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CONTENTS Volume 51, Number 10 Features

Looking Back, Looking Forward With the arrival of his final column, PrintAction speaks with Andrew Tribute about the revolutions he has seen, his most inspiring and controversial articles, and what the future holds

Technology Report: Print Innovation in Chicago After detailing the 27 Must See ‘Em products last month, printing technology suppliers provide their 2012 Graph Expo highlights

AGFA GRAPHICS

:Anapurna

M2540 FB

checks all the boxes

NEWS Springett returns to manroland Canada, Catalyst Paper emerges from CCCA, and Edge Imaging installs North America’s first MGI Meteor DP8700

CALENDAR November 2012 BCPIA hosts its festive dinner, PACKEX holds its first show in Montreal, and printers prepare for the Canadian Printing Awards gala

INSERTS Building a Handheld Billboard Transcontinental’s Saint-Hyacinthe plant goes big with a web-offset product it calls Panoramax

LABELS Souped-up Print Target stocks 1.2 million Warhol-inspired labels to commemorate the Golden Anniversary of 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans

Columns

VICTORIA GAITSKELL Creative Cats Laurie Carr and Julie Mavis, co-owners of Cats Media, restructure a small family printing business and become NAQP role models

NICK HOWARD Press Manufacturers Don’t Make Submarines A look at how the world’s largest press makers have adjusted strategies because of seismic structural shifts in the global economy

Archive

October 1977 Atari releases its historic 2600 system, the World Health Organization marks the eradication of smallpox, and Videojet addresses 300 magazines per minute

Resources 21 Services to the Trade

SEE US AT: GRAPH EXPO BOOTH #627 SGIA BOOTH #2059

29 Marketplace

Cover photo: The Tributster on vay-cay in the Scilly Isles after tossing the bodies into the water

OCTOBER 2012 • PRINTACTION • 3

PERSPECTIVE

Talent Priority ince its founding in 1971, the Canadian Printing Industries Scholarship Trust Fund (CPISTF) now supplied over $1 million in scholarships to post-secondary students pursuing careers Sinhas Canada’s printing industry. In the past three years alone, through a difficult economic climate

SFI Certification for Healthy Forests and Strong Rural Communities For more information: http://www.sfiprogram.org

November 1, 2012 Fujifilm Canada, 600 Suffolk Court, Mississauga Attend this fast paced seminar and Peter Ebner will show you how to grow your print sales in today’s competitive marketplace. You’ll also receive a free copy of Peter’s book Breaking the Print Sales Barrier – the most comprehensive guide to handling objections ever published. A must for anyone who wants to excel in print sales. (Value of $49.95, hardcover, 217 pages)

for printers, CPISTF has provided more than $230,000 to printing students. The CPISTF program continues to be one of the most-positive initiatives for printing in Canada, as industry members take a proactive approach to develop talent for an aging industry. Funding for the program is primarily generated through $1,250 donations from printing companies, both large and small. The success of CPISTF should not be taken for granted, however, as it is a critical program reaching across the country and requiring equally widespread support. As the 2012 school year began, $75,000 in scholarship funding was provided to 57 students. A total of $28,750 was awarded to 20 new students enrolled in the first year of an approved course of study. The remaining amount of $46,250 was provided to 37 students who are already enrolled in the CPISTF program. “Every year the Board of Trustees is challenged to select the best and brightest as recipients of our scholarships and this year was no exception. We are pleased to be able to support 57 students in their pursuit of a career in the graphic communications industry,” said Don Gain, who runs Harmony Printing and has been Chairman of CPISTF for the past several years. Tracy Laranjo of Oakville, Ontario, received this year’s Warren Wilkins Prestige Scholarship, initiated three years ago to award $5,000 to students of exceptionally high standing. Laranjo is enrolled in Ryerson University’s School of Graphic Communications Management (GCM) in Toronto. A majority of the funding naturally goes to Ryerson GCM students, attending Canada’s only degree-level program focused on printed communications. However, the Canadian Printing Industries Association, which administers the program, provides – on its Website – a list of nine approved schools in seven provinces. A $1,250 donation can impact the development of regional printing talent for most printers in Canada, as best explained by CPISTF’s mission statement, “We are committed to the premise that it makes good business sense to help the brightest and best students achieve their scholastic goals.” More information about how to help maintain the positive pace of CPISTF can be found through the CPIA’s Website or by speaking with one of the engaged members on the trust fund’s Board of Trustees, including: Don Gain (Chairman) Harmony Printing Toronto, ON

Jeff Taylor Hemlock Printers Burnaby BC

Bob Cockerill Schawk Canada Mississauga, ON

Warren Wilkins (Past Chairman) Richmond Hill, ON

Michael Hill Mississauga, ON

Tom Blockberger Vancouver, BC

Wayne Burroughs (Treasurer) Burlington, ON

Mary Black Mary Black Recruiting Toronto, ON

Sean Murray Advocate Printing and Publishing Pictou, NS

Bruce Bond Toronto, ON

Willy Wilkins Richmond Hill, ON

Richard Armstrong Heidelberg Canada Mississauga, ON

Jon Robinson, Editor

For more details email sara@printaction.com or call 416-665-7333 x31 Fujifilm is providing a tour of their demonstration after the seminar. All attendees are welcome. Thank you to Fujifilm Canada for extending the use of their facilities for this event.

