Ascent Partners’ Richard Rasmussen wraps up all the local market movements that hit the Australian printing industry in January 2013.

Ricoh is recognised at the Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, as one of the most environmentally successful corporations in the world.

The iconic Artarmon-based service and engineering company ceased to trade on 8 February with the appointment of insolvency experts Dean Willcock Shepard. The failure illustrates the depth of the structural change affecting the printing industry.

Mobile Apps set to ignite the next print revolution. News that spending on marketing-oriented print is set to decline by 6% over the next two years is sobering indeed but the intoxicating counterfoil is that mobile marketing dollars will increase by 8.8% over the same period.

Quick printers once had to battle for their reputations but now they’re fighting to regain independence with a new association in the USA aiming to represent smaller printers again. The National Print Owners Association (NPOA) is a reinvention of the quick printers association to give control back to members.

A massive operational restructuring lies ahead for the troubled printing as US investor KKR Capstone and Sydney-based fund manager, Allegro were handed the company on a plate to save it from going into administration last Friday.

Currie Group has confirmed it will be the largest exhibitor at PacPrint13 in May, with Phillip Rennell, sales and marketing director, announcing that it has committed to a massive 990sq metre stand as a ‘show of support’ for its customers and for the industry.

Sales figures are up to EUR 1.9 billion three quarters way through the financial year to December 31 with the company claiming it is on track to meet operating targets. It is expecting to make a profit next year.

Decades of suspicion and enmity between the conservation organisation and the Indonesian paper maker mean it will take some time before anything is taken on trust.

In this second in a series of articles by US-based industry commentator, David L. Zwang, as part of a PRIMIR transformative workflow reference model, focuses on how a good business and information management infrastructure will support transformation.

Kirby International, a division of the BJ Ball Group, is set to bring into the Australia and New Zealand market the largest range of offset plates, graphic arts chemistry and digital print media available anywhere outside the Americas, Europe & Japan.

New recycled paper making machine at Botany, NSW, will help Amcor boost its 34 percent market share against its rival’s 59 percent. Industry sources suggest some of the new mill’s 400,000 tonnes output will have to be for the export market.

The Swedish print finishing equipment manufacturer and subsidiary of bicycle-maker Grimaldi, will maintain production at the UK-based manufacturing site at Milton Keynes. In Australia and NZ, Ferrostaal distributes Morgana while Fuji Xerox and Ricoh both represent Plockmatic.

Spending on print marketing communications will fall by more than 6 percent over the next two years as print drops to just below 30 percent of total spend. Mobile will get the greatest boost with its share of marketing budgets increasing by 8.8 percent to where it will account for 12 percent.

The paper company continues on its growth run by increasing its lamination offering and launching a new industry internet facility, The Portal.