Briefing
Green shoots prompt investment in leaner, meaner sector
Infinity Finishing was one of the lucky ones, but just how lucky only time will tell. The business started in mid October, but unlike many would-be start-ups, this one was made possible with a loan...
Results bear out a radical restructure
It is 2009 and St Ives' chief executive Patrick Martell, who joined the group as an apprentice in 1980, is giving his first major interview since taking the reins in April of the worst year in the...
Shotgun wedding for European paper giants?
As mega-mergers go, the potential combination of UPM and Stora Enso's European paper assets is hard to top. The resulting entity would produce 16m tonnes of paper annually, control 40% of the European...
Confidence crisis is print's opportunity
In tough times, marketing budgets are typically the first to be squeezed. And this, as any printer working with marketers will tell you, has certainly held true over the past few years.
Gender imbalance is costing the industry and the country
Women need work and work needs women, concludes a report from a government-backed industry group that coincides with a new print initiative prompted by the same sentiment.
UK apprenticeships set for shake-up
Last month, the National Apprenticeship Service announced that up to 20,000 apprenticeships were available on its system, while the latest statistics from the Department for Business, Innovation and...
Privatisation plan raises hackles and hopes in equal measure
There's little doubt that Royal Mail bosses welcome the government's long-awaited pledge to privatise the group, but for some in the print industry, it's a poison pen letter, tainted with the threat...
Will forest pledge be enough to rehabilitate APP?
Asia Pulp & Paper (APP) promised to end to all deforestation across Indonesia in a new Forest Conservation Policy (FCP) published to a surprised, if not sceptical, world on 5 February.
Business must adapt to the reality of an ageing workforce
Office for National Statistics figures published this month show that our workforce is most definitely ageing. In fact this year, in the period between February and April, the number of people in...
Cyber crime is a problem that we all need to take seriously
If cyber crime is a term that has until now not pinged on your radar, things are about to change.
Volume drop doesn't tell whole story
The news that paper volumes are in almost free-fall decline, will come as no surprise to anyone.
Kodak maps out the road to recovery
It was yet another weighty document relating to Kodak's Chapter 11 process, but among the hundreds of filings, this was the most significant to date.
Mergers and acquisitions call for an intelligent strategy
Judging by the amount of mergers and acquisitions across the print and packaging industries over the past 18 months, we appear to be hitting a peak in M&A activity for the sector.
Prime yourself for a paperless ticket revolution, say experts
If government plans are realised, paper travel tickets will disappear, but this is not necessarily bad news for printers.
Keep a log of your timber or pay a towering fine
Historically, recording information on pulp and paper sources has been limited to merchants and manufacturers. New legislation will change that Words Pamela Mardle