Executive vice president
Peter Kuisle leaves manroland web systems
Managing director Eckhard Hoerner-Marass to take over the responsibility
Peter Kuisle, member of the executive board, is to leave manroland web systems GmbH by March 31, 2013. Kuisle has been responsible for sales, service, and marketing and has been managing director of Eurografica GmbH for many years. He will take a new professional challenge. “The executive board and the staff members would like to thank Peter Kuisle for his commitment and active support in our successful business development,” conveys managing director Eckhard Hoerner-Marass who, from April 2013, will take over the responsibility for sales, service, and marketing. Notably, the manroland web systems group has achieved a positive result in the short fiscal year 2012. The company has re-organized its web offset business and plans a significant increase in turnover and profit for the year 2013.
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BREAKING NEWS
HT Media decides to sell its
entire equity stake in
HT Burda Media Ltd
Board of directors of HT Media Ltd has ‘in principle’ approved the sale of its 51 percent stake in HT Burda Media Ltd for Rs 60 crore. A term of sheet has been signed to this effect. The decision follows the strategic review of HT Media’s long term plans. The sale will be valued accretive to HT Media as the gross margin in the printing business is far lower when compared with the print media business.
Commenting on the proposed sale, Rajiv Verma, CEO, HT Media Ltd said, “We set up a modern, ultra high speed printing facility in partnership with Burda. We also shared a great working relationship with Burda. However, HT Media is primarily a media company and after mapping our long term strategy, we felt that the printing business would not add significantly to our shareholders’ value in the long run.” HT Burda Ltd is a joint venture between HT Media Ltd, India and Burda Drusk GmbH, Germany.
HT Media Ltd is one of India’s foremost media companies, and home to three leading newspapers in the country in the English, Hindi and Business news segments—Hindustan Times (English daily) established in 1924, Hindustan (Hindi daily) and Mint (Business daily) with their respective websites. They have also been running some other websites related to recruitment and other service portals. The company also operates FM
radio stations in four metro cities including Delhi, Mumbai, Bengaluru and Kolkata.
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Leading Sri Lankan newspaper
group selects new Goss press
To improve colour capacity in weekend titles and meet a growing demand for Sunday newspapers, Wijeya Newspapers (WNL), a leading Sri Lankan newspaper group, will install a new six-tower Goss Magnum press at one of their two print facilities in the country’s commercial capital of Colombo.
As a new customer to Goss International, WNL chose to invest in advanced technology as well as greater production capacity. Totaling 24 units configured as six four-high towers, six zero-speed reelstands and a 1:3:3 half-page jaw folder, the new 2x1 (single-width, single-circumference) Magnum press will feature a 546mm cut-off and operate at speeds up to 45,000 copies per hour. It will also incorporate shaftless drive technology, as well as motorized ink keys and advanced spraybar dampening and blanket washer technology for improved quality and production versatility.
Production director at Wijeya Newspapers, PS Wijewardene, says that the Goss Magnum press is expected to increase capacity by thirty percent of their plant. “In addition to an increased demand for Sunday newspapers, our customers are becoming more quality conscious, so we were looking to upgrade our capabilities with advanced technology,” he explains, “Choosing the Goss Magnum press gives us the confidence that we can meet growing demands and improve quality of reproduction and colour capacity in our weekend products.” “With political developments in the country, new reader regions have opened up to us in the last few years, meaning that run lengths have increased and brought with them significant growth potential,” he concludes. “As readers continue to become more discerning, the ability to maximize this potential in coming years will require versatile, multipurpose production systems incorporating a variety of progressive technologies. For this reason, we have decided the time is right to take a step up in capabilities with this latest press investment,” he conveys.
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Relief material continues to go
for migrants staying in border villages of J&K
Abijay Chopra, director, Punjab Kesari Group flagging off 333rd truck carrying relief material for the migrants staying in village Chak Avtata, RS Pura Sector, Jammu in J&K, along with Jang Bahadur Bhardwaj, DP Chhabra, president, Lions Club; Dharminder Nath, Dinesh Sharma, Puneet Mehra and Lion JB Singh Chaudhary.
