Review of 2018: May

All the biggest stories from the past 12 months.

St Ives sold its last remaining printing site – Clays. The UK’s biggest book printer, has been sold to Italian firm Elcograf for £23.8m... Large-format printer Cestrian was acquired by 3a-Group, owner of Austrian digital and screen printing specialist Arian... Johnston Press chief executive Ashley Highfield is to leave the newspaper group after more than six years in the role... Denmaur Independent Papers re-organised its operations to give it a sharper focus on opportunities for growth. The £116m-turnover paper merchant has split the business into two trading divisions, Denmaur Media and Denmaur Paper, focused on publishing and stock business respectively... Printfine was poised to enter liquidation after 50 years in business. Managing director Peter Scott confirmed that his company was in the process of going into liquidation... Minuteman Press King’s Lynn acquired printed garment company YourWear as part of a franchise-wide initiative to expand into clothing and promotional products... Andy Rae left Heidelberg to pursue new opportunities following a parting of the ways over strategy. Rae had worked at the manufacturer for more than 20 years... Go Inspire Group was on the hunt for a new managing director to augment a recent management reshuffle across the £45m-turnover GI Solutions and Eclipse 4DM businesses as it looks to target further acquisitions... Hobs Group sold Hobs On-Site, its managed print services (MPS) division, to independent IT services business SCC, for an undisclosed sum... Kingswood iOptus was acquired out of administration by Paragon Group, in a pre-pack deal, after the 23-year-old business hit cashflow problems... HH Global posted record financial results once more, with its full-year profits up by 11.7% and revenues up by 12.2%... Walstead Group began its acquisition of Austrian printer NP Druck. Separately, Walstead was in the process of relocating a 64pp Lithoman press from Wyndeham Roche to its Madrid web offset supersite... Wide-format specialist SPD Design & Print was set to enter liquidation following the transfer of its assets and employees to a new company, SPD Print & Design... InnerWorkings, the US-based print management and marketing giant that has a UK subsidiary, was facing a class action from investors once again over alleged financial misreporting... Independent German paper mill Feldmuehle Uetersen, which filed for insolvency in January, was sold to a private equity business...Former Cestrian managing director Phill Reynolds has launched new business OPOC, Online Proof Of Completion, which offers a field management tool of the same name to make data collection more efficient... Trade finishing start-up Purfect Binding Company officially opened its doors following the installation of a raft of Horizon and Renz equipment... More than 70 jobs were at risk after Mondi launched a consultation over the closure of its Scunthorpe flexible packaging plant... Claremon has taken on the assets of its Bradford neighbour Wheelden Print after the latter went into voluntary liquidation last month with the loss of 13 jobs...