Features

Best of British: Paper masters
Just over 70 years since ES (Edward Stephen) Hampstead set up KAS Paper Systems in New Malden, this British manufacturer is still going strong.

Star product: Perfect Box Solutions Optimus Prime
Falling somewhere between slow manual boxmaking options and pricey automated systems, this machine may have a familiar face but it is one of a kind – and could have a ‘transformative’ impact.

Star product: Ricoh Pro Z75
This B2-plus duplexing inkjet press is aiming to take over short-run offset work – and give dry toner digital presses a run for their money – by offering higher capacity but lower operating costs.

Me & My: SwissQprint Nyala 4
When GMD Print & Install’s founder Justas Gadliauskas visited SwissQprint’s UK office, he was looking for a used large-format flatbed printer. Instead, with the help of a tailored payment plan...

Q&A: Ian Cunningham, Global category lead – print, direct mail and branded merchandise, APS Group
Ian is 58 and has worked in the industry for 30 years, having originally trained in graphic design.

Rising star: Louisa Stokes Client services administrator, Augustus Martin
Louisa is 21 and started working at Augustus Martin in January 2022.

60 seconds with Fathers Finishers
A dream of Nick Fathers become reality in 2003 when he bit the bullet and started Fathers Finishers.

Overmatter: Who doesn’t love a pull-up banner?
Perhaps more realistically, who does?!

Harwood King has the golden touch
King Midas may have suffered from the blingiest of afflictions, but he probably didn’t know his way around a foiler. Sussex fine art printer Harwood King Printmakers, however, definitely does.

Business inspection: Signs of strength
"If you don’t have resilience, don’t think about starting your own business. Plain and simple.”

Caveat emptor
Buying a business out of administration can be profitable in some situations, but it is incumbent on the buyer to understand exactly what they are buying.

You couldn’t make it up
Sometimes we come across stories of criminality that are so outlandish as to be unbelievable – where the brass neck of the perpetrators is beyond belief. Yet these stories are often, remarkably, true.

Visionaries welcome
The Fespa Global Print Expo is the wide-format print organisation’s annual flagship event, this year being held at the Messe Berlin, with the city proud of its 200-year history of holding trade events...

Fespa 2025 stand highlights
The wide-format sector’s big annual shindig is back, this year hosted in trendy and vibrant Berlin, with a focus on innovation and the potential within the sector.

Best of British: Elephantine ambitions
Metallic Elephant is an Essex- based company that says it’s the only UK based manufacturer of new-design hot foiling and embossing machines.