Page 22 - PWM2023_February

NEWS GLOBAL

IN BRIEF EU closing the loop on

Nat io n al W orld h a s
ac quired The Ne wr y
Reporter, a community-
based paid weekly news- packaging from 2025
paper and e-edition that
was in danger of closure. A
final edition of the title –
which National World said The European sibility (EPR) fees, introduc-
had been maintained as a Commission has unveiled ing a financial incentive to
high-quality paper by its new packaging regulations
previous owner, publishing company Edward Hodgett – manufacture easily recycla-
had been planned for 25 January and this acquisition, that will take effect from ble packaging.
announced on20 January, ensures the continuity of the 2025, and require all packag- Manufacturers exporting
title’s publication. It means the preservation of a paper that ing used in the bloc to be to Europe will have to comply
has served the community continuously since 1867, and recyclable by 2030.
saves 10 jobs. With a strong and dedicated readership and with the requirements. UK
audience through online subscription, National World said The requirements, which New packaging regulations firms with sales of more than
the title’s long heritage in Newry and the Mournes presents replace the bloc’s 1994 £1m that produce packaging
a key opportunity to underpin the publisher’s growth in its Packaging and Packaging will undergo assessment to
business in Belfast and Derry, and with other weekly Waste regulation, will also ensure they have been or package goods were
papers, “that enjoys significant circulation in the area”. designed to be recycled, with required to start collecting
introduce a single recycling
Mailing house MetroMail labelling system for the grades from A to E. packaging data from 1
and Lbox Communications whole of the EU, recycled Packaging scoring E will be January 2023.
have entered a strategic content targets for plastic banned from the common These companies will be
production partnership packaging, and require that market from 2030, and required to pay an annual fee
that will see MetroMail be
the lead partner for a large fresh produce labels be biode- grades A to D will be subject to the UK’s environmental
proportion of Lbox’s out- gradable. Now, all packaging to extended producer respon- regulator from 2024.
bound marketing commu-
nications and posted mail
packs. The “multi-mil- Bertelsmann exits gravure
lion-pound deal”, which will start next month, will be
processed through MetroMail’s 13,000sqm facility in Prinovis is to wind down of Bertelsmann Printing pandemic and the enormous
Seaham, County Durham over the next three years. Given increase in paper and energy
volumes and format mix, the work will be printed on a full its last remaining print Group, described the deci-
range of MetroMail’s equipment, including both continu- plant, heralding the swan- sion to close the loss-making prices have caused our cli-
ous and cutsheet inkjet printers. Jobs will be fulfilled across song of gravure technology site as a difficult but unavoid- ents to repeatedly review
various Pitney Bowes, Bowe Systec, Buhrs, and Sitma at its parent, German media able due to market condi- their marketing activities
machines, along with hand fulfilment and physical intel-
ligent letter sortation (ILS). MetroMail said it has also giant Bertelsmann. tions. over the past two years and
invested over £300,000 in new inflight messenger colour Prinovis management The company blamed the often to switch to digital
envelope printing within a bespoke workflow, which is informed the 545-strong structural decline in the communication solutions.”
coming on stream this week.
workforce at Prinovis European gravure printing The news follows the
Bluetree Group-owned Ahrensburg, near Hamburg, market over the past decade announcement last
Kingsbury Press was the last Thursday that it would driven by falling demand for November that Prinovis will
big winner at last night’s cease operations at the site by high-volume magazines and wind down its Liverpool site,
2022 British Book Design &
Production Awards, seal- 31 January 2024. catalogues. signalling an end to publica-
ing victory in three catego- Ulrich Cordes, managing Cordes added: “Beyond tions gravure printing in the
ries, including the top director of Prinovis and CFO this, the repercussions of the UK.
two: Best British Book and
Book of the Year. Getting
and printing attended the event at the De Vere Grand De La Rue shares drops by 5%
on for 240 leading lights from the worlds of book publishing
Connaught Rooms in Holborn, London. While the event was
hosted by former barrister and BBC Newsnight producer Shares in currency printer sion to suspend printing
Sam McAlister, who recently published her first book, De La Rue have fallen by over came after reduced global
Scoops, Charles Jarrold, CEO of organiser BPIF delivered the 5% on 20 January after it
welcome. He hailed the examples of creativity and exper- released a statement market demand for printed
tise. announcing a suspension of
banknote printing in Kenya banknotes, according to the
Print has shown a robust defence of its position in today’s and its implication in an firm’s statement, and no
media market, according to the Published Audience investigation into India’s for- De La Rue shares drop
Measurement Company (PAMCo)’s fifth edition of its market mer finance minister. expectation of new orders
survey. Print media reached an estimated average of 30 De La Rue’s stocks fell to operates with three printing from the Central Bank of
million monthly consumers and 12 million daily consumers 72.2p before stabilising at sites in the UK, Malta, and
from June 2021 to September 2022. Print’s reach was second midday at around 73.7p, a fall Sri Lanka, a reduction from Kenya for the next 12
only to smartphones, which dominated the media market; of 6.6% on yesterday’s clos- five sites in 2020. months. De La Rue’s expan-
computers and tablets, however, lagged significantly ing high of 78.9p. The sus- De La Rue closed its
behind print as media platforms, reaching just 10 million pension of printing in Kenya Gateshead print operation in sion of its Malta facility will
and six million respective monthly users. has meant that the firm now December 2020. The deci- continue unaffected.

22 PrintWeek MENA February 2023 www.printweekmena.com