UPDATE: PMP shareholders have overwhelmingly voted to approve the company's merger with IPMG, with 99 percent in favour of the deal.

Well-known industry identity Steve Dunwell is retiring from his role as managing director of manroland Australasia. He announced the appointment of Dennis Wickham as the new managing director, with Andreas Schwoepfinger, as the new director of technical services.

Most people outside of the printing and graphic arts industry learn about our industry from books. The incredible range and scope of all other things printed, from wallpaper to solar panels, is hidden behind the veil of text and images on paper.

Engineers from KBA in Germany will fly into Sydney early in the new year to put the finishing touches on a new KBA Rapida large format sheetfed offset press at Centrum Printing. “We had a total of nine containers to unload," says Centrum MD Sandra Mascaro.

Australian packaging group Orora expanded its US presence with a $59 million acquisition of New Jersey printer The Register Print Group, a high-end point of purchase retail display provider.

The new issue of Print 21 magazine is a perfect example of the results that can be achieved with high quality paper, according to Tony Bertrand, national sales & marketing manager for BJ Ball.

“When you do your research, you find that Epson RIPS printers for offices like ours are very hard to beat,” says Jim Dryburgh from H&R Block in Mudgee, central west NSW. “The life of the ink, the sheer volume they print and at such a low cost makes the decision a no-brainer."

Blue Star Group, a division of ASX listed IVE Group, has acquired North Sydney-based digital printer and retail display business Display Bay – the fifth major deal by Blue Star this year. Display Bay will be integrated into the Blue Star Display facility at South Granville in the new year.

Many believe the consolidation of the printing industry is, by and large, a good thing. It strengthens printing companies and ensures their sustainable future. But not everyone agrees. James Cryer for one argues for diversity and against the current “takeover mania.”

Out-of-home advertisers APN Outdoor and oOh!media have signed a $1.6 billion “merger of equals” deal that will see with APN Outdoor shareholders taking 55 per cent of the newly merged group. Long-term APN Outdoor CEO Richard Herring and oOh!media CFO Peter McClelland will be forced out under the plan.

Digital printer immij has installed an SBL folder gluer to cope with an increasing of demand for short-run packaging. “Immij identified the SBL TS 800 as the perfect solution to a growing amount of out-sourced short-run packaging, says Tom Ralph (pictured), MD of supplier Graph-Pak.

Innovative uses of digital print for packaging were highlighted at the Standout workshop in Sydney presented by partners HP and Schawk Australia, including a Japanese water bottling firm's idea to partner with a local news agency to print snippets of the daily and local news on the bottles.

Air ambulance paramedic Peter Davidson - who helped save the lives of eight sailors in the tragic 1998 Sydney to Hobart yacht race - has been named as one of several keynote speakers at PacPrint 2017 in Melbourne.

The last remaining press in the closure sale of iconic Perth printer Pilpel Print - a 2011 HP Indigo 3550 in outstanding condition - has been reduced by $10,000 for a quick sale.

Improving the green credentials of the graphics business can take many forms. Most motivations for doing so are economic rather than philanthropic, however the future of the printing and publishing industries depends on both social and economic improvements, writes Laurel Brunner.

Printing Industries board members Ron Patterson and Chris Segaert will join Peter Lane as the Association's representatives on the board of PacPrint 2017. Both Patterson and Segaert have been involved with previous PacPrint exhibitions.