Run-ons and run-ins

It may be good riddance 2008, but let's not forget the positives

Darryl Danielli — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 13:01:00 GMT

Looking through some of the stories in today's issue of PrintWeek, it appears that my hopes of ending the year on a high note with some good news appear to have been largely dashed.

While some people may have been dreaming of a white Christmas, all I wanted was one that could ensure we could print some positive news for a change, and it looks like, once again Santa has let me down.

I can’t say I’m all that surprised; I haven’t actually forgiven Santa since the bitter disappointment of Christmas 1978, when instead of the Evel Knievel Stunt Cycle I so desperately needed, he got me a Rolf Harris Stylophone instead.

The past six months have been full of so much depressing news, such as business closures and redundancies, that frankly, on a professional level, in many respects I’ll be glad to see the back of 2008.

That’s not to say that I’m particularly looking forward to 2009 (which doesn’t look like being a barrel of laughs either), but Christmas is the time of ‘cheer’ after all, so I’ll try to be optimistic.

In that vein, rather than dwell on the negative I thought I would focus on some of the positive highlights of 2008.

Kevin Sarney’s Felix Dennis-backed rescue deal for Butler and Tanner was probably the best example. After all, it was a relief for all concerned that the company’s future – albeit on a somewhat smaller scale – could be secured after so much angst and vitriol.

Then there was GI Solutions sale to private equity group Grove Industries, proving that there are still investors who appreciate the strength and potential of print.

We can’t forget Drupa either. While many of the show deals may not have to come to fruition, it certainly didn’t fail to disappoint in terms of innovation.

Equally, the fact that St Ives continues to go to strength to strength, leading the industry by example, is another cause for cheer. And then there’s the industry’s backbone the smaller companies, too many to mention, that continue to invest and grow.

Hopefully this all proves that there is still a lot in print to celebrate, even if, at times, it’s all too easy to overlook the fact.

Cynics unite, we all got it wrong on Butler and Tanner

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 02 Jul 2008 09:24:00 GMT

I must admit that the news last Friday that Kevin Sarney’s bid for the Butler and Tanner had been accepted (and as of 5.30pm last night, signed and sealed), was, well a surprise to say the least.

The B&T saga has been nothing short of a roller coaster ride, admittedly with more downs than ups. But I don’t mind confessing that as a journalist, and therefore a wizened cynic by default, I was pretty sceptical that anything would come of the rescue bid, essentially because the company was all but dead.

However, I was wrong. It’s great news that the Butler and Tanner name will live on, although presumably in a slightly different leaner form, not least for the ex-staff that may be offered jobs at the new firm.

Of course, there’s still a lot of work to be done I’m sure, and while the major hurdle has been leapt, there are still plenty of potential stumbling blocks ahead.

But with the Sarney’s team quoting a ten day period before the firm is reborn, then clearly, and quite understandably, he’s confident that he has the momentum to carry the deal through. And with the backing of a publishing giant as high-profile as Felix Dennis, momentum is something that the team will have in spades.

So from this sceptic (and I’m sure the many others that thought the same), congratulations and the best of luck to Sarney and his team.

Digital versus litho: just let the best process win

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 14 May 2008 10:20:00 GMT

The King is dead. Long live the King.

In PrintWeek's Drupa preview on digital, out tomorrow, that’s the message some digital vendors seem set on proclaiming at the show (with offset litho clearly being the deceased monarch in question).

The digital versus litho debate is one that has been, if not exactly raging, then at least stewing for the past few years. Personally, I don’t think it’s necessarily a question of one being better than the other. Surely it’s more a question of which is fit for purpose.

Digital is the logical option for certain jobs, where there’s variable data or an ultra short run, for example, and litho is the process of choice for longer runs. That’s the presumed wisdom anyway. But even that assumption is up for debate. The exact crossover point of the two technologies’ cost effective run lengths depends on who you listen to – press manufacturers say it can be in the low hundreds, while digital vendors say it’s still well into the thousands.

