2016 and all that... November

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...

Independent “finer things” online magazine Luxurious launched a print version, albeit with a novel distribution model... The Logson Group acquired The Boxshop, a Scottish manufacturer of cardboard boxes... Demand-ing Ltd was placed into administration and appeared to have phoenixed... Kalas Packaging became the first UK owner of an HP Indigo 30000 Digital Press... Smurfit Kappa UK acquired Saxon Packaging for an undisclosed sum... Lord Blunkett delivered the keynote address for the annual Printing Charity luncheon... Riverport Press established a new litho division by taking on the building and some of the assets of Impress Print Ltd, which went into liquidation in October... Agfa confirmed “non-exclusive discussions” with CompuGroup Medical SE... Multi Packaging Solutions acquired AJS Labels... Xpress Group acquired creative agency Calico, for an undisclosed sum, and purchased a new HP Indigo 7800 digital press... Johnston Press confirmed it was in discussions to sell “certain titles” to Iliffe Media... ABC Imaging appeared on BBC One’s flagship reality show The Apprentice... Kingsdown acquired print and design firm Burleigh Portishead for an undisclosed sum and invested £1.1m in a new RMGT 928P press... KBA revised upwards its sales and earnings targets for the full year after achieving double-digit growth in Q3... Graphic Arts (UK) and subsidiaries Printoff Graphic Arts and Concept4 Creative were acquired by an MBO team... Kodak revealed it is to relocate its European headquarters from Switzerland to Watford... Integrity Print bought Alliance Labels... Anton Group invested around £2m in two HP Indigo 12000 digital presses... DS Smith opened its first two UK PackRight Centres for prototype design... Glamour magazine ditched the ‘handbag-size’ format it pioneered... Adverset Media Solutions spent £1m in a strategic step up to B2... The Trinity Mirror Cardiff printing site entered a consultation period over its proposed closure... Veriteva, the buy-and-build business set up by former Lateral Group duo Nick Dixon and Rick Taylor, purchased data analytics firm Blueberry Wave... St Ives Clays became the first company in Europe to invest in Ricoh’s Digital Book Printing Solution... The new £5 note hit the headlines after it emerged the production process required the use of a tiny quanitity of beef tallow, prompting a petition calling for a re-formulation of the polymer... DMGT planned to close its Harmsworth Didcot site, putting around 50 jobs at risk at a likely cost of nearly £50m...