Business

The first print industry focussed EcoPrint summit will take place in Geneva on 6-7 June this year and right now this sector’s input and collaboration is being sought to help ensure it hits the mark. I talked with Frazer Chesterman from organiser FM Future on the subject.

If you don’t know Olga Munroe it’s time you did. She became chair of the BPIF POS Display Group this autumn, where she is likely to make a real impact given her various professional guises, not least as head of the Retail Institute. So, what is she bringing to the table, and what does she hope you’ll put on it?

‘The manager’s indecision is final.’ We’ve all worked with people who that joke has been aimed at. But it’s better to be indecisive and right than to be decisive and wrong. That sounds obvious yet it’s astonishing how often businesses rush to judgement - and come to regret it. HERE WE  examine how you can make better decisions.

The Independent Print Industries Association (IPIA) hosted its autumn conference in September under the banner ‘Print in Balance - Supporting People and our Planet’. We asked for an overview of the key points made during the day to help spread the message.

This summer Solopress took on Phil Foster as head of business development, a new role for the £32m turnover company (estimated sales for 2022), which expects to further expand its payroll, kit list and business premises within the year. I asked MD Simon Cooper about the decision to create this new role, and whether we’re likely to see many more PSPs follow suit as they continue to diversify.

In July the Simpson Group took part in an event in Newcastle called STEMfest Net Zero, where local businesses were invited to engage with more than 3,000 young people from the region’s schools via fun, hands-on sessions relating to their industries and their Net Zero goals. It’s just one many initiatives the group is involved in as it plays its part in making print a more obvious career choice. Development director Sarah Tishler explains.

At the World Out of Home Organization’s Global Congress in Toronto earlier this year, a speaker told delegates this could be a new golden age for classic (print) out-of-home (OOH) advertising. So, what does the association’s president think of the claim?

Earlier this year British Business Investments announced an additional £15m commitment to Compass Business Finance, taking its total commitment to £30m - the intention being to increase the flow of funding for asset finance products into UK-based smaller businesses operating in the print, packaging and manufacturing sectors. So who is asking for the money, are they getting it, and is this conversation more, or less, likely to make you apply too?

This summer, on 15 June, POPAI UK/Ireland will run its biggest ever sustainability summit - ‘Impact22’.  Topics on the agenda include the greening-up of retail POP and sustainable materials. I talked to chair and sustainability director, Martin Kingdon, to find out where the organisation thinks large-format PSPs
fit into the scheme of things. 

Obvious costs, hidden costs and the need to raise your own prices - Matic Media MD and Print Scotland vice president Richard McCombe considers the implications of all these for print businesses.

Workplace racism has been on the rise for some time now. Tina Chandler, head of employment law at Wright Hassall outlines the legal technicalities of managing racism at work, and how it should be combatted should it ever occur.  

As many large-format digital print businesses continue their transformation to meet the demands of a post pandemic world, I talked with well-known business coach and mentor Chris Jordan about attracting and retaining the right staff for a new era.

Over the course of 2021, Richard Clark of Raccoon has been providing this diary on how his business has coped. Here’s his end of year report and HOPES for the NEW YEAR.

Decisions are the lifeblood of a business, which makes it all the more remarkable that we make so many of them in a disjointed, ad hoc and impulsive fashion. The good news, as American billionaire Warren Buffett likes to point out, is that you only have to get a few of them right, as long as you don’t get too many of them wrong. This guidance might help you improve your success rate.