The question is further clouded as almost every month a vendor comes out with a faster digital machine and, at the same rate of knots, litho press manufacturers unveil a makeready advance that brings litho presses up to saleable print in just a handful of sheets.

Then there’s the tricky question of print quality, but it seems that you’re either of the opinion that digital is comparable to offset, or it’s not and never the twain shall meet. Personally, I think with some technologies it is comparable.

But judging by the number of firms that run both digital and litho kit, the question of which is best is largely redundant anyway. These firms (and they’re increasingly in the majority) have recognised that it makes sense for the technologies to work in tandem and, rather than get bogged down in the subjective question of which is best, they turn it into a simple question of economics. Namely, which process will produce a specific job in the most cost-effective manner. In which case, the new King is common business sense, not a technology.

Focusing on the future

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 07 May 2008 11:29:00 GMT

What with all the doom and gloom at the moment, to have some positive industry news – namely the recent culmination of the third annual PrintIT! Awards. (For those of you who don’t know what the PrintIT! initiative is, click here).

It’s great to hear that so many kids – 23,000 this year and well over 60,000 to date – have taken part, and hopefully developed a new-found interest in print.

However, before I start gushing about the positive impact of schemes like PrintIT!, I know that some in the sector believe that trying to attract young people to the industry when there’s so much bad news about business closures and deskilling is tantamount to mis-selling.

But those that cite the trials and tribulations of the print industry as a good reason for the workforce of tomorrow to give it a wide berth are missing the point.

Yes, print is a tough sector, but I’m sure there are tougher. And I know there are people (many more than those doom mongers would probably like to admit) who are making a pretty good living and are equally positive about the future.

There’s little point pretending that with such an ageing workforce and the relatively high number of business closures, and therefore workers exiting the industry, right now, the print sector won’t be facing a massive recruitment problem for the immediate future.

But print, in some form, is going to be around for a good few centuries yet (I hope), and therefore it will need a constant stream of workers, managers and business innovators coming in to the industry. And that surely is the whole point of PrintIT!: it’s about helping to ensure the industry has a talent pool of leaders and workers tomorrow, not just today – for that reason, its efforts should be applauded and supported.

No winners only losers in Butler and Tanner debacle

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 30 Apr 2008 11:08:00 GMT

More bad news week this I’m afraid; even though it was unbeknown at the time, after 145 years Butler and Tanner printed its final sheet last Friday.

Although the closure was sudden, it shouldn’t come as much of a surprise – the relationship between Unite (the union) and B&T chairman Mike Dolan was strained to say the least.

In fact, the way both parties tore chunks out of each other in the pages of PrintWeek (let’s be honest, the story was in danger of becoming the print industry’s answer to the McCartney/Mills divorce), it was becoming clear that any possibility of agreement was increasingly unlikely.

I would like to stress, I’m not being flippant here. I’m all too aware that almost 300 jobs have been lost and hundreds more lives have been adversely affected by the historic firm’s closure – and clearly, judging by the sheer number of comments online, feeling is running understandably high among the firm’s staff.

However, I can’t help but think that who’s to blame for the closure seems largely irrelevant now, although the mud slinging looks set to continue for a while yet, as I’m sure both Dolan and Unite could lay claim to being the wronged party. (That said, neither party comes out of it smelling of roses.) But we should try to ignore the specific claims and counterclaims of what the two parties did or didn’t want or would/wouldn’t agree to – after all, the talks went on behind closed doors, and I have no way of knowing the agendas of either party.

The reason for the closure is simple, the two sides could not agree and it became a battle of wills.

And the sad truth is that, as with any battle, it’s always the foot soldiers and rarely the generals that end up making the ultimate sacrifice.

How close is digital to usurping offset?

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 26 Mar 2008 12:04:00 GMT

So, Kyocera has developed an inkjet head capable of producing 1,000 full-colour A4 pages a minute.

I admit, I almost did a cartoon-like double take when I saw the story and had to check that I hadn’t misread it. (As I’m sure a number of printweek.com readers did, for example perhaps those employed, oh I don’t know, say by German or Japanese press firms.)

