Review of 2021: October

Bluetree acquired Kingsbury Press
Bluetree acquired Kingsbury Press

Our annual roundup of all the big stories from around the UK printing industry in the past 12 months.

YM Group started printing the Mail supplements, some 2.5m magazines a week... Web-to-print software developer and printer Print Evolved acquired Mayfield Press (Oxford) to maximise the strengths of each business. The deal was completed on 1 October... Bluetree Group moved into luxury books and brochures with the acquisition of Kingsbury Press. The award-winning business is located around 13 miles from Bluetree’s Wath upon Dearne supersite... Unsubstantiated claims about sustainability could be costing the UK paper, print, and mailing industries £22m a year, according to research from Two Sides... UK paper mills could be forced to shut down if the gas price crisis impacting energy-intensive industries isn’t resolved soon, warned Andrew Large, director general of the Confederation of Paper Industries... Koenig & Bauer Durst officially unveiled its seven-colour, 5,500sph VariJet 106 B1 sheetfed inkjet press, originally shown as a concept at Drupa 2016... Packaging specialist GWP Group was fined £60,000 after a worker suffered serious crush injuries in a rotary die-cutter... Fespa’s Global Print Expo 2021 opened at the RAI exhibition centre in Amsterdam, welcoming wide-format printers and signmakers back to a live event. Following the event it was hailed a success by exhibitors, many of which found the Amsterdam event to be busier and more successful than expected... Stora Enso announced it was investing nearly €100m to further expand its packaging board production capabilities, and could convert a second line at its Oulu mill to add even more capacity... Prinovis UK announced it was moving from 24/7 to 24/5 operation – but with the option to scale back up at peak periods – as part of a restructure following the loss of the DMG Media supplements in September...Direct mail and fulfilment specialist The Flow Group acquired SAAS platform print management company The Personal Print Portal... CS Labels was acquired by expanding Belgium-headquartered labels and packaging specialist Asteria Group... DS Smith CEO Miles Roberts called for the UK’s fragmented recycling systems to be standardised in order to plug a recycling gap that could be costing the economy up to £1bn a year... Directors at ACA Group put part of the business into liquidation due to the impact of the Covid-19 pandemic and the ending of the furlough scheme... Cimpress announced a new over-arching parent brand – Vista – for VistaPrint and its sister businesses, and a fresh acquisition: Depositphotos and its do-it-yourself design platform Crello... Webmart founder Simon Biltcliffe decided to stand as a candidate in the upcoming election to become Mayor of South Yorkshire. The incumbent, Labour MP Dan Jarvis, is stepping down and the election to replace him will be held in May 2022...