SUPPLIER news
Allegra Names Heidelberg USA ‘Supplier of the Year’ Winner
NORTHVILLE, MI—Allegra Network honored Heidelberg USA with the Supplier of the Year award at its 2008 Allegra Network convention. Allegra Network franchise members vote to choose the winner. In April 2007, Heidelberg served as host for Allegra Network’s annual summit trip to Heidelberg, Germany. More than 160 of Allegra Network’s top franchise members participated in the event. The Allegra Network consists of Allegra Print & Imaging, American Speedy Printing Centers, Insty-Prints and Signs Now.
Multi-City Road Show Deemed a Success
MINNEAPOLIS, MN—Buhrs Americas and Lake Image Systems teamed up and headed for the road with a road show featuring products offered by both companies. The firms conducted demonstrations in Baltimore; Decatur, GA; Dallas; Los Angeles; Chicago; and Woodcliff Lake, NJ. More than 200 registrants from the printing and mailing industry saw the latest equipment and software perform under actual operating conditions.
Howard Graphic Equipment Celebrates 40 Years
MISSISSAUGA, ONTARIO—Howard Graphic Equipment recently celebrated its 40th anniversary by hosting a gala reception. With more than 500 guests from the printing industry in attendance, the celebration mirrored an Oscar party.
Throughout the evening, guests were lavished with special treats like a complimentary limousine ride, covered walkway, and culinary delights from around the world, including the event’s signature blue martini served from an ice bar. Entertainers included Canadian comedian Rick Mercer and the rock band April Wine, which performed its hits from the last three decades.
The company also raised in excess of $10,500 for the Special Olympics.
Several promotions have been announced at Miami Systems. Rich Campbell has been tapped as president. Sam Peters, founder and previous president, has assumed the chairman role. And, Rick Martin has been promoted to COO.
xpedx is the exclusive U.S. marketer and distributor of the world’s first LED-UV print curing system, an offset printing technology from Ryobi that provides environmental, pressroom and financial advantages. The new Ryobi LED-UV curing system cuts power usage by a minimum of 70 percent, eliminates ozone emissions, has a lamp life 12 times longer than conventional lamps, uses ink with no VOC solvents and greatly reduces drying times.
The Paper Mill Store, an e-commerce site (thepapermillstore.com) launched by CTI Paper Group, has partnered with Pinnacle Label to offer more than 40 different selections of stock cut-sheet labels featuring Pinnacle’s proprietary Clean Edge Technology. In other CTI news, Timothy Rhodes has joined CTI Paper USA as sales and promotion manager, Northeast region.
Frank Tueckmantel—EFI’s director of educational services, trade shows and events, and e-marketing—has been tapped as the new vice president of corporate marketing at EFI. Prior to joining EFI in 1999, he served at Minolta’s European headquarters as product manager of color solutions, International Marketing Div.
MBO America’s first field service technician, David Pilger, has retired. Pilger, who joined the company in 1984, advanced to the key position of national service manager. Jim Begley, who has been with the company for 15 years, has assumed the national service manager role and is guiding MBO’s service team.
NELA has acquired the assets of M+A Pass-System GmbH. While NELA is active in the newspaper, commercial web and sheetfed markets, M+A specializes in automatic register punching, sheering and bending systems for offset plates for the web market.
Fiberweb PLC announced that it has reached an out-of-court settlement with Baldwin Technology and its wholly owned subsidiary, Baldwin Graphic Systems, in connection with the respective patent actions commenced by Baldwin in the United States and Fiberweb in the UK. Details remain confidential.
John Raithel has been promoted to the newly created position of senior vice president of sales for the sheetfed division at KBA North America, where he is now responsible for overseeing the sheetfed sales force in North America.
Frank Bagrosky is the new vice president of sales at Spiel Associates. Possessing a wealth of bindery equipment knowledge, Bagrosky previously worked for James Burn for 17 years and spent more than 10 years at Performance Design.
Graphic arts industry veteran Stephen Hosford has been appointed national sales manager at Standard Finishing Systems. He is now responsible for the network of more than 50 graphic arts dealers and a 15-person sales team.
The new vice president and chief marketing officer at Presstek Inc. is Kathleen McHugh. With 20+ years of industry experience, she most recently served as vice president and regional business manager of Eastman Kodak’s U.S. and Canadian Prepress Solutions.
MGI Digital Graphic Technology, a multi-substrate (paper and plastic) digital press and finishing solutions manufacturer, has appointed #1 Network as a dealer in select states. With nationwide member branches, #1 Network dealers constitute one of the industry’s largest distribution and technical support channels.
The new sales manager of Trackmymail.com is Marlene Ryan. Ryan previously served at the U.S. Postal Service for 30 years in a variety of positions, and was responsible for managing the Confirm program from 2004 to 2006. The Confirm program is what Trackmymail.com uses to provide tracking services.
Ziki Kuly has been promoted to HP North America large-format industrial director at Hewlett-Packard. Kuly has been with Scitex Vision and HP for more than seven years. He replaces Gal Barak who is now leading the HP large-format industrial and commercial business in Asia Pacific.
Celebrating its 90th anniversary, Superior Printing Ink has remained a family owned and operated American business. Today, Superior is the largest supplier of sheetfed lithographic inks in North America with a staff of more than 350 people and six locations.
manroland and Manugraph India Ltd. have mutually agreed to dissolve their agreement for sales and service cooperation. The acquisition of Dauphin Graphic Machines (DGM) by Manugraph in November 2006 necessitated a shift in strategy, as both companies now compete in the two-around press market.
Plans are under way for the debut of PackPrint, a new package printing, folding carton, flexo and label-focused trade show, to launch at the PRINT 09 trade show to be held September 11-16, 2009, in Chicago’s McCormick Place. PackPrint will be produced by the Graphic Arts Show Co. (GASC) in partnership with the Flexographic Technical Association.
At Virtual Systems, Ted Seward, a mailing industry veteran, has been tapped as the new vice president of marketing and product development. PI