Vijay Kumar Chopra, editor-in-chief, Punjab Kesari Group flagging off 334th truck of relief material to village Reasi, along with Jagdish Bajaj, Romesh Ghumber, Rajinder Garg, Joginder Kapoor, Harpreet Singh Dhaliwal, Hardayal Singh Aman, Rohit Kumar; Chander Bhalla, vice governor Lion DS Kalra and multiple council chairman Lion JB Singh Chaudhary.
Vijay Kumar Chopra, editor-in-chief, Punjab Kesari Group flagging off 335th truck of relief material sent by Jai Maa Sachkhand Dwar, Bassi Pathana to the migrants of the Bhatindi area in Jammu City. Raj Kamal Sharma, Gora Lal Jhanji, Ramesh Kumar, Sham Sunder Jargar, Niranjan Kumar, president, Raveen Moudgil and Lion JB Singh Choudhary are also seen.
Vijay Kumar Chopra, editor-in-chief, Punjab Kesari Group flagging off 336th truck of relief material to the migrants of village Bishnah (J&K), along with Jagdish Bajaj, Komal Khanna, Ramesh Ghumber, Chander Bhalla, Rinku Dani and Lion JB Singh Choudhary.
Vijay Kumar Chopra, editor-in-chief, Punjab Kesari Group flagging off 337th truck of relief material to the migrants of border village Rehari (J&K), along with Sudarshan Vashisht, Thakur Dass Sharma, Chaudhary Bansi Lal, Sansar Chand Sharma, Vijay Sharma, Raj Kumar Kaushal, GD Kundra, Kulwinder Phull, Hemraj, Kaviraj, Nitish Kaushal, Gurdeep Singh Kang, Raman Nehra, Rakesh Suneja, Mohit Chawla, Vinay Kumar Bittu, Hariom Sharma and Lion JB Singh Chaudhary.
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Opening of new centre at
Muller Martini’s headquarters in Zofingen
Following extensive reconstruction work to the historical factory building at Muller Martini’s headquarters in Zofingen, Switzerland, the new print finishing centre has been opened recently. At this centre, the machine demonstrations, training courses and know-how transfer, with particular emphasis on end products and data and process management, are being offered from February 2013.
Procedure tests and product tests, for example involving specific paper types or unusual finishing processes, will provide customers with important input and also support the further development of Muller Martini’s systems. Machine operators and operating personnel from all around the globe will be trained in the machine park, which features the Presto II saddle stitcher with the option of digital processing, the Primera with the Sitma inserting and film wrapping machine and the Tempo 220 with a palletizing unit, the FlexLiner inserting system for the newspaper mailroom and mailshot market, and a SigmaLine for digital book production. In the print finishing center specialists will also provide extensive information about the advantages of Muller Martini’s software solutions.
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hubergroup expands its management team
Ashwani Bhardwaj elevated to the hubergroup management board
An order to intensify the Group’s focus on its operational activities and to integrate the regions more closely into the task of planning future strategic development, the printing-ink manufacturer, hubergroup recently strengthened their existing management team, including Thomas L Hensel (CEO and operations management Americas) and Ursula Borgmann (R&D, technology), by the addition of Ashwani Bhardwaj (operations management Asia) and Heiner Klokkers (operations management Europe).
“We can count ourselves lucky to have such talented people among our own employees,” says Thomas L Hensel, adding, “Ashwani Bhardwaj is an outstanding manager in our Group, and the prudent and successful leader of our largest production plant. Heiner Klokkers stands out due to his deep understanding of the market, his tremendous willingness to assume responsibility and his motivational leadership and management style.”
Ashwani Bhardwaj studied natural science and graduated in Business Administration, and he joined Micro Inks Ltd, the Indian arm of the hubergroup, back in 1995, where his most recent post was that of managing director. He has more than 32 years of experience in the industry, 23 of them in printing inks.
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manroland India gets new managing director
Effective from 15th January, Pankaj Bhasin, 51, is the new managing director of manroland India, a subsidiary of manroland web systems GmbH. “India is a strong market with a promising growth potential and deserves our utmost dedication and attention. We are very pleased we could gain Bhasin with his wide-ranging know-how as managing director for this important market organization,” commented Peter Kuisle, member of the management board manroland web systems.