Canada’s Graphic Communications Magazine. Proudly published for two generations. Editor Jon Robinson • 416.665.7333 ext. 30 • jon@printaction.com Associate Editor Clive Chan • 416.665.7333 ext. 25 • clive@printaction.com Contributing Writers Zac Bolan, Clint Bolte, Peter Ebner, Chris Fraser, Victoria Gaitskell, Dr. Martin Habekost, Nick Howard, Thad McIlroy, Gordon Pritchard, Josh Ramsbottom, Nicole Rycroft, Andrew Tribute, Trish Witkowski Publisher Sara Young • 416.665.7333 ext. 31 • sara@printaction.com Associate Publisher Stephen Longmire • 416.665.7333 ext. 26 • stephen@printaction.com Production Manager Anders Kohler • 416.665.7333 ext. 37 • anders@printaction.com Intern Tiffany Kay Garcia • 416.665.7333 ext. 34 • tiffany@printaction.com Advertising Sales Sara Young • 416.665.7333 ext. 31 • sara@printaction.com Stephen Longmire • 416.665.7333 ext. 26 • stephen@printaction.com Circulation ADPIC Subscription Services • 800.363.3261 • subscriptions@printaction.com PrintAction is published by Youngblood Publishing Limited and is Canada’s only national monthly publication serving the graphic arts industry. ISSN 1481-9287. Annual Subscriptions: Canada: $31.15 ($27.57 + $3.58 HST) United States: CN$69.99; Other Foreign: CN$139.99

Notice: PrintAction, Youngblood Publishing Limited, their staff, officers, directors and shareholders (hence known as the “Publisher”) assume no liability, obligations, or responsibility for claims arising from advertised products. The Publisher also reserves the right to limit liability for editorial errors, omissions and oversights to a printed correction in a subsequent issue.

PrintAction is printed by Sina Printing on Starbrite Plus 70lb Velvet Text and 80lb Gloss Text available from Unisource Canada, Inc. Youngblood Publishing Ltd. 610 Alden Rd., Suite 100, Markham, ON L3R 9Z1 Tel: 416.665.7333 • Fax: 905.752.1441 www.printaction.com Publications Mail Agreement Number 40010868 • ISSN 1481-9287 Return undeliverable Canadian addresses to subscriptions@printaction.com We acknowledge the financial support of the Government of Canada through the Canada Periodical Fund of the Department of Canadian Heritage. 4 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2012

DIAMONDS are a Printer’s Best Friend We all know that diamonds are one of nature’s hardest materials. The heart of the printing press is the gripper and the gripper pad. Unlike its competitors, KOMORI decided that gripper pads need to last. And last they do. Most competitors use hardened steel, sintered alloys, carbide or even a urethane derivative. However, these all have a limited lifespan. Diamond-coated pads don’t. KOMORI presses do not require expensive pad replacements that other well-known brands do. Generally, after 75 million impressions, it’s time for an expensive revitalization that can cost over $100,000! Along with the utilization of much larger cam followers, torsion bars instead of springs, KOMORI builds longevity and low cost of ownership that keeps on giving. Sure, diamonds are nice in a ring or a bracelet, EXW LQ WKH SUHVVURRPV RI &DQDGD GLDPRQGV TXLFNO\ DGG XS WR D SUR¿WDEOH HGJH WKDW LV XQLTXH WR KOMORI.

