Italy’s GV Group has acquired British book printers CPI Books and CPI Antony Rowe, in a deal that comes close to doubling GV Group’s size. Together CPI Books and CPI Antony Rowe have annual sales of £127 million, producing over 100 million books a year. GV Group also owns Lake Book Manufacturing in the Chicago area and PA Hutchison Company in Pennsylvania in the US, along with Grafica Veneta in Trebaseleghe, Italy. Chair of parent company SoFiGraf Fabio Franceschi says, “The trust of Italian publishers has enabled us to grow. Today, we are making a wider network available to all […]
Printing
Coral Graphics Has to Vacate Long Island Plant, Will Eliminate 85 Jobs
The 55,000-square-foot facility on Long Island that has housed a plant for printer Coral Graphic Services has been sold and the company — part of Bertelsmann Printing Group — needs to vacate and shut down operations. According to a WARN notice filed with New York State, 85 jobs will be eliminated between now and the closing of the plant on October 29. That location has served as their main office as well. Coral Graphics specializes in book components, including as covers, inserts, and jackets.
Challenges to Germany's Print Titans
Ever since Gutenberg German industry has led the way in big printing presses but now ” Germany’s dominance in spreading the written word is in danger of fading,” the WSJ reports. Heidelberger still leads the world in sheet-fed offset presses, a market in which German companies control 70 percent. But the world is moving to digital presses, and the German business faces additional challenges from less expensive Japanese machines, further helped by a weak yen. Illinois’ Goss International is a competitor as well. They bought a majority stake in Heidelberger’s web offset unit in 2004 and are now developing offset […]
Chinese Printers Are Censoring Books for Export
Two Australian publishers report incidents of censorship by Chinese printers of their books. A printer company in Guangdong in southern China informed the UNSW Press after their book was printed that “Chinese authorities have found sentences within the text which infringe their sovereignty and have refused to grant an export authorization.” (There was a reference to the “China-Tibet border” in a biography by Felicity Jack.) And Hardie Grant reports “a similar problem with a reference book being printed in Hong Kong for an international market after it was advised to remove a picture of the Dalai Lama.”SMH