Embattled Ipex organisers were dealt another blow when Ricoh, the second-largest exhibitor on the floorplan, announced it was cancelling its 1,836sqm booking… FFEI planned to invest more than £2m in the purchase and fit-out of a new facility to boost development of new inkjet products… In a month in which seven of the 10 most read stories on printweek.com concerned MPG Printgroup, the company’s decline slowly unfolded. At the start of the month it became apparent that the company was not in administration and was evaluating rescue proposals. However, by 18 June it was clear that the situation was not salvageable. Administrators from BDO were finally appointed on 26 June after the 267-staff group had been in limbo for over a month… Polestar Bicester managed to maintain business as usual after being hit by a fire that destroyed half of its work-in-progress storage facility… KBA UK managing director Christian Knapp announced he was to step down in July after 12 years with the press manufacturer's UK arm… St Ives sealed a multimillion-pound exclusive supply deal with Kodak that covered CTP plates and ink for its high-speed inkjet presses. Later in the month, a board-level restructure at St Ives saw the departure of printing and publishing managing director Lloyd Wigglesworth… Graphic Packaging International was set to close its GPI Gillingham site six months after buying it from Contego Packaging, putting 170 jobs at risk… Communisis planned to transfer its Trafford Wharf cheque printing division to the company's Leeds facility, as part of an ongoing cost-reduction strategy… Paperlinx closed its technical services department as part of the merchanting group's "ongoing review of costs"…
The Communication Workers Union members voted overwhelmingly in favour of a boycott of downstream access providers’ mail. However, Royal Mail secured a High Court ruling that prevented the union taking action for at least a week. In response, the union said it had accepted its lawyers’ advice that it would be illegal to boycott access mail on the back of the consultative ballot alone, but vowed to fight on… Kodak’s plans for exiting Chapter 11 status progressed, with the company proposing a $406m rights issue. On 26 June, the company gained court approval for a number of steps that will be crucial to its successful re-emergence… APS Group won a three-year contract to supply print and point-of-sale material to one of the UK's largest independent retailers, the Midlands Co-operative Society… Steve Dryden, former group finance director of packaging business DS Smith, was named as chief financial officer of consumables giant Flint Group... The Paper Pallet Company was fined for safety breaches after a worker's hand was crushed in an unguarded laminating machine… Domino posted a near-£4m loss for its first-half profits after a £27m write-down resulting from the failure of its egg-coding project with TEN Media… The 50th-anniversary edition of Fespa exceeded all expectations with footfall across the show's five days totalling 22,000, beating the visitor total for Fespa 2010 in Munich by 1,000… A merger between Berforts Information Press and Butler Tanner & Dennis was set to create the third-biggest book-printing group in the UK…