PRINT NEWS REBECCA RODGERS and Wendy MacMillan, two EDP document specialists based in Canada, have met the requirements of Xplor International for instructors within the organization’s acadami program. Both Rodgers and MacMillan will begin conducting Transaction Document Specialist School classes in Canada. Graduates of these schools meet the Education Credit requirements for the Electronic Document Associate (EDA) level in the Xplor Electronic Document Professional MIKE WATKINSON of Edge Imaging and (EDP) program. To date, close to 200 inKarl Belafi Jr. of KBR Graphics oversaw dustry specialists have earned their EDA the installation of a MGI Meteor DP8700 certification through Xplor InternaS – recorded as the first such press to be tional’s acadami program. placed into a North American operation. The new Meteor, purchased through KBR, complements Edge Imaging’s existing Meteor DP60 Pro, which primarily produces print for schools. Based in Burlington, Ontario, Edge Imaging also previously installed MGI’s UVarnish offline coater and two PunchCard Pro credit card (CR-80) format die cutters. The company reports that it produces over 1-million studentidentification cards, one of its key applications, every year between the months of August and December. MEG WHITMAN, President and CEO of HP, introduced her plan to turn around the technology giant by the end of fiscal 2014. As part of the plan, HP’s Printing and Personal Systems (PPS) division will aim to reduce the number of SKUs in its printing business by 30 percent and the number of platforms in its PC business by 25 percent by the end of 2014. This PPS restructuring will also involve shrinking from six sales teams to three, while reducing functional support organizations from 12 to seven. By HEIDELBERG and its wholly owned sub- 2016, Whitman expects the company’s revsidiary Hi-Tech Coatings International cut enues to be growing in line with United the ribbon on a new coatings plant in Tay- States’ Gross Domestic Product. In other lor, Michigan, as celebrated by (left to news, HP’s Latex Ink technology and its right), Ken Freek Stefan Gohr, Thomas A50 Inkjet Web Press inks became the first Topp, Martin Skillen, Jean-Francois Col- water-based inkjet inks to achieve the Suspron, and Kurt Wiggins. From this new tainable Product Certification from UL En32,000-square-foot installation, the com- vironment, a business unit of Underwriters pany will produce Heidelberg Saphira Laboratories (UL). aqueous coatings for the North American market. The new plant follows Heidelberg’s acquisitions of two European plants in the UK and Netherlands in 2008. Hi-Tech Coatings was founded in 1983. CATALYST PAPER of Richmond, British Columbia, announced it successfully completed its reorganization under the Companies’ Creditors Arrangement Act. The news comes nearly a month after Catalyst entered into a commitment letter with a Canadian chartered bank for a $175 million syndicated asset-based loan (ABL) facility. As a result of the reorganization and related transactions, Catalyst reports to have reduced its debt by $390 million, eliminated $80 million of accrued interest and reduced annual interest expense and other cash costs by approximately $70 million. The company’s new board of directors as of September 13, 2012, is comprised of John Brecker, Giorgio Caputo, John Charles, Kevin Clarke, Todd Dillabough, Walter Jones and Leslie Lederer. 6 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2012

BRIAN REID, President of Transcontinental Printing, announced an extension of two contracts with Rogers Communications, which will generate up to $250 million in the printing of Rogers’ marketing products and magazines. The extension of these contracts will be until 2019 and covers the printing of the entire Rogers’ portfolio of publications for consumers, the business community and professions, the printing of Rogers’ marketing products as well as the direct-mail delivery of Rogers marketing products.

OPTIMA IMAGING GROUP, a Quebec company specializing in large-format production, recently installed new HP Scitex LX850 and HP Scitex FB700 printers. In business for 27 years, Optima Imaging works with a range of customers like the National Bank of Canada, museums, the Gatineau hot air balloon festival and Swimming Canada. “We were the pioneers of large-format printing, and we want to continue to lead the way, this time with the environmental benefits of Latex,” said Marc-Étienne Chartrand, Manager, Optima Imaging.

JOHN TORREY, President and CEO of Houston-based Ferrostaal Equipment Solutions North America, announced Montreal-based KBR Graphics as its newest dealer in Canada. Ferrostaal is the master distributor for Ryobi machinery in North America, while KBR Graphics has operations in Toronto, Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec City. “KBR is a widely respected and well-run business,” said Torrey. “They are also an important addition to our local network.” Canadian Printing Equipment was previously announced as the distributor of Ryobi equipment for Western Canada. CHANTAL MAHEUX-WEBSTER, Operations Manager, and Mike Pilotte, Press Operator, with Minuteman Press in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, oversaw the installation of a Ryobi 34DI press. Mike Maheux, President of Dartmouth Minuteman Press, who has owned the print shop for 16 years, also recently purchased the Minuteman Press Halifax location, with plans to continue operating both locations. The Ryobi 34DI press was purchased through Canadian Printing Equipment Ltd. SEAN SPRINGETT becomes Canadian Sales Manager for manroland Canada Inc, rejoining the press maker after a four-year hiatus in which he founded and operated a carbon-fibre business. “Albeit Sean has been away from manroland for a few years, he has maintained many solid relationships throughout the Canadian printing industry,” stated Gina Gigliozzi, manroland Canada’s Manager of Sales Administration. “In our view, Sean is uniquely qualified to engage the Canadian market in a consultative sales approach.” manroland sheetfed GmbH was established by British industrialist Tony Langley in February 2012 after acquiring the sheetfed division of manroland AG.

