Clancy . . . overflow . . . the best bits . . . funnies

Looking back at some of the highlights reminds us that 12 months is a long time and gives cause for pause as we imagine what the next 12 months will bring. Here’s a brief review of some of the year’s highlights and low spots.

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January: FedEx buys Kinko's for US$2.4 billion. The printing and copy chain will be integrated into the air-courier company, increasing the number of drop off points for mail and parcels. We’re still waiting to see any sign of the corporate makeover

Printing Industries moves its HQ west from the Sydney CBD to be closer to its members. Better member access to training courses was one of the benefits to flow from the relocation from Sydney’s CBD to suburban Auburn. Staff are still being weaned off lattes and developing a taste for kebabs.


February: Fairfax closed its Spencer Street printing plant and found itself on the nasty end of an industrial dispute. 86 planned redundancies turned out to be against the enterprise agreement signed only months before and the workers were kept on without having any work to do at full pay until the middle of next year. Now that is clever industrial relations.

Following its takeover of Jaeger Paper, Melbourne paper dynasty KW Doggett Fine Paper moves into recently vacated Raleigh Paper premises in Sydney. Since then a paper price war is heating up in the city between Doggetts and Moirs, producing bargains for the customers. It’s still going on – something’s got to give.

March: Agfa bought fourth largest plate manufacturer Lastra as the consolidation drive got to red-hot levels in the plate sector. The deal put Agfa so far out in front as the largest player in the sector no one is ever likely to catch up. Film sales , of course, continued to nose dive.

Long established stationery firm, WC Penfolds slid into ignominious administration, allowing Bob McMillan to snap up its 2.5 million shares in Penfold Buscombe. This brought his strategic stake in the publicly listed company to 13 per cent, but if he had dreams of being the largest shareholder, this week’s news about PMP put the kybosh on them. However, there are still some twists left in the rope.

At the 21st National Print Awards Penfold Buscombe won the Heidelberg prize for excellence, while McMillan’s won the new Agfa award for the Most Creative Use of Imaging. Websdale Printing won the Australian Paper Apprentice of the Year award. There’s a synergy happening here, what with the benefit of hindsight.

April: Penfold Buscombe paid $7.5 million to takeover Pongrass, which owned Websdale Printing. CEO Alistair Hill continued to pick the eyes out of the Sydney market paying $2.7 million cash for one of the industry’s iconic printing companies. Alistair is gaining widespread recognition as being one canny operator.

End of an era saw CPI exit the prepress sector. Buffeted by the loss of FujiFilm the year before the industry’s former largest supply company passed its prepress customers over to Agfa and sold its Wetherill Park hi-tech warehouse to re-focus on its core business of paper and ink. The supply side is as merciless as printing.

May: drupa 2004 finally opens is doors after months of build up. A fairly decent swag of Australian and New Zealanders made the trip to Düsseldorf to marvel at the sights, eat asparagus and drink beer. Michael Mogridge of HP Indigo declared that the cost of holding the show was greater than the combined profits of the exhibiting companies and no one tried to prove him wrong. It was the best of times, it was . . . well, you know the rest.

Back home one of the longest legal cases in the industry’s history drew to a close with the findings for Fuji Xerox in its battle with Seven Sydney over the suitability of the DocuColor 70 and 100 four years before. There were still to be some protests and appeals but the battle was over. Roger Morgan was entitled to say, “I told you so . . . but being the gentleman he is, he refrained.


In New Zealand APN created a new publishing division ahead of a stock listing, which made it one of the largest listed companies in New Zealand. The new division – APN New Zealand National Publishing – is headed up by Ken Steinke, chief executive of The New Zealand Herald, with Rick Neville as deputy and Sarah Sandley as publisher. APN is one of the quiet achievers of the industry,

June: One of the more depressing events of the year saw prepress firm, Graphic Synergy close its doors with the business being sold to Alfred Johns. It was the passing of an era and brought home to many the changes in the prepress world. The reluctance of high profile owners John Coote, Barry Patterson and Bob Schofield to create redundancies among long-term staff was given as one of the reasons behind the failure. A classic lesson in where nice guys finish.

Goss and Heidelberg finally got their deal over the line following months of tough negotiations. Heidelberg keeps a 15 per cent stake in the enlarged company, which has almost doubled in size. The deal means that Goss is likely to be the largest web offset press manufacturer in the world. In the local market Heidelberg chief Andy vels Jensen was sorry to see it happen. He had the largest market share.

