Graphic Arts

Florida Printer Gives Journalists a Plant Tour MIAMI—Colonial Press gave a tour of its 200,000-square-foot facility to a group of industry journalists in December. The group watched as job information was input into the PECOM press operating and automation system, which feeds information for approximately 350 jobs per month to the company's four MAN Roland sheetfed presses and one ROTOMAN web press. Shown here are Juan Flores, prepress/PECOM manager (seated) and Carlos Garcia Jr., director of corporate services. Graphic Press, Los Angeles, has announced the addition of Jim Kahm, Mike Gianni and Danny Welan to the company's sales team roster. Kahm and Gianni will assume vice

PIA/GATF Chooses New Home SAN ANTONIO, TX—After an 18 month review, the boards of directors of the Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) and Printing Industries of America (PIA) have selected Sewickley, PA, (over Waukesha, WI) as the new site for its consolidated headquarters. While GATF/PIA will maintain a small office in Washington, DC, for public policy purposes, the majority of PIA operations will move to the current headquarters of GATF, located just outside of Pittsburgh.The timing for the move is the fall of 2004. Mail-Well Creates New Group ENGLEWOOD, CO—Mail-Well has formed its new 360° Enterprise Solutions Group for the direct marketing industry. The 360° Enterprise Solutions

PITTSBURGH—The executive committee of the joint Graphic Arts Technical Foundation/Printing Industries of America has narrowed its choice for the site of its new headquarters down to two cities. The association's full board will decide later this month whether or not to move the group's headquarters to the Pewaukee, WI, campus of the Waukesha County Technical College (WCTC) or remain at GATF's existing headquarters in Sewickley, PA, just outside of Pittsburgh. While Sewickley has been the home of GATF for nearly 40 years, the Pewaukee site is an enticing possibility since it sits in the heartland of the nation's printing industry and is next door to WCTC's

ST. LOUIS—Nies/Artcraft Printing Companies has completed a new, 40,000-square-foot graphic arts facility, located here. It will house their Valcour Printing and Digital Ink Systems divisions and a newly created division, Lion Promotional Solutions. "By combining these operating units under one roof, we have been able to improve workflow and maximize operating efficiencies to better take care of our customers' needs," notes James W. Finger II, president and CEO. Lion Promotional Solutions is responsible for the planning and creation of promotional coupons, games and sweepstakes, and point-of-purchase displays for consumer product companies, convenience store groups and promotional/advertising agencies. The plant will employ 55 employees and house

BY MARK SMITH Technology Editor With all the talk of excess capacity and declining sales, why would any printer consider buying a new press? First, the obvious reason. Capacity on an industry-wide level doesn't necessarily mirror the situation in a local market or any given company. There also is a more subtle rational that has grown in importance with the changes in business conditions. The pressures of a highly competitive market make it even more critical for a shop to have the right kind of capacity. Production efficiency and flexibility are more important than gross capacity. Sheetfed offset presses used to break down fairly

By Erik CagleSenior Editor Although the company itself is 179 years old, Courier Corp. has the vitality of a teenager. The North Chelmsford, MA-based book printer found the fountain of youth courtesy of a comprehensive strategic planning process that began in 1990 and provided Courier with a sleek, sexy and, most of all, fiscally lucrative overhaul. The publicly held printer shed a number of markets, and the company that once published newspapers and dabbled in commercial work narrowed its focus to three book manufacturing segments—education, religious and specialty trade. The results have been outstanding. Through the first nine months of 2003, Courier has enjoyed

Hibner Named CFO at Banta MENASHA, WI—Geoffrey J. Hibner has been hired as the new Banta Corp. CFO. Hibner, 53, was most recently with Bridge Associates, a New York City-based management consulting firm. He succeeds current executive vice president and CFO Gerald A. Henseler, who will retire in October after a 37-year career with Banta. Quebecor Joins USPS Program MIDLAND, MI—Quebecor World's Midland facility has been authorized by the United States Postal Service (USPS) to participate in the new Periodical Co-palletization Program. The Quebecor World Midland facility is the second Quebecor World facility to obtain authorization for this program. Additionally, this is said to be the first

News Fit for Printing Extra! Extra! Read all about it. The graphic arts industry is launching a new campaign to promote the use of print as a replacement for, and complement to, other media. I know, grizzled industry veterans might point out, other efforts have been tried in the past—typically losing steam over time. But this effort has some of the biggest industry guns behind it as founding members, including vendors such as Agfa, EFI, Heidelberg, IBM, MAN Roland, Scitex Digital and Xerox, as well as prominent printers like Mail-Well, RR Donnelley, Quad/Graphics, Sandy Alexander and Franchise Services (the parent company of PIP

PITTSBURGH—The Graphic Arts Technical Foundation (GATF) has announced the 13 recipients of the 2003 GATF InterTech Technology Awards. "This year's awards showcase the industry's growing attention to flexographic printing, ink-jet and soft proofing on a contract basis, and digital in-line finishing," says GATF Research Director John Lind. He also observed that automation combined with productivity and ROI continues to be a strong trend among the InterTech nominations. GATF has sponsored the InterTech Technology Awards as a service to the graphic communications industry since 1978. The 2003 award recipients are: Plate Cell Patterning, part of Artwork Systems' Nexus product family, is a software

BY MARK SMITH The only constant may be change, but things have gotten pretty quiet on most fronts of the digital revolution in printing. Even computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM), arguably, is more about a workflow evolution than revolution. One area that remains unsettled is proofing. Decades after the first digital systems were introduced, the industry is still debating what's the "right" solution. It's probably not reasonable to think one solution could meet the needs of every print shop and application. Nonetheless, the proliferation of systems is leading print execs to ask, "Why do I have so many proofers in my shop?" A related question is