FASTSIGNS’ Racine Ramlallawan, Designer, and Craig Gibbs, owner, celebrate the installation of an HP Designjet L26500 inkjet printer into their Scarborough, Ontario, franchise location. Gibbs opened his FASTSIGNS location in 2007 and was previously working with an HP MANROLAND WEB SYSTEMS entered into a Designjet 8000. The print shop has expartnership agreement with Tensor Inter- panded its large-format production into national covering Canada and the United textiles, vinyl, film and uncoated materiStates printing markets. Under the agree- als, as well as higher-grade backlit prints. ment, manroland web will act as a sales arm for Tensor, which manufactures sin- PRINTING INDUSTRIES OF AMERICA and the gle-width presses and auxiliary equip- National Association for Printing Leadership ment. The sales partnership rounds out announced it has ceased unification discusmanroland web’s portfolio of newspaper sions, which began back in February 2012. and commercial web presses, as the Tensor The task force overseeing the talks concluded line of presses is aimed at semi-commer- it was not possible to formulate a combined cial, insert and newspaper markets. Tensor entity with regard to issues like legal, finanInternational was formed in early 2012 by cial, governance, membership structure, and combining Tensor Group with automa- programs. The PIA and NAPL announced tion supplier DCOS. The company has a plans to continue collaborating on programs large U.S. install base, consisting primarily and ongoing partnerships in the Graphic of T1400 and T400BE printing towers, as Arts Show Company, as well as conferences well as H50 folders. like the Vision 3 Summit.

KONICA MINOLTA HOLDINGS for the first time has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability World Index. Launched in 1999, the Dow Jones Sustainability Indexes were the first global sustainability indexes tracking the financial performance of companies in conjunction with environmental and social performance. In addition, this is the fourth consecutive year that Konica Minolta has been named to the Dow Jones Sustainability Asia Pacific Index (DJSI Asia Pacific). Besides ANTONIO PEREZ, Chairman and CEO of the DJSI World and DJSI Asia Pacific, Eastman Kodak Company, announced a Konica Minolta has been included in the series of organizational changes, follow- FTSE4Good Global Index of the ing the departure of Chief Financial Of- UK-based FTSE Group and the Japanficer Antoinette McCorvey and Chief based Morningstar Socially Responsible Operating Officer Philip Faraci. Rebecca Investment Index. Roof, a managing director of AlixPartners (Kodak’s restructuring advisory firm) becomes Interim CFO of Eastman Kodak to assist in the pursuit of emerging from Chapter 11 before the end of 2013. Kodak also announced plans to lay off an additional 1,000 employees by the end of 2012. The company has reduced its workforce by approximately 2,700 employees worldwide since the beginning of 2012. Kodak also announced plans to end its consumer-inkjet-printer business.

MICHAEL BARKER has been elected to the role of Chairman for PaperlinX Limited of Australia. The move came less than a week after the resignations of former Chairman Harry Boon and non-executive directors Lyndsey Cattermole and Anthony Clarke. “Major efforts are being devoted to our European operations to bring their results in line with the better performing operations in Australia, New Zealand, Asia and Canada,” stated Barker. In late August, PaperlinX Limited reMARTIN ANDERSON and Bert Naitram, In- ported its year-end results, which indigo operators with Cober Evolving Solu- cluded a statutory loss of $266.7 million tions of Kitchener, oversaw the installation (after tax) for its most recent year, comof a new HP Indigo 7500 press. Founded pared to a loss of $108 million for the 96 years ago, Cober Evolving Solutions is prior year. a fourth-generation operation, which recently completed an expansion into an EFI purchased Online Print Solutions 80,000-square-foot facility. Cober became (OPS), which develops software for Webone of North America’s first firms to offer to-print, publishing and cross-media proprietary Web-to-fulfillment solutions, marketing. OPS software is to become while also offering traditional lithography, part of EFI’s Productivity Software portlarge-format printing, mailing, fulfillment folio. EFI states it will continue offering its and bindery services. Digital StoreFront software along with the newly acquired OPS products, with future XPLOR CANADA welcomed eight new Elec- plans to integrate OPS features into Digitronic Document Associates into its mix, tal StoreFront. Ultimately, this will result following their graduation from the orga- in a single new platform as the two prodnization’s acadami Transaction Document uct groups are combined over the coming Specialist School. The new document spe- years. OPS, consisting of a privately held JOHN SPEAR, President of Jigsaw Imaging; cialists include: Douglas Betts, Larry Australian company called DataCreation Paula Arruda, Production Manager; Branston, Katherine Hajer, Jennifer Pty Ltd. and an Irish company called OnKaren Austin, Administration; and Dar- Karkaria, Scott McDonald, Beena Pinheiro, line Print Marketing Ltd., has offices in ren Spear, Sales and Marketing celebrate Jack Vanderhorst and Cynthia Verghese. Dublin, Boston, and Sydney. the installation of a 64-inch HP Scitex FB500 system. Formerly known as Rainbow Digital Imaging, Jigsaw has been producing large-format graphics for more than 25 years. According to John Spear, the new Scitex FB500 expands the company’s ability to print on corrugated and translucent materials