Essentially, what this breakthrough means is that there is a digital technology now commercially available that can produce 60,000 A4 pages per hour - in other words an inkjet head capable of giving a 15,000 sheets per hour B2 press a serious run for its money.

Of course, offset still has the edge in the quality stakes, certainly to my mind - the Kyocera head for example only offers a maximum of 600dpi.

However, with inkjet technology advancing at a seemingly exponential rate, I wonder how long it will be before it matches or even, dare I say, overtakes offset in the quality stakes?

Print's Polish friends - here today but maybe gone tomorrow?

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 12 Mar 2008 11:57:00 GMT

I saw a fascinating documentary on BBC Two last night on the influx of workers from Eastern Europe and it got me thinking about their impact on the print industry.

From talking to various printers over the past couple of years, it seems economic migrants are making up an ever-increasing percentage of the print workforces in a number of areas (primarily the south east from my conversations). And I’ve got to be honest they’re being welcomed with open arms, primarily because (as was highlighted on the programme, “The Poles are Coming”) their fantastic work ethic. In fact, I don’t think I’ve ever heard a bad word said about them.

The bulk of the Eastern European print workers seem to be based in relatively low-skilled sectors, although I’m sure there are a fair few Polish press minders too, but by and large their biggest impact seems to be in the hand finishing packing departments.

These are clearly the lower paid jobs in print, and in many cases, I suspect that without these more than willing workers, many print firms would struggle to fill the roles. (In the TV show, one business owner spoke of the possible impact of his foreign workers leaving, and he said, only half jokingly, “I would probably have to shut down”.)

So if what I'm beginning to hear is true – namely that an increasing number of Eastern European print workers that have already been here a couple of years are now looking to return home – by the sounds of it, that could be an unmitigated disaster for many print firms.

Adding value to added value

Darryl Danielli — Fri, 29 Feb 2008 10:17:00 GMT

This is an excerpt from a recently overheard conversation between two members of Tesco staff stacking shelves, one of whom was (judging by the fact that he had a walkie-talkie) a supervisor.

Supervisor: “Once we get the new staff we can really start looking at adding value.”

Staff member (looking a bit bored): “That’ll be good.”

Supervisor: “Seriously, I keep getting told that we need to add value, and I’ve explained that until we’re fully staffed I can’t really do anymore – we’re just fire fighting.”

Member of staff: “I know.”

Supervisor: “Just look at what happened yesterday, two people off sick and we could barely keep our heads above water.”

Staff member: “True. I’m just going to get some more beans, I haven’t enough here.”

The member of staff subsequently wanders off.

Now, before you start to wonder what the point of repeating that seemingly inocious conversation was, I only mention it because PrintWeek is holding a round table discussion on adding value next week.

And one of the main points is what exactly does adding value mean and how can you achieve it. Added value is one of the terms that is often liberally scattered in any presentation or sales pitch and I think it’s in real danger of being consigned to the rubbish bin of fluffy marketing terms.

I think that would be a shame.

I get the impression that in its print context, it can mean something very tangible. I’m just interested in finding out what it means to different people and discover some real examples of how to add value. To that end, if you have any questions you’d like me to put to the panel, feel free to email me at darryl.danielli@haymarket.com.

And if you’re wondering, I did ask the Tesco supervisor what he meant by adding value, because I was genuinely interested to find out what he thought. Unsurprisingly, it turned out that it meant very little to him, other than “doing what we do, only better”. I rest my case.

Prejudging pre-packs

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 20 Feb 2008 11:29:00 GMT

In this week’s issue of PrintWeek, out tomorrow, paper merchants hit out at the rise of pre-pack deals and the scourge of the industry, phoenix companies.

Increasingly, pre-pack deals and phoenix companies seem to be considered one and the same thing – they’re not.

Personally, I don’t have a problem with pre-packs. That’s not to say there aren’t some that seem, shall we say, slightly dubious, but in the majority of cases, the positives seem to outweigh the negatives.