July: Pacific Publications picked up Murdoch Magazines for $77 million. The deal includes Better Homes and Gardens, Marie Claire, and Men’s Health. Matt Hanbury of MM was one of the industry’s true professionals. IPMG was tipped to keep the printing contract despite Pacific’s close ties with PMP. At the end of the year Kerry Packer’s ACP still owned the ballpark.


In the USA Presstek bought bankrupted A.B. Dick after the 120-year-old press maker filed for Chapter 11 in the US to protect it from creditors. Presstek paid US$40 million for the iconic brand and announced its intention to compete in the offset market, not only as a plate and imaging company but also as a press manufacturer. It has to be the bravest call of the year.

Aug: That the print skills shortage is getting worse was confirmed when the number of vacancies for skilled tradespeople in the printing industry jumped 45 per cent during the past year. With 15 per cent fewer apprentices going through Australian graphic arts colleges every year, the increase is the most dramatic of any manufacturing industry. Print skills is the sleeper issue of our time.

Agfa got out of its consumer imaging division as worldwide digital camera sales are set to reach nearly 53 million units in 2004, after outpacing traditional cameras last year. The loss-making consumer imaging division was sold to a management buy-out/buy-in team. Agfa now focuses on its Graphic Systems and HealthCare operations. Nobody buys a film camera anymore.

September: News Ltd ramps up $half-billion investment spree for its Australian operations as Lachlan Murdoch, News Limited chairman, announced a $217 million upgrade and expansion of the company’s Chullora print centre in Sydney to create the country’s largest and most advanced newspaper printing plant. There is good money in print publishing.

Printing Industries changed its constitution to allow companies that don’t employ workers under the graphic arts award to be members. According to Gary Donnison, CEO, the move will give the industry a truly representative voice. The Association is showing signs of living in the 21st century after all.

Esko-Graphics bailed out from commercial printing citing fierce competition and price pressure. The Belgian company cut off further investment in violet-light CTP saying the market is served by many suppliers and shows little or no overall industry growth. That sounds like sense talking.

October: A Chinese gravure company came sniffing around looking for Government money to fund a production facility here. Printing Industries were very suspicious and had a place at the table when the company pitched the government. It turned out to be more of a sales office than a production facility, We don’t need to fund companies to export Australian jobs.

South Australian printing company Finsbury Green nailed its colours to the mast by declaring it is not only green in practice but also by name. After cleaning up at the SA Picas, Ernest Orel, managing director, confirmed the change of identity to Finsbury Green Printing, He said that after five years of work on the company’s environmental credentials everything it did was green. He also claimed to be making pots of money.


The biggest research project undertaken for the Australian printing industry got underway when Printing Industries commissioned consulting firm Deloitte Touche Tohmatsu (Deloitte) to undertake a project to examine the paper and printing industry by sector, by major product category, and by process. The study is being sponsored by Swanbank Paper, the fine paper mill on the drawing board for Queensland. Expect it out early in the New Year.


Nov: Volker Wagner, a Canadian printer who arrived with the intention of showing the Australian printing industry how it's done, departed three years later after administrators were called in for his Teldon Print Media Group. An ambitious plan to consolidate small-to-medium size printing and graphics companies in the Sydney hit the rocks when expected returns failed to materialize. Nothing wrong with the idea, just the execution.

The first and second Fuji Xerox iGen3s in Australia went into Rapid Digital (formerly Rapid Reprographics) in what proved to be ‘the party of the year.’ Rapid Digital’s proprietor Ron Anderson and his team spared no expense or effort in ensuring the night was a success and that the iGen3 era in Australia was inaugurated with suitable style. It’s nice to see some pizzazz come back into the industry.

December: blueline media, publisher of Print21Online news bulletin, takes over publishing the industry business magazine, Print21. Patrick Howard, Publisher and Executive Editor, said the long-term close relationship between Print21 and Print21Online has proved a defining aspect of the industry’s media over the past four years. He subsequently would like to apologise to readers for the disgraceful editing job on the final issue of the magazine put out by former publishers Niche.

Russell Jones, managing director Amcor, and Peter Sutton, managing director Amcor Australasia both resigned from the packaging giant following revelations from four executives who set up their own business after leaving the company in September. This is proving to be one of the messiest corporate imbroglios in recent times and promises to carry on into 2005.


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And that’s it. Thanks for all your support and encouragement over the year. Have a great break and we’ll be back with the first news bulletin on January 20, 2005.

And finally . . . this from prankster Andy vels Jensen is guaranteed to bring a smile to your careworn pre-holiday faces.

Study the picture carefully. Depending on how well you are able to concentrate you should be able to make out a giraffe in 20 to 30 seconds.