HAROLD MEIGHAN (centre) presented the team of Jay Fleming, Chris Petis, Scott Nicholl (all three of Advanced Office Solutions), and Lou Gagnon (Xerox Canada) with their prizes for winning the seventh annual Mackenzie Newspaper and Printery Museum golf tournament. From the more than 50 people participating in the best-ball tournament at Whirlpool Golf Course, the winning foursome recorded a score of eleven under par. The Mackenzie Newspaper and Printery Museum is a volunteer-run, non-profit organization aimed at passing along print’s history in CANADA POST, led by Deepak Chopra, is Canada to a new generation. launching a new generation of epost services in Kitchener Waterloo before GENERATION PRINTING of Vancouver has in- rolling the program out across the rest of stalled Avanti Computer Systems’ Print the country in 2013. New epost services, MIS and Web-to-Print systems, which was according to Canada Post, offer better derecently announced as part of Avanti’s fiscal sign and navigation, enhanced tools to year-end progress. Other new Avanti cus- manage bills and a new authentication tomers include U.S.-based companies such process to link digital identity with a as Advantage Direct of Fort Wayne, IN, physical address. epost is described as the Pressworx of Carrollton, TX, Wingpress of largest bill consolidation solution in Framingham, MA, Shelter Mutual Insur- Canada, with the registration of over 7.7 ance of Columbia, MO, and Copy.com of million people and 100 businesses across Houston, TX. Avanti reports this past fiscal just 17 municipalities. In related news, year marked the tripling of its size since the the United States Postal Service, for the three operating partners took over in 2004. second time in two months, was unable Avanti is releasing version 12.4 of its soft- to make its mandated US$5.6-billion ware at Graph Expo, which the Toronto payment to prefund retiree health benefirm describes as its most significant update fits. USPS defaulted on a similar US$5.5 billion payment in the previous month. in the past 10 years. OCTOBER 2012 • PRINTACTION • 7

PRINT CALENDAR

NOVEMBER 1

Printing-industry sales guru and PrintAction columnist Peter Ebner presents a workshop, called Breaking the Print Sales Barrier, at Fujifilm Canada’s headquarters in Mississauga.

Canadian Marketing Association hosts a 1-day B2B conference, under the theme of Close the Loop on B2B Marketing, at the Allstream Centre in Toronto. Learn best practices, skill requirements, sales tactics, and ROI measures. $649*

10 17

Label Printing Industries of America, beginning with a golf tournament and reception on Day 1, hosts its annual Innovation Conference at the Loews Coronado Bay Resort, near San Diego. The closing banquet takes place at the Balboa Park Auto Museum. $1,095*

Colour management specialists flock to the Sheraton Los Angeles Downtown Hotel for ICC DevCon 2012, emphasizing four tracks: Best practices and use cases, cross media transformations, Web colour management and iccLabs.

PrintAction magazine hosts the 7th annual Canadian Printing Awards (formerly Environmental Printing Awards) at the Palais Royale in Toronto. The event is to be hosted by Dianne Buckner, award-winning journalist for the CBC and host of Dragon’s Den. $150*

PAC, The Packaging Association, begins course three of its Packaging Certificate Program, in Mississauga. Course three covers metal cans and aerosols, glass packaging, paperboard and folding cartons. $1,235*

The Canadian Marketing Association holds its annul CMA Awards gala, celebrating a range of communications innovation, at the Westin Harbour Castle in Toronto. $420 or table for $4,200*

Indian Wells, California is regarded as a luxurious area close to Palm Springs. The town rose to prominence in the 1950s in parallel with the rise of Hollywood after World War II. The area is famous for its golf courses as well as its annual tennis tournaments which swell the population of the town from just under 5,000 to over 20,000 people. Pricing listed at standard rates, with * denoting the availability of member of early bird discounts.

8 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2012

The inaugural edition of PACKEX Montreal begins, focusing on new technologies for packaging, processing, material handling and logistics. Hosted by UBM Canon, the event includes an Innovation Briefs Theater.

The British Columbia Printing Industries Association (BCPIA) hosts its annual Festive Dinner at the Vancouver Lawn Tennis and Badminton Club.

