PaperlinX claws its way back towards profitability through a combination of cost cutting and focusing on margins. A statutory loss after tax of A$63.6 million for the year may not seem like good news but it is when compared to the A$92.8 million loss the previous year.

‘A return to the industry status quo,’ is how Richard Timson describes the surge in offset press investment over the past two years. Top of the range offset presses going in to commercial and packaging printers will boost productivity in a sector that cannot be serviced by digital technology.

The company behind Hurslton Park printing business, Gopher Graphics, stopped trading in March and had liquidators, SVPartners appointed in July with debts of $291,754.54. But Gopher Graphics is still in business.

Look out for more takeovers and buyouts from Blue Star as increased focus on carrying out the company’s strategic plan will see him working ever more closely with Graham Morgan, head of alliances and acquisitions.

Even as paper volumes are stable or growing the prices being paid for Australia’s printing and communication papers are in free fall. Recent upwards movements reflect only the impact of the depreciation of the Australian dollar.

Paperless Schmaperless. After being given the ‘we don’t do paper’ line by none other than Adobe, Andy McCourt gets out his big pen and notepad to write a riposte to all those digital evangelists, drawing on the ancient wisdom of the Bible to help prove his point.

Industry seer and gadfly, James Cryer, took up an invitation to meet Treasurer Joe Hockey to talk over some points in a ‘Budget Review’ at his North Sydney office. Here is how it happened and, for those with a taste for it, the original communication between the two.

James Cryer wrote to Federal Treasurer Joe Hockey to set him straight on a few items from the Budget. Joe invited James around to have a chat. Here's the original 'manifesto.'

The Swiss label press manufacturer is now one of the largest shareholders in Heidelberg as the sale of his Gallus company is finalized.

The remarkable acceptance of a bid by Sureprint, owned by related parties, for the failed Sydney business, in the face of a competing bid, has caused outrage from creditors and the other bidder alike.

In 1974 Kevin Thomas and Warwick Roden (pictured) were two junior members of the inaugural committee of the LIA when it grew from the genesis of the Lithographic Club, founded in 1965, in Sydney. They were both speakers at last night's 50th Anniversary dinner in Silverwater.

CMYKhub has opened an office in Houston, Texas and has entered a licence agreement with NextDayFourColor (ND4C) to operate the company's business network in Texas. ND4C is a leading trade printer in Texas with two manufacturing plants, Houston and San Antonio.

It’s been a while between massive parties in the printing industry as budgets come under pressure but last week’s Sydney launch of the Versant 2100 was a carnival of good times.

The Future Print Business Transformation Project is a two-hour Leadership Briefing, which is an opportunity for business owners to learn about the watershed programme to assist printing business change and grow. The first of a series will kick off this week at 8.30 am -10.30 am on Thursday 14 August at The Hackney Hotel & Function Centre, 95 Hackney Road, Hackney SA.

Amazing offer – Never to be repeated Save $10,000 on an Acuity LED 1600 until August 31 Stock take sale delivers on a strictly limited number of machines.