Heidelberg

By Caroline Miller When you first meet Doug Mann, the first thing you notice is his positive attitude. Mann, president of Gannett Offset/Minneapolis, just exudes enthusiasm. Frankly, he's got a lot to be happy about: In the past two years, Gannett Offset/Minneapolis has witnessed a dramatic turnaround. Since Mann took over, the company has gone from $34 million in sales to more than $60 million. It's the kind of story that few printing operations are able to tell these days. Aside from serving as a satellite printer for USA Today, the plant was recognized recently with the Gannett Offset Commercial Print Site of the

By Erik Cagle Old-fashioned hard work and forging genuine, lasting relationships with clients enabled Kevin Polley's Apple Graphics to carve a niche in the Southern California sheetfed market. And now, with a little help from some new friends, the Duarte, CA-based company (10 miles east of Pasadena) is playing the role of a large, full-service printer within the confines of its 25,000-square-foot facility. Rarely has a half-size printer, with 50 employees and annual sales approaching $10 million, boasted the firepower that Apple Graphics possesses. Unlike smaller independents, Apple Graphics has enjoyed a wealth of resources ever since its 1999 acquisition by Houston print

By Erik Cagle ROCHESTER, NY—Stating that the "best learning institution deserves the best resources," Heidelberg Chairman Bernhard Schreier officially handed over the reins of a $7 million to $10 million Sunday 2000 web press to the Rochester Institute of Technology (RIT) at an April 25th formal dedication of the school's new Heidelberg Web Press Lab. The gapless Sunday 2000 consummates a partnership of the vendor and learning institution, initially announced during PRINT 01 in Chicago. Another 17 manufacturers donated accessories, consumables and various trimmings for the Sunday 2000. More than 200 RIT students, faculty, Heidelberg dignitaries, fellow industry vendors, printers and assorted guests packed a tent only

by chris bauer Read all about it: The latest generation of newspaper presses are more than black-and-white machines churning out The Daily Rag. Color is here to stay—and newspaper press manufacturers are providing a column's worth of features and automated functions to advance newspaper printing beyond its traditional role. "Ever increasing color expansion is an ongoing trend in the American and global newspaper market," says David Stamp, global director of marketing for Goss International. "This drives four-high tower addition projects to existing installed presses—a very topical subject in the United States in 2003." Stamp sees many of his customers investing in press enhancements to

BY MARK SMITH Computer-integrated manufacturing (CIM) may still be a new concept in print production, but it's a long established practice in other business sectors. The term itself actually is starting to get a little dated. The notion of a computer, per se, being at the heart of it all seems limiting. What's really being integrated is the information generated and acted upon by various systems involved in the print production process. Embedded controllers, touchscreen displays and Web browsers are as likely to produce and consume job data as is a traditional computer. The beginning point—as well as middle and end points—for all this

Safeguard Acquired by NEBS DALLAS—New England Business Service (NEBS) plans to acquire Safeguard Business Systems in a $72.5 million all-cash transaction. The cash proceeds will be used to acquire all company stock, as well as to retire revolving loans and term loans with Safeguard's financial institutions. Safeguard will operate as a wholly owned subsidiary. This is a strategic move for both companies, allowing each to create competitive advantages in the marketplace. The company employs approximately 850 people, primarily in Dallas, Atlanta, Los Angeles and Philadelphia. Milwaukee Paper Gets KBA Press MILWAUKEE—The Milwaukee Journal Sentinel has installed three new Commander presses by KBA North America. The presses

System Enables Printers to be Self-Calibrating WEBSTER, NY—Printed colors have been one of the toughest things to get consistently right because there are so many variables in the production process, whether it is digital or traditional offset. Scientists at Xerox Corp.'s Webster research center now claim to have invented and patented an ultra-fast, low-cost spectrophotometer that they expect to streamline and simplify color printing. The spectrophotometer is said to cost less than one-sixth the price of current models. It can be embedded inside a digital printer to take color measurements on each passing page in a few milliseconds. As the paper moves at

By Erik Cagle Chevy Cavalier? That's it? No Dodge Intrepid? How about a Chrysler Sebring? "The Cavalier has a CD player," noted Sarah, the Enterprise rental rep, as I finalized travel plans for the trip to RIT for the Heidelberg Web Press Lab dedication. That was all she needed to say. Seven hours in a car, at the mercy of radio stations adorning northeastern Pennsylvania and upstate New York, would be wholly intolerable. When the only discernable tune is "Hero" by Enrique Iglesias, road rage kicks into high gear and you end up sitting in a fetal position in a field somewhere around Homer,

Arizona PHOENIX—In celebration of its recent 30th anniversary, Cereus Graphics held an open house in March. Drawing a crowd of more than 250 designers and marketing communications professionals, the event provided the company with the opportunity to demonstrate its new six-color Komori Lithrone S40 sheetfed press and its new seven-color HP Indigo digital press. Upon arriving, guests were asked to sign an electronic "guest book." This data was fed directly into the HP Indigo press. Five minutes later, guests were presented a set of four personalized poster calendars, each with different imagery and colors. california AUBURN—A new five-color Komori Lithrone 28 has been

STERLING, VA—Copy General, a chain of independent print shops in the Washington, DC, area, has purchased a Xerox DocuColor iGen3 digital production press. Management says the intent is to grow the organization's color production business from about 10 percent of total revenue today to 50 percent in 2004. (www.xerox.com/ www.copygeneral.com) ROCHESTER, NY—Presstek Inc. and Xerox Corp. announced the latter will no longer sell the DocuColor 233 DI-4, DocuColor 400 DI-4 and DocuColor 400 DI-5 presses and related consumables, all of which had been sourced through Presstek. Order taking for the products will cease immediately, but Presstek will continue to provide