NPES hosts its annual conference, under the theme of “Driving Growth through Innovation,” at Miramonte Resort in Indian Wells, California. Keynote speaker Robert Tucker is founder of The Innovation Resource and author of “Innovation is Everybody’s Business.” $650*

Print World 2012 begins at the Direct Energy Centre in Toronto. The bi-annual printing exhibition’s conference program is to be opened by Warren Werbitt, President of Pazazz Printing in Montreal.

PRINT INSERT

The team at Transcontinental Saint-Hyacinthe with a Panoramax sized sheet as captured from their YouTube video titled “PANORAMAX TC Transcontinental”

Building a Handheld Billboard T ranscontinental’s printing division unveiled a big announcement recently with the launch of a print offering called Panoramax. Using web offset technology, Transcontinental’s Saint-Hyacinthe plant can now produce a double-gatefold piece which spans over 63 inches long. Colloquially known as a handheld billboard, the company claims it is the largest format size available in Canada coming off of a web offset process. The Panoramax project is part of the company’s initiative to cultivate innovation from within. Teams of Transcontinental employees representing different aspects of the company, from the sales team to production staff, sat down to dream up new ideas. Panoramax was ultimately chosen by management for the go-ahead into production. “Several

teams came up with ideas, for adding new products or innovations to existing products, and they get to present to the higher management,” explains Gabriella Kovacs, Director of Marketing at Transcontinental. “So it does get pretty competitive but it’s a great way to get employee participation and develop an innovative culture in the company.” The press staff had to overcome many problems in order to produce such a large piece, most important of all was web tension and stability on the plant’s KBA Compacta 618 press, which was installed in the spring of 2007. The previous maximum size produced at Saint-Hyacinthe was 39 inches long. According to Transcontinental, Panoramax is a project which tested the patience, imagination

hes. e of 63.5 by 21 inc format with a siz old tef ga leub do Panoramax is a 10 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2012

and the limits of the SaintHyacinthe production crew. It took nearly 18 months, but the first project running in the Panoramax format, a flyer for Quebec retail pharmacy Uniprix, made its debut in late September to celebrate the company’s 35th anniversary. Kovacs says the Panoramax format is not only for flyers, but can be used to make a big impact, whether it is for a product launch or even direct mailers. The whole production of Panoramax projects are all completed inline, with what Kovacs describes as a minimal addition of time and effort over traditional formats. Transcontinental even created a YouTube video to promote Panoramax

and the people behind the innovation. “When I talk to marketers, they feel inspired by the possibilities that it provides and many feel that it’s an unique print vehicle,” says Kovacs. “Just by my conversations with several clients prior to the launch, there was a lot of interest so I think it’s going to be a success.” – Clive Chan

PRINT LABELS

Souped-up Labels ”I used to drink it, I used to have the same lunch every day, for 20 years,” said Andy Warhol, replying to art critic G.R. Swenson’s 1963 question of why he painted soup cans. The art world has put forward a myriad of reasons why Warhol used such a simple muse for 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans, produced with a semi-mechanized screen printing process he learned from Floriano Vecchi, owner of the Tiber Press. In October, to mark the 50-year anniversary of the first showing of 32 Campbell’s Soup Cans in New York, The Campbell Soup Company stocked the aisles of Target stores with 1.2 million cans featuring Warhol-inspired labels – costing just 75 cents each. Several reports cite the set of four cans being flipped on eBay for more than $25. “Thanks to Andy Warhol’s inspired paintings, Campbell’s soup will always be linked to the Pop Art movement,” said Ed Carolan, VP & GM of Campbell North America. According to The Campbell Soup Company, the then-company President William Beverly Murphy, had some initial concerns with Warhol’s art, but decided to adopt a wait-and-see approach. Eventually, the company became a supporter of Warhol’s work and helped the artist establish the Andy Warhol Scholarship Fund with the New York Art Academy. Campbell’s Tomato Soup, with its famous red and white can, was first introduced to the public in 1897 and continues to sell over 25 million cans each week. – Jon Robinson On the back of each 50th anniversary can is a notable quote by Warhol, as well as a brief history of his iconic work of art. Warhol’s signature also adorns each can.

