Pressing On GROUP PUBLISHER Kelley Holmes kholmes@southcomm.com | 800-616-2252 x6104 EDITORIAL DIRECTOR Denise M. Gustavson dgustavson@southcomm.com | 800-616-2252 x6218 Editor Mark Vruno | mvruno@southcomm.com | 800-616-2252 x6225 Senior Contributors & Columnists Tom Crouser | tom@crouser.com David Fellman | dmf@davefellman.com John Giles | john@johngiles.com Contributors & Columnists David Claerbaut | drdc46@yahoo.com Mitch Evans | mitch@mitchevansconsulting.com Steve Johnson | steve@copresco.com Stuart Margolis | bPfaff@margolisbecker.com Toni McQuilken | tmcquilken@southcomm.com Joe Rickard | jrickard@intellectives.com Richard Romano | rromano@richtextandgraphics.com Jeffrey Steele | scribsteel@ameritech.net Debra Thompson | debra@tgassociates.com Joann Whitcher | jwhitcher@southcomm.com CORPORATE OFFICE 1233 Janesville Avenue, Fort Atkinson, WI 53538 Phone: 800-616-2252 Account Executives Kimberly Jorgensen x6103 | kjorgensen@southcomm.com Paul Zimmerman x6214 | pzimmerman@southcomm.com Production Director Steve Swick | 920-568-3796 | sswick@southcomm.com Production Manager Connie Wolf x1679 | cwolf@southcomm.com Art Director Yuly Osorio x1732 | yosorio@southcomm.com CIRCULATION Jackie Dandoy jdandoy@southcomm.com | 800-547-7377 x1711 For change of address or subscription information, call 877/382-9187, fax 920/563-1704, or circ.PrintingNews@Omeda.com REPRINT SERVICE To purchase article reprints please contact Brett Petillo at Wright’s Media at 877/652-5295 ext.118 or e-mail bpetillo@wrightsmedia.com LIST RENTALS Elizabeth Jackson ejackson@meritdirect.com | 847-492-1350 x18 CEO Chris Ferrell CFO Ed Tearman COO Blair Johnson VP, Marketing Gerry Whitty VP, Technology Eric Kammerzelt VP, Production Operations Curt Pordes Excecutive Vice President Gloria Cosby Print Products, Partnerships, and Purchases By Mark Vruno In addition to the hundreds of exhibits and products demonstrated at Graph Expo 15 last month, there also were a host partnerships and acquisitions announced. Some highlights: Komori Corp. and Screen Americas entered into a selling agreement that essentially unites the two firms’ sales forces. Initially, Komori will be the sole US distributor of the new Truepress Jet520HD, Screen’s high-speed continuous-feed inkjet press. (For more, see “Industry News” on page 8.) On the data side, Pitney Bowes and General Electric are partnering to develop customized asset performance management applications for PB and its enterprise customers. All services will be built on and powered by Predix, GE’s software platform for the Industrial Internet. This enables Pitney Bowes to analyze data generated from its own production mailing and shipping machines and those of its clients. One notable buyout was Aleyant Systems’ purchase of Keen’s web-toprint business. The acquisition includes Keen’s web-to-print technology platform, web-to-print customers, and its name, logo, and brand. Present Keen customers are transitioning to Aleyant’s Pressero platform. There was rebranding, too, including Ryobi MHI on the conventional offset side. I had the pleasure of moderating dealer Graphic Systems North America’s “Commit to Print” customer panel in the booth of RMGT, which has sold more than 20 new presses in North America in the past year. (RMGT was formerly known as Ryobi HMI Graphic Technology.) The roundtable discussion featured three printers who have reinvented their businesses: 1) Production manager Kyle Blankenship and his brother, GM Ty, of Phoenix, AZ-based online trade printer wholesalepocketfolders.com; 2) Jimmy Lakdawala, CEO of LAK Advertising and VDP Direct, San Diego, CA; and 3) Mike Mahmoudi, owner of Nino Press, a two-year-old startup trade shop in Santa Clara, CA (Silicon Valley). Interested in learning more about Ryobi’s MHI’s rebranding? Watch this video of RMGT’s Western US sales manager Kian Hemmen: PrintingNews.com/12114953 In addition to Hemmen, I was busy during the show conducting concise video interviews with approximately 40 of the supplier community’s top executives, including Eric Wiesner, VP and GM of HP’s newly rebranded PageWide Web Press Division. (PrintingNews.com/12116931) All of these interviews are archived at the Printing News website: PrintingNews.com/video Happy watching and reading! 6 Printing News | October 2015 Find this article at PrintingNews.com/12115427
Printing News October 2015
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