Generally speaking a properly handled pre-pack ensures the continuity of a business and secures the jobs of the affected staff. Of course, creditors tend to be left out in the cold in terms of the debts of the ‘old’ company – but assuming the company was going to fail anyway, it’s pretty inevitable that the creditors were going to lose out.

I’m not saying that it’s fair or right that creditors, often other print companies, lose out, but surely when safeguarding jobs is the paramount objective a pre-pack makes a compelling argument.

Of course, there are whole host of caveats that challenge the justification of a pre-pack, for example if the business is destined to fail again anyway, the pre-pack is with the owner of the ‘old’ company, and a realistic and fair price wasn’t secured for the firm and its assets.

And it’s only fair to mention that it’s not only creditors that are often perturbed by pre-packs – competitors often cry foul too, justifiably in some cases. After all, it must smart when one of your rivals has effectively written off a mountain of self-induced debt and therefore slashed its cost base overnight.

But if that debt was a legacy, and the firm had no realistically chance of repaying it (a pension scheme being the most obvious example), then again surely the ends justify the means. (All this said, if a company has racked up debt through mis-management and the management in question buys the firm in a pre-pack, then I think it's fair for questions to be raised.)

The problem is that all of the caveats and justifications of pre-packs are moral and ethical mostly, which makes them emotive - so your take on a particular deal pretty much depends on which side of the fence you’re sitting on. As you’ve probably gathered, I’m firmly planted on the pre-pack fence.

Therein lies the rub. There’s grey mist shrouding pre-packs, and someone needs to set transparent criteria to bring pre-pack deals, which are often unfairly perceived as under the table deals, well above the table in everyone’s minds.

Print's valiant Valentine past

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 11:27:00 GMT

With tomorrow’s national day of amour in mind, I’m sure that this week many of you have been bemoaning the fact that roses have quadrupled in price and it’s impossible to get a restaurant booking at anywhere other than the local Hungry Horse. (Well, those of you at least that hadn’t completely forgotten what day it is tomorrow until about seven seconds ago.)

In this week’s issue of PrintWeek (out tomorrow) we have a two page feature on the history of the valentine card which will hopefully warm the cockles of the stoniest of hearts and drive away any cynicism about the origins of the day.

Having already read Caroline Archer’s feature, it was nice to discover that, unlike say Mothers’ Day, Fathers’ Day and Grand¬parents’ Day cards, the history of valentine cards pre-dates the age of mercenary marketing executives trying to dream up new and innovative ways of guilting us into parting with our hard-earned cash.

I guess it’s just a shame that the florists, chocolatiers and restaurateurs don’t realise how instrumental printers were in turning 14 February into a serious cash cow for them and offer you a discount to reflect that. Such is life.

Season of goodwill for print?

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 19 Dec 2007 12:15:00 GMT

Seeing as it’s Christmas, this week’s blog has a seasonal flavour, although it seems the traditional goodwill to all men won’t be stretching to greetings card printers.

My sorry tale is set on a cold and wintry day in Hammersmith. As is usual in PrintWeek towers, we’d left the procurement of our Christmas cards to the last possible minute and, again as usual, I muttered the phrase “next year we’ll be organised”.

Anyway, I digress. I basically had only one requirement for our 100 Christmas cards – namely that they were printed in the UK. And that’s where my problems began.

Almost two and a half hours, four supermarkets and three card shops later I managed to find some – in Oxfam.
Of course, the offshoring of colour book and greetings cards is not a new phenomenon – I was just shocked by how difficult it was to source a UK card.

Even that bastion of middle England, Marks & Spencer, only had cards that were printed in China. It seems the supermarkets’ promise to do more to support UK suppliers doesn’t stretch to print, sadly.

But seeing as it’s Christmas, rather than focus on the negatives, I’ll just offer my heartfelt thanks to Oxfam for supporting UK print.

It’s just a shame the old adage ‘charity begins at home’ only rings true for, erm, charities nowadays.

Chinese biblical milestone

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 12 Dec 2007 11:51:00 GMT

Much is said about the movement of book printing, primarily colour, to the Far East, but do any of you know what the (unofficial) best selling book is in China?