OCTOBER 2012 • PRINTACTION • 11

VICTORIA GAITSKELL

Creative Cats or the past couple of decades, printing prophets have forecasted doom for printers who do not extend their services beyond traditional reproduction. At the same time, there has been a frustrating scarcity of information about role models and action plans to help small printers expand into new services to improve their odds of long-term survival. This column will introduce you to Laurie Carr and Julie Mavis, co-owners of Cats Media, a small Ontario company, who have recently emerged as role models intent on helping other small independent operations convert to new business models and revenue streams. In 1986, Carr’s mother, Nan Carr, and stepfather, Gary Fishlock, started the business as a quick-printing franchise in the Don Mills district of Toronto. (They can’t name the franchise company as a condition of their termination agreement.) For 20 years, they maintained the franchise, with Fishlock driving outside sales as Nan managed in-house operations. When their franchise contract expired, rather than renewing, they decided to continue in the same location (where they still operate today) as an independent business. During the last dozen or so years of the franchise, Laurie Carr entered the family business, after she had already built a 20-year career of her own as a comptroller in the automotive sector. “Initially, I came in just to help them out part time, because they were struggling a bit. It was the early ’90s, and they were just starting to take on things like floppy-disk work, which they didn’t understand. They only understood hard-copy kind of work,” recounts Carr. But because market demand for computer-generated production escalated, Carr ended up staying with the family business. Independently, Julie Mavis had built her own career with the Hudson’s Bay Company, where her progression from store manager to senior executive gave her ample opportunities to hone her skills in marketing and business strategy. After 17 years with HBC, she felt it was time for a change, so she left, ran for political office, and in 2000 was elected municipal councillor in Port Hope, the municipality where she and Carr both live (an hour’s drive east of Toronto, population 16,500).

12 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2012

Carr and Mavis join forces

While on council, Mavis was responsible for the Economic Development and Tourism portfolio and had the opportunity to work with Carr on a mutual project. Their collaboration proved so successful that Carr invited Mavis to join her family’s business in 2001. Fishlock, who was intent on retiring at the end of his 20-year franchise contract, stepped back and let Carr and Mavis co-manage the operation for a couple of years, until eventually he and Nan sold their stake in 2006. Now, as co-owners, Mavis looks after the strategic vision and creative side of the business, while Carr oversees the numbers. Although Fishlock has since retired, Nan still works in the business two days a week, focusing on administration and print-related specialty jobs. “She doesn’t have any understanding of the new services but is a great resource on the traditional print side,” says Carr. Steps toward change

When Carr first arrived, the prepress side of the business was completely manual. “The company had a couple of major clients at the time: A communications company and a financial-services company. Once we started doing their artwork on a PC, both were so delighted with the opportunities and the quality of our product that our business with them expanded exponentially,” she recalls. For instance, one new job they acquired involved archiving all the data for one large

company’s training manuals, plus printing and shipping the manuals all across the country. Next, Carr and Mavis expanded into mailing, fulfillment, and IT services, such as database management, all of which they felt were a natural extension of their existing post-print operations. “Our existing clients understood these services, they needed them, and were happy to let us take care of them,” Carr continues. “The new services didn’t bring in a lot of new clients. Rather, it was usually people who were print clients first who moved into purchasing them. We grew through print contracting for our existing client base.” At present, the mailing and fulfillment part of the business mainly serves two major clients: One that purchases legal printing for the condo industry and the other an international hotel chain. In total, Cats Media’s current Toronto operation consists of seven staff (plus Carr and Mavis), two Risos (one inkjet and one duplicator), one colour and four monochrome toner-based machines (mostly Ricoh), plus bindery and mailing equipment.

Continued on page 24

Top photo (L to R): Tracy Kerr, Designer; Julie Mavis, Owner; Aaron Sawyer, Marketing; Laurie Carr, Owner; Jay Robinson, Creative Director; Jeff Shadwick, Designer; and Rick “Big Data” McMurray, Web/IT (along with Jay’s dog, Bandit, Studio Greeter). Inset: Cats Media’s Port Hope studio sits under the CP Rail viaduct, overlooking the Ganaraska River.

Join us for a Celebration of Print at the 7th annual Canadian Printing Awards November 29, 2012 Palais Royale • Toronto

Discounts on corporate tables available to celebrate with your team and clients. Enjoy a gourmet dinner by Chef Steﬀan Howard and the business insight of host Dianne Buckner from the CBC’s hit show, Dragons’ Den.

Purchase tickets at www.printaction.com/CPA or call 416-665-7333 ext 31

PrintAction magazine would like to extend a special thank you to the 2012 Canadian Printing Award sponsors.

