The Galley Club of Sydney will hold its annual general meeting tomorrow evening, April 27th, to discuss plans for the future of the club - including donating most of its money to charity. Former president Michael Schulz said it was no longer financially viable to hold an annual awards ceremony.

As the largest trade show in Australia has come to represent both the printing industry and the signage sector, one company has assumed the mantle of being the complete supplier across both sectors – Starleaton.

Sustainability experts are preparing a new environmental ISO standard to measure the energy usage of high speed digital printers. In her 250th Verdigris blog, Laurel Brunner looks at the growing awareness of sustainability in the graphics industry.

PacPrint 2017, co-located with the Visual Impact Melbourne show, will open in less than a month and, with 150 exhibitors signed up and visitor numbers tracking strongly, organisers say it’s shaping up as one of the best in recent years.

Australia’s only office paper manufacturer, Australian Paper, welcomed the government’s decision to impose dumping duties on A4 copy paper exported from Brazil, China, Indonesia and Thailand, and has called on government departments to stop buying the dumped paper.

Top down changes at Fuji Xerox Asia-Pacific reflects continuing turnover of staff in the local operation as the company downsizes and refocuses in turbulent times.

The proposed deal by Spicers (formerly PaperlinX) to break the 'deadlock' with its hybrid shareholders and restore its capital structure is moving ahead, with a timetable now set for judicial hearings and shareholder meetings to resolve the issue. If approved, the deal will be implemented on June 27.

Digital print supplier EFI has announced its new Pro 16h wide format inkjet printer. Starleaton Digital Solutions will exhibit the Pro 16h on its stand number E30 at PacPrint in Melbourne next month, and Ben Eaton, CEO of Starleaton, is excited to show it off.

It’s being touted as an ideal entry point for commercial printers looking to break into label converting – and now the new Mark Andy Digital One label press is en route to Australian shores, with one on order in Western Australia and another to be shown at PacPrint in Melbourne next month.

Entries are now open for the Australasian Catalogue Association’s (ACA) 26th Annual Awards, which include for the first time a new category for Direct Mail. The awards will be presented at the Melbourne Convention & Exhibition Centre on 25 August.

The outdoor commodity rigid sign market has long been dominated by trusty fluted plastics but there is now an alternative for short-term outdoor signage that offers environmental and production advantages over fluted plastic sheets.

Techkon managing director Albin Baranauskas will present a free workshop on spectrophotometers at next month’s PacPrint 2017 exhibition in Melbourne. Local distributor Colour Graphic Services will welcome Branauskas from Germany on his first visit to Australia

The ACCC is likely to give the go ahead to the merger of leading Australian paper merchants BJ Ball and K.W. Doggett because the new entity will be well short of market dominance, according to pulp and paper industry bible IndustryEdge.

Platinum Equity has signed a deal to acquire OfficeMax from Office Depot for an undisclosed amount. The acquisition gives the US equity giant two of the three major chains in Australia’s $10bn office supplies market, coming weeks after it bought Staples.

Melbourne commercial printer Print Dynamics has started selling off equipment and printing machinery after closing the doors at its Mount Waverley factory last week. “We’re talking to many different people but nothing’s been signed with anyone."

Opus Group says its exit from the outdoor media market will allow the company to further invest in its core Australian publishing business. “The new hard cover binding line installed at our Riverwood site is a good example of an investment that will improve production efficiency."