Business

The Bank of England and HM Treasury have announced an extension to the Funding for Lending scheme (FLS) that is "heavily skewed" to support net lending to SMEs.

The applications process to become part of a pioneering innovation centre in Dundee that will support start-ups in the digital, technology and creative media sectors has opened.

US printers had a sharp drop in first quarter profits despite a modest rise in sales revenues, the Semper International survey for Q1 2013 has found.

Communications firm Corporate Document Services (CDS) has won the reprographics, digital print and print management contract for the London Borough of Sutton for the third time.

Foster City, CA-based EFI cited strong US sales as well as continued demand for its Fiery controllers as it reported Q1 income of $8.2m (Q1 2012: $6.2m) on a 7% revenue rise to $171.4m.

Xerox cited weakness in its Document Technology business, which includes the iGen commercial press line, as it reported Q1 sales declined by 2.7% over the same period in 2012 to $5.4bn.

Busch Graphic Machinery UK is celebrating a bumper first quarter, selling more machines at the start of 2013 than the two previous years combined.

Benson Gateshead has invested in coating plate production equipment in a move away from outsourcing to reduce processing time and expand the variety of coating designs on offer.

Leicestershire-based Frip Finishing installed a second Bobst BMA 126 foiler into its Hinkley site recently, as part of a long term investment strategy.

Swiss CTP system manufacturer Luscher has gone bankrupt.