NICK HOWARD

The Nautilus SSN-571, the world’s first nuclear submarine, enters New York harbour in August 1958. The sub was built by Oregon’s Electric Boat Company, which tried to expand its business by manufacturing the Willard printing press. Photo: US Navy

Press Manufacturers Don’t Make Submarines he year is 2018 and two engineers are sitting at a bar in the world’s largest shipyard, South Korea’s Ulsan Industrial District. The South Korean engineer turns to the German and asks, “So, how did your company get into the propeller business?” The German pauses for a moment; thinking about his company’s long history and the changes he has seen over the past few years: “We were actually builders of printing machines for over 100 years. Back in 2013, our management called us to a meeting and announced we had just purchased a smaller company that designs and builds ship propellers – just like the ones I’m installing here in Ulsan. “The printing business was feeling the effects of downsizing and it rippled all the way to our company, with a great deal of uncertainty about the future. We still build printing machines – just not as many as before. The printing machine part is now just a segment of what we do. Print has settled down now, as a lot of consolidation and attrition reduced the size of the industry. Our managing director was right on when he said we had the resources and skills to branch out and I’m really glad he did.” After finishing his drink, the German walked through the shipyard to watch the magical dance of dozens of cranes swirling hundreds of containers through the air. He liked to guess at what was in each container based on the ship’s country of origin. Where and how capital equipment is made today is vastly different from even 10 years ago. His company was at the forefront of this change in 2013, when most printing-press builders diligently diversified their businesses in line with

14 • PRINTACTION • OCTOBER 2012

the new economy that emerged after the 2008 mortgage crisis. It was not the first time that enormous structural changes in the world’s economy altered the manufacturing of printing machinery. Old era of diversification

Seismic shifts took place in most every industrial sector over the five decades of two world wars, as machine manufacturers reacted to the disparate needs of their homeland. This was particularly true in the sphere of printing machines, whose builders employed highly skilled and innovative technicians. These skills were often found in smaller companies marrying invention with machinery. After the end of WWII, as countries across the globe planned for a more civil future, machine builders of all types and shapes resettled into specific areas of expertise, betting on which sectors would grow most in the coming peace. Printing machinery, at the time, was seen as one of the world’s most modern and innovative industrial sectors, surely well suited to rise with the tide of globalized communications. Seeing the printing possibilities of post WWII, the Electric Boat Company (EBC) of Groton, Connecticut, purchased the rights to the Willard – a little known printing press – in 1947. The Willard was a 34-inch, single-colour press designed in New York State by the father-and-son team of William and Harold Gegenheimer. The name Harold W. Gegenheimer is still recognized today in relation to the invention of the convertible offset perfecting press, but it is often forgotten that, in 1927, William Gegenheimer, also invented the world’s first press washer. He decided to name his

company after the small city where it was founded in 1918, Baldwin. EBC itself traces its roots back to 1899 as the first company to manufacture electric motors for ships and submarines. During WWII, EBC also built the Subchaser, a 110-foot-long ship used extensively against German U-Boats. The Electric Boat Company went on to build the world’s first nuclear-powered submarine, the Nautilus, and, after purchasing Canada’s Canadair, remains alive and well as a business unit of General Dynamics. Despite its trumpeted boat-building success during WWII, EBC still saw a need – or the opportunity – to diversify because of global economic structural change. Troops were coming home and about to create the Baby Boom generation. The fact that EBC diversified into printing speaks to the perceived potential of the sector at the time. The Willard was ripe for the picking, as the Gegenheimers had done very little with the machine since its 1935 introduction. Success in volume never came for EBC’s printing arm, because the company’s radar picked up new subversive rivalries, ultimately labeled as the Cold War, fueled by the United States and Soviet Union. Governments ultimately provide for better accounts receivable than printers, and the marriage of EBC and the Willard lasted for only five years, as rights to the technology were sold off to Miller Printing Machinery Co. of Pittsburgh. New era of diversification

With a mature and robust World Wide Web and the economic rationalization of 2008, print, for the first time since Gutenberg, is no longer a reflection of industry

and commerce. At best, one can say print is an allied business, not an indispensible one. Anyone who has ever visited a printing press production site, however, will certainly appreciate the sheer magnificence and sophistication of such operations. Today, Komori, Heidelberg and KBA, in what facilities they have, make up the three largest press builders. Now is the time for top-level management of all printing press makers to think really hard about what else they can do with their firepower. The largest press manufacturers are likely to either buy into contradistinctive technology or internally develop print processes new to their business. Surprisingly, given the lingering effects of massive structural change over the past two years, no real eureka announcements have been made by the largest offset press makers. The largest three press players have done little poking outside their graphic arts window, beyond gobbling up various ancillary firms also supplying technology to a receding print industry. Several builders have certainly teamed up with competing press makers from the digital (inkjet and toner) space, but there have been no major acquisitions or internal developments. This tends to suggest a staid future outlook on the business of printing, but Heidelberg, Komori and KBA continue to control massive manufacturing capabilities. Coupled with highly skilled technicians, these facilities can make just about any machinery requiring precision and girth. Mitsubishi, while not a dominant press maker worldwide, is one of the largest corporations on earth and immersed in a mindboggling array of industries. Continued on page 28

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