SUPPLIER news
Commercial Web Printers Compare Notes
CHICAGO—MAN Roland held its first Commercial Customers Conference as a way of getting its commercial web press users together in a forum where everyone can benefit from one another, explains Douglas Bradley, vice president of web service at MAN Roland. “We developed the conference to focus on the topics that have the greatest impact on the key metrics of their businesses. Through interactive discussion and structured presentations, we can share ideas to help everyone improve their operational performance.”
The conference, held in conjunction with Graph Expo in September and conducted at Chicago’s James Hotel, was themed “A Partnership Focused on Your Success.” The centerpiece of the conference was a presentation given by Jason Elliott, director of service support operations at MAN, on the topic “Maximize Performance to Increase Profitability.” Optimum performance doesn’t just happen by accident, said Elliott, pictured here (standing). “It’s a culmination of strong operating processes, focused maintenance procedures, utilization of press automation and investment in personnel development. When you put all of these points together, you will reach full potential.”
The conference was so successful, MAN Roland plans to hold another one next year.
Silicon Valley veteran Judy Lin has been hired as the new general manager of EFI’s Fiery Division, where she will be responsible for, among other things, financial performance, bringing new products to market and building brand equity for EFI’s flagship product line, which includes Fiery digital color print servers. She replaces Mehran Farimani, who has left to pursue other interests.
Manugraph DGM has hired Greg Harabin as an exclusive sales agent responsible for the Southwest territory, which includes Texas, Louisiana, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Kansas, Nebraska, Colorado, Utah, Idaho and Wyoming. Harabin, a 26-year printing equipment sales veteran who has previously served with TKS (USA) and MAN Roland, will be based out of Dallas.
Construction is well underway on Toyo Ink’s new $20 million, 55,000-square-foot manufacturing facility in Bryan, TX. Ground-breaking took place at the site this spring, and the state-of-the-art production facility is slated to be operational by the first quarter of 2008. The plant is located on 22 acres in the Bryan Business Park and will include two production sites, a warehouse and an administrative office. It will produce specialty polymers, coatings, fluid inks and adhesives.
The new director of sales for Kodak’s newspaper and packaging segments in the United States and Canada is Patrick DeRose. DeRose has been with Kodak since 1997. Joe Verone will continue to lead the packaging sales team and report to DeRose.
PIA/GATF will be able to continue its quest to advance printing technology due to a contract extension reached with MAN Roland. At the heart of PIA/GATF’s research is a four-unit MAN Roland Rotoman web press installed in 2002, which has been used for various investigative projects, including ink mileage savings, paper runnability, print quality, fountain solution composition, the impact of press consumables on piling and the properties of corrosion-resistant fountain solutions.
With more than three decades of graphic arts experience—from supervising pressroom operations for some of the largest printing facilities in North America, to selling presses for some of the major manufacturers—David Saiz is MAN Roland’s new printservices consultant for the Southern region.
TrackMyMail is preparing to offer its Update Pro First Class mail service—which includes automated OneCode ACS (address correction service)—to Standard mailers. The OneCode ACS for Standard mail is currently being tested, with promising results. TrackMyMail expects the USPS to roll out the service to Standard mailers by year’s end and, shortly thereafter, to all TrackMyMail’s Precision Track users.
EDSF, the international non-profit organization dedicated to the document management and graphic communications industries, has announced new members to its board of directors. They include: Joseph Demharter, president, Pitman Co.; Carl Gerhardt, president and COO, Allegra Network; Jeffrey Hayzlett, chief marketing officer and vice president, Kodak’s Graphic Communications Group.; Jeffrey Jacobson, president and CEO, Presstek; Robert Kilcullen, senior vice president and general manager, InfoPrint Solutions; Dolores Kruchten, general manager and vice president, Document Imaging, Eastman Kodak; and James Lange, vice president of key accounts for North America, Konica Minolta Business Solutions USA.
Len Cammalleri has joined Mitsubishi Lithographic Presses as district sales rep responsible for sales of sheetfed presses in New York state. Cammalleri is based on Long Island. Carl Ferolie has been appointed as the new district sales rep covering Colorado and five other states. He is based out of Denver.
The MIS implementation and support staff at Prism USA welcomes implementer/project managers Penny Chase on the West Coast and Joe Saro in the Midwest. Both will report to Michael Kinnear, the recently appointed operations manager in North America. PI