Pankaj Bhasin holds a BE and MBA degree from Delhi university and has profound experience in various branches of business. In his career spanning nearly 30 years with various industries, Pankaj Bhasin was associated also with one of India’s leading printing and packaging companies as vice president. During his career Pankaj Bhasin has taken over turnaround and general management tasks as well as start-up business and strategic business unit operations within renowned international companies for high-value capital equipment and engineering products and solutions.
Expressing happiness about this new position, Pankaj Bhasin, conveyed, “The mission to promote manroland’s first-class products in the Indian printing industry. Our customers highly appreciate the leading technology of manroland presses and services and are eager to learn about the latest developments. Together with the manroland India team I enjoyed PRINTPACK INDIA as a great platform to present manroland technology and start business with our country’s printing experts.”
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InterTech Technology Awards ’13:
Call for entries
Printing Industries of America is currently seeking entries for the 2013 InterTech Technology Awards. Manufacturers and suppliers of equipment and software covering any aspect of graphic communications operations are encouraged to enter their technologies by May 31, 2013.
The companies of awarded technologies will receive their InterTech Star before an audience of industry leaders during the 2013 Premier Print Awards Gala featuring the InterTech Technology Awards and web2awards in conjunction with PRINT 13 in Chicago, Illinois.
Since 1978, these awards have honored the development of technologies predicted to have a major impact on the graphic communications and related industries. The InterTech competition is conducted annually by Printing Industries of America to identify the technologies shaping the future of graphic communications. To receive recognition, technologies must be truly innovative—not just an evolutionary improvement on an existing product. They also need to enable printers to operate more efficiently or offer new products or services. Finally, the technologies must be commercially available, yet not in widespread use.
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New Delhi to host inaugural India
International Printing & Packaging Fair (IIPPF)
With special focus on ‘out sourced publishing’, the first edition of India International Printing & Packaging Fair (IIPPF) will take place at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi during August 06-09, 2013, showcasing the latest trends in the contemporary graphic art industry.
Organized by India Trade Promotion Organisation (ITPO), the India International Printing & Packaging Fair (IIPPF) aims to project the potential of Indian graphic arts industry and from the international arena. At the same time, it will provide manufactures to showcase their well researched, designed, produced graphic arts machinery and equipments.
IIPPF 2013 has been designed by the ITPO as an international event to meet the aspiration of printing and packaging industry professionals from all over the world. This new fair has wider profile with an additional focus on printing and publishing business outsourced by developed countries.
The display profile of the fair covers: In pre-press segment: software for CtP, colour management, digital workflow, colour scanners, digital proofing system, plate making systems and plate setter. In-press (printing): sheet-fed offset, web offset, hi-tower web machines suitable for newspapers magazines, text books, etc; flexographic & rotogravure; label printing; digital printing machines and signage. Binding: paper cutting, three-knife trimmers, perfect binding, thread sewing, wire stitching’ book block preparing machines for soft or hard-cover binding. Finishing: laminating, folding, die-cutting, creasing, slitting and rewinding, sheeters’ folding and gluing, stackers, conveyor systems machines. Packaging: corrugating, rotary cutting, punching and creasing, slotting, gluing, card board printing, laminating’ from-filling, box stitching machines. Converting: paper & board converting, corrugated, box making, plastic converting, flexible packaging, metal converting, and glass converting, label gluing, continuous label application, rigid packaging’ thermoforming vacuum packaging, bag & pouch making machines, besides bottling lines & label applicators.
This event is a significant initiative at a time when the printing and packaging industries in India have been growing at a fast pace. The speedy economic growth in recent years in India has created a stirring momentum in India’s print industry. The printing industry is well established and presently growing at 12 per cent per annum. As many as 8000 weekly and fortnightly newspapers/periodicals are published in Indian languages. India has around 2, 50,000 small, medium and big printers. Besides, up to 26 per cent FDI is permitted in newspapers and periodicals. Packaging industry is currently valued at over USS 14 billion and growing at 14-15 per cent annually. Approx 700 packaging machinery manufacturers and 95 per cent of whom are in small and medium sector are located all over India.
