My Help Line files will need to be updated following York Mailing's acquisition of Pindar's web offset business.

Who prints short-grain? Is one of those questions that pops up fairly regularly. The 40pp short-grain Lithoman III included with the acquired Pindar facilities has reinforced York's position as the dominant provider of short-grain web offset printing in the country. It's existing facilities include 48pp and 32pp equivalents.

The only other short-grain commercial webs I'm aware of here on the small island are at St Ives Direct and Polestar. But York definitely has the most expansive (and, I think, most modern) offering.

York has been very successful in carving a profitable niche for itself by concentrating on some very specific high-volume, time-critical web print products - anyone who shops at Lidl or Aldi will know exactly what I'm talking about. It's going to be fascinating to see whether its plans for integrating the Pindar web business include applying a similar model at Scarborough.