private equity owner American Industrial Partners was poised to buy web offset press manufacturer Goss after securing a definitive agreement with its current owner, Shanghai Electric Corporation...

Trinity Mirror doubled its cost reduction target for 2015 from £10m to £20m, but said it had no immediate plans to close any more of its seven remaining print sites...

Norprint was put placed into administration and parent company Magnadata sold...

DST secured a multimillion-pound, three-year print deal with private healthcare provider Bupa...

Large-format print company Your Print Partner acquired bespoke flag producer Flag Wizard...

Whistl’s management team provisionally agreed an MBO with the postal operator’s owner PostNL following the closure of Whistl’s end-to-end delivery service...

The Financial Times-owned printer St Clements Press was sold, alongside the newspaper, to Japanese media giant Nikkei in an £844m deal...

The Printing Charity awarded a record number of grants – 37 –in its annual Print Futures Awards...