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Regulations
condemned
The World Association of Newspapers and News Publishers (WAN-IFRA) and the World Editors Forum are concerned by proposals in Hong Kong that would make it harder for the media to obtain the personal data of company directors.
In a letter to Hong Kong’s chief executive, Leung Chun-ying, WAN-IFRA and the WEF called for a halt to the proposals that would make it “much more difficult for journalists to uncover covert directorships, money laundering and other corporate-based crimes,” and “inhibit the investigative role of the press.” The proposed change to the Companies Ordinance would allow corporate directors to apply to have their residential address and full identity card or passport number blocked from public view. Recent reports by the New York Times, Bloomberg and other media outlets have used such information to expose the wealth and assets of some of China’s ruling elite. More than 1,700 Hong Kong journalists, educators and professional organisations signed a petition in January calling on the government to withdraw the proposal, more than on any previous industry-wide petition.
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Six Indian dailies shine in
87 finalists for INMA Awards 2013
The International News Media Association (INMA) recently announced 87 finalists in the INMA Awards 2013 competition, rewarding excellence in marketing news brands. First-place recipients will be announced on April 30, on the sidelines of the 83rd Annual INMA World Congress at the Marriott Marquis in New York, capped by the presentation of the prestigious ‘Best of Show’ award signifying the world's top media marketing campaign of the year. Some 30 first-place awards will be presented across 10 categories and three audience-size groups. Finalists in the INMA Awards 2013 competition represent the best marketing campaigns by news media companies from the past year.
Award recipients from India by category include: i next, Kanpur, “Retail Master” in the advertising sales and retention category; Mid Day, Mumbai, ‘Mid Day Digital’, and The Hindu, Chennai, ‘Undumb in the digital audience usage and engagement category; Dainik Jagran, New Delhi, with ‘How Much More Time Does Jharkhand Need: Awakening a State’ in the readership/usage of the print publication category; and Hindustan Times, New Delhi, with ‘You Read, They Learn’, The Times of India with
‘Social Impact Awards’, and The Times of India, Chennai with ‘Bring Back Auto Meters’ in the public relations and community service category.
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Yielding interesting
insights into
multi-channel and digital publishing
The stop of WoodWing´s Next Wave Tour in South Africa recently was a resounding success, with 82 attendees from newspaper and magazine publishers as well a corporate. Organized by WoodWing and its local partner Automated Publishing Services (APS), the event yielded interesting insights into multi-channel and digital publishing. With demonstrations of WoodWing´s multi-channel publishing and digital asset management solutions, the road map for Adobe’s Digital Publishing Suite, case studies from both Media 24 and Mail & Guardian, the event was the perfect platform to discuss the future of Multi-Channel and Digital Publishing.
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Setting stage for Paperex 2013
The 11th edition of Paperex - an internationally renowned series of events and conferences focusing on the pulp and paper industry - is scheduled to be held from Oct 24- 27, 2013 at Pragati Maidan, New Delhi, India. Held biennially, this business event is the world’s largest exhibition on pulp, paper and allied industries, organized by International Trade and Exhibitions India Pvt Ltd in association with Indian Agro and Recycled Paper Mills Association. Being the only comprehensive forum serving the paper industry, Paperex has established itself as an international business platform for interacting with luminaries from practically all corners of the globe, promoting business and giving a fillip to the growth and development of paper, pulp and allied industries in the country, joint ventures, investments and technology transfer.
Paperex has always set benchmarks for quality, innovation and meeting exhibitor and visitor expectations. Spread over 15 halls with more than 25,000 sq m area at Pragati Maidan, Paperex 2013 is expected to witness the presence of more than 500 exhibitors from 25 leading countries. The upcoming event will have special handmade paper pavilion and an exclusive machinery display area as a key attraction of this leading business event. Attracting business visitors from more than fifty countries, the show will feature international group participation from China, Finland, France, Germany, Italy, Taiwan, etc. A high level technical conference on ‘Global Pulp and Paper Industry: Problems and Prospects’ will also be organized by Indian Agro and Recycled Paper Mills Association at the 11th edition of Paperex.
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