More than 100 jobs are on the chopping block as Canon cuts Australian staff by 10%, but its Professional Print division looks set to survive the cull. A bulk of back-office support and admin roles will be scrapped as the business restructures in a bid to boost local profits.

Greg Grace, LIA Fellow, gives high praise to the training regimen of the Sydney packaging printer at the Graduate of the Year awards. “It’s a credit to the training practices of the company that two of its apprentices made it to the final. It says a lot about the quality of the management,” said Grace (pictured).

Representing over 60 per cent of the floor space that exhibitors will take at next year’s trade show in Sydney, GAMAA members are enthusiastic about the event’s new location. "I reckon it’s even better than the Darling Harbour space, it's where people live,” said Phil Rennell (pictured), chairman of PrintEx.

Industry specialist supplier, DES, to help online buyers purchase with confidence by promoting one of the largest ranges of late-model wide format printers in Australia. The website is aimed at introducing a new level of confidence as well as cost efficiency to the wide format equipment sector.

The latest in Nuovo Gidue’s digital flexo press technology, the Combat M3, has gone in at R. Wagner Prestige Labels, boosting production and opening up new markets. The M3 landed in February, and it has already more than doubled throughput for the business.

When Pantone published its first swatch book in 1963 it revolutionised the way we deal with colour. But long before there was PMS there was ‘A. Boogert’, an obscure artist who knocked out his own colour guide book in 1692 and beat Pantone to the punch by a whopping 271 years.

The Federal Government’s 2014-2015 budget has been welcomed by Printing Industries for providing certainty over the government’s economic policy direction and the likely impacts on business and consumer spending.

Having jacked up postage prices and entered direct marketing digital printing by installing a couple of high speed printers last year, Australia Post appears to be spruiking a ‘Complete Print + Deliver’ service by tempting businesses with PO boxes, like mine.

The $450 million merger of Ricoh and Lanier will have a new boss, Lanier’s own managing director John Hall. In a shock turnaround, Les Richardson will depart the business after nearly six years, despite earlier reports tipping Hall as the one to drop out after the merge.

Melbourne-based Nulab Group completely revolutionises production with not one but two new HP Indigo 7600s. After more than 40 years at the top of its game, the multi-award winning photographic print specialist replaces its entire silver halide set-up with the high-speed digital engines..

Building on last year’s success, Label Summit Indonesia 2014 will feature a mix of technical presentations, case studies and panel discussions and explore new printing technologies and their applications and regional and international printing trends.

The next Printing Industries webinar hits the broadband with an in-depth dive into the benefits of industry mergers. Hosted by Richard Rasmussen, the latest installment lifts the veil on some common fibs and fallacies that hang around the buying and selling of print businesses.

HP sets its sights on an $8 billion market, as it gathers steam in its push towards digital print for flexible packaging. The technology giant partners up with leading machinery manufacturer Comexi Group to develop a lamination solution for its new Indigo 20000 digital press.

Focus Print Group is up and running under hands-on owner Mark Shergill, who says he hopes the business will create as many as 50 jobs. Shergill says he wants to save as much of the old Focus Press company as he can and that his focus right now is on working with customers.

Heidelberg breaks its five-year long losing streak and drags a €4 million profit across the line. Preliminary results put the German offset manufacturer once more in the black, but only barely, off a €2.4 billion turnover for the financial year which also saw worldwide sales slide down 11%.

The new Bizhub Press C1070 gets away to a good start ahead of rivals in the eagerly anticipated contest of digital mid-range printers in 2014.