Page 22 - PWM_NOVEMBER2021 EBook

NEWS GLOBAL

IN BRIEF Konica Minolta focuses

Equipment manufacturer
and supplier BlueCrest has
acquired Fluence Automation on order backlog
to accelerate its growth in the
e-commerce fulfilment and
parcel sortation markets. The Konica Minolta has a ¥6bn the actual demand “during the
strategic acquisition, which (£38.6m) order backlog at its period from the plant
was announced on 1 Professional Print division shutdown to restart of
November, will see Arlington Heights, Illinois-based Fluence because of the current hiatus operations under a new
become part of Danbury, Connecticut-headquartered BlueCrest. in toner manufacturing – but
In the short-term the business will be referred to as Fluence the group said the toner supply production system and the
Automation, A BlueCrest Company. Fluence’s portfolio includes shortage was “expected to be recovery of production
products for material handling, letters and parcels sorting, high resolved at an early stage” with capacity”.
speed print and apply labelling, postal parcel processing and priority being given to existing As part of its DX2022
verification and inspection, among others. BlueCrest said the Konica on recover mode business plan KM is “swiftly
deal means it “now directly provides all critical solution layers to customers. working on two portfolio
customers – application solutions with hardware, software, In its half-year results for the accidents at Tatsuno Factory, transformations”, and aims to
controls, and imaging”. six months ended 30 undersupply of toner incurred reduce its dependence on
September, KM said that at its delays of sales activities and
Coveris has completed a Professional Print wing, sales shipping. Therefore, the order office printing. The group also
plans to strengthen its position
m a j o r t w o- y e a r for colour models at its backlog amounted to 6bn
transformation project at its production print operation yen,” the firm stated. in growth businesses “such as
Cramlington labels facility in were up 103%, while KM said that because of the the Industry Business”, and is
Northumberland. The monochrome devices were up Tatsuno shutdown, toner also looking to additional
European packaging 100%. production volume was M&A and collaboration
manufacturer said over £3m “Due to the explosion expected to be about 75% of opportunities.
has been invested in new
technologies to increase capacity at the twin facility, as well as K&B targets customer interest
enhance the recycling infrastructure to support the group’s
sustainable vision of ‘No Waste’. Positioning the site as a new
flagship facility for self-adhesive label manufacturing, the Koenig & Bauer has filed a big savings targets for 2021 packaging accounting for
investment included the installation of three new MPS flexo increase in orders in Q3, through its P24x performance most of the uplift. K&B said
presses, a further four ABG rewinders – two of which were the stating that “customers’ improvement programme. that customers’ reticence to
final installs in early September, and a new waste extraction spending reticence is Orders for the first nine spend was “beginning to fade
system which supports more effective recovery and recycling. beginning to fade in many months were boosted by an in many areas”, but not all.
increase of 54% in the Special
areas”.
Upgrades to staff facilities are also planned for early 2022. “Nevertheless, some new
The group posted order presses division, specifically
intake up 56.2% in the three for security printing investments are being
Heritage Envelopes is set to months to 30 September, applications. postponed due to the
merge with Eagle Envelopes while orders for the first nine “This shows that the uncertainty surrounding the
to enable the two Mayer- months of the year were up banknote has retained its Covid-19 pandemic,” the
Kuvert-network owned 37.3% to €978.6m rightful place as a means of group explained.
companies to better serve (£826.6m). Sales in Q3 were payment, especially in the
their customers. The two up 18.2% and the group has an pandemic, and will also Its Digital & Webfed
sister businesses have been “historically high order remain relevant in the virtual division was most affected,
working closely together backlog” of €823.2m. world,” the firm stated. although the business has
since Germany-headquartered Mayer-Kuvert-network The German manufacturer Sheetfed orders were up again racked up five CorruCut beta
acquired the remainder of the Eagle businesses that it did not has also reached its planned in the period, by 35.3%, with users/sales.
already own over the course of the last two years. The German
we’ve been looking at and reviewing the business model over HP and Microsoft to collaborate
parent already wholly owned Heritage Envelopes. “Effectively
the last couple of years,” Heritage director Phil Bryan told
Printweek. The business said that on a day-to-day basis, both HP has unveiled a ‘mixed virtual coach on hand to
companies are already managed by the same management reality’ service powered by guide them through the
team and several functions have long-since served both the Microsoft HoloLens 2 process, meaning no time
companies and are already aligned. Shareholders believe that headset that will enable users wasted on long service calls,
the future of the two firms’ customers is best served through of its Industrial Printers to swift resolutions, and
one operating company. connect with HP engineers. minimal press downtime.
Designed to support Compatible with all HP
DMGT has reported full year results that reflect a period of huge customers “in an Partnering for future growth Industrial Printers, users will
change at the group. Adjusted pro forma sales were down 1% increasingly virtual real any point of their print be able to be trained and
at £885m while operating profits were up 5% at £66m in the world”, the collaboration will production. adapt quickly to doing tasks,
year to 30 September. The period has involved disposals, see HP’s xRServices Wearing the HoloLens 2 guided step-by-step by their
acquisitions and the ongoing plan to take the business technology and Microsoft virtual HP engineer and with
private. CEO Paul Zwillenberg described it as a “truly historic HoloLens 2 create a virtual- headset and supported by HP the instructions moving with
year”. “DMGT is now more tightly focused in three sectors with real world combination that xRServices, HP said users the employees to easily direct
a notably higher weighting to Consumer Media,” he said. will enable HP engineers to will get the feeling of being them to the parts or
advise users on any issue, at physically present with a problems they need to solve.
22 PrintWeek MENA November 2021 www.printweekmena.com