Review of 2013: July

Acquisitions, investments and insolvencies: all the action from a year in print

It was found that the unsecured creditors of collapsed Goodhead Group were owed more than £100m, once a huge claim from the Pension Protection Fund was taken into account… Muller Martini set out its global restructuring plans that could affect around 550 jobs worldwide… Workers at the print unit at Merseyside-based Crown Speciality Packaging took industrial action after management allegedly reneged on an agreed pay increase. The strike was eventually called off after the company announced a restructure that could halve its print department… Alpine Press was bought out of administration by its previous owner after the company was blighted by a spate of bed debt… The final chapter of the Aldersons Print Group came to an end as Centrical Technologies closed its doors a little over eight months after it rose from the ashes of the collapsed group… CPI Group was in negotiations with its bankers, including BNP Paribas and RBS, to restructure its debt… Government plans to privatise the Royal Mail prompted an angry response and the threat of industrial action from the Communication Workers Union… Communisis secured a deal to take over the in-house print operations of Lloyds TSB, effectively doubling the size of its transactional printing business… Agfa Graphics planned to close its printing plate factory in Manerbio, northern Italy, with the loss of all 123 jobs… York Mailing secured a major vote of confidence in print, becoming the first printing company to receive a multimillion-pound investment via the Business Growth Fund... The Scottish government confirmed its commitment to introducing standardised tobacco packaging, after England delayed a similar proposal... Punch Graphics was to sell its majority stake in digital press manufacturer Xeikon in a deal that valued the business at €185m… Wren Printed Packaging went into administration, with the business subsequently closed and all staff made redundant… Paperlinx UK managing director Phil Carr left the business "at the request of the board" just eight months after taking on the role…

july2Alpha Media Solutions, the last of the companies that emerged from the collapse of Scorpio Print Finishing in 2006, fell into administration with the loss of all 61 jobs… KBA acquired an 85% stake in German direct-to-container decoration press manufacturer Kammann Maschinenbau... Print management firm HH Global won a three-year contract to provide electronics giant Siemens with global end-to-end print services… Pan-European book printing group CPI was the subject of a takeover offer from Banque Publique d’Investissement, the French state-owned bank, together with an unnamed private investor… St Ives was in consultation with the workforce at its St Ives Direct site in Bradford about outsourcing the enclosing side of the operation… Goss International planned to shed 300 jobs at Goss France as part of its restructure… Andrew Hemmings, the former director of collapsed Cromwell Press, pleaded guilty to false accounting after initially denying the charges against him… Directors of Eastbourne-based technical services supplier Veritek Global bought out the business after securing a combined debt and equity funding package… Kodak filed a supplement to its Chapter 11 Plan of Reorganisation that detailed its planned new executive line-up…