Well, apparently it’s the Bible, even though you can’t actually buy it any shops and even today trying to take a copy in to the country isn’t really advised.

This month a Chinese printer, Amity Printing Company, celebrates the printing of its 50m Bible.

While not quite in the Harry Potter league, it’s certainly a record worth feting especially when you consider that the firm now produces a Bible every single second.

In fact Amity, a joint venture between a Chinese Christian charity and United Bible Societies and the only authorised Bible printer in the country, is now planning to move to a new 52,000sqm factory according to a report in The Times, part of its plan to become the biggest Bible printer in the world.

But my favourite part of the story is a quote attributed to Kua Wee Send, China partnership coordinator for UBS, on www.christianpost.com.

“What has happened to the Bible in China is a miracle… Only God can make a thing like that happen.”

God and several tonnes of English, German and Italian heavy metal I should imagine, but at this time of year, it’s nice to think that even printers are at the receiving end of the odd miracle.

(Top) 500 reasons to be cheerful

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 28 Nov 2007 12:24:00 GMT

It’s that time of year again, well it is tomorrow at least, when the most eagerly awaited copy of PrintWeek hits people’s desks.

I am, of course, talking about the PrintWeek Top 500. And it reveals that virtually across the board profit margins are on the up. I know, I can hardly believe it myself (in fact, I got the team of accountants at Grant Thornton to double check the figures).

But it’s true, the average profit levels have improved year-on-year – the only sector that showed a slight dip was the band that included firms with a turnover between £9n and £12.5m.

On the whole this is fantastic news, although we’re still only talking about margins between -0.34% and 3.36%. So while it’s unlikely that Richard Branson will be entering the sector any time soon, at least we’re headed in the right direction and we’ve bucked the downward trend of the past four years.

Who knows, we could get back to the heady days of 1998 (when the average margin was over 6%) before we know it!

Lost and (not) found

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 21 Nov 2007 07:50:00 GMT

Alistair Darling’s confession yesterday that the personal details of 25m people had been ‘lost in transit’ between HM Revenue and Customs and the National Audit Office is smothering many of the newspaper front pages today.

While it’s utterly shocking that that the two CDs, which included information such as names, addresses, dates of birth, child benefit and national insurance numbers, and even bank account details, have gone missing -what’s even more disturbing is how easily it happened.

It just got me thinking about the information printers hold on digital files. Of course, many direct mail printers have to handle sensitive client data every day, but I would have thought every type of printer has a database of clients and jobs that, to them, is priceless. The thought of this getting into the wrong hands, perhaps as a self-awarded leaving gift for a member of staff, is palm-moisteningly scary.

Data is, in many ways, currency and while you can’t take it to the bank, it is undoubtedly seriously valuable.

So perhaps the furore surrounding the ‘Child Benefit two’, will make us all look at the procedures we all have in place?

Will culture dictate winners and losers of Roto Smeets Quebecor?

Darryl Danielli — Wed, 14 Nov 2007 11:20:00 GMT

On the face of it, last week’s deal between Quebecor and Roto Smeets parent RSDB for the Canadian giant to sell the Dutch outfit a controlling stake could be seen as positive for Quebecor World’s Corby site.

I truly hope it is as the staff and management there are in dire need of some good news. But I must admit that I’m a little concerned (remember I’m a journalist, so I have to be a natural born cynic).

Roto Smeets’ chief executive exclusively reveals in tomorrow’s PrintWeek that he is confident of generating cost savings for the new enterprise, named, in Ronseal style: Roto Smeets Quebecor. So we can probably assume that some sites will be closed, where they mirror other sites in output and location perhaps, or if they’re just not viable.

If (and it’s a big if, no one has even hinted that Corby is set for the chop) it boils down to choice between closing Corby and say a French plant, my worry is that the Draconian labour laws and all-powerful unions across the Channel might just tip the balance in our Gallic cousins’ favour?

After all, the path of least resistance tends to be the most trodden!