Business

Can you improve your financial management? Colin Thompson from Cavendish provides insight into areas that can help you achieve the greatest possible return on investment in your company.

The GPMA, which stands for the Graphics, Print and Media Alliance, was officially launched a year ago at Fespa 2013.

It was established by 7 UK print trade associations (Fespa UK, BAPC, British Coatings Federation, Independent Print Industries Association, Picon, the Process and Packaging Machinery Association, and the Rubicon Network), to provide the sector with one strong voice.  

With colour accuracy and consistency a key issue, Paul Sherfield of the Missing Horse Consultancy looks at how a colour-managed workflow can help you save money, assure quality and retain clients.

With Fespa Digital now just a couple of weeks away, Lesley Simpson thought it timely to catch up with Fespa CEO Neil Felton and still relatively new divisional director Roz McGuinness. 

You cannot ignore the opportunities provided by social media marketing for connecting with prospects and customers. If done well it will not only help you reach these people, but help them reach you. With the average age of print buyers getting younger, engaging these digital natives via social media is as important for your business as it is completely instinctive for them.

How do printers need to talk to marketers and creatives to build better business opportunities? That's the question I put to Charlotte Graham-Cumming, director of Ice Blue Sky, a fast-growing B2B marketing communications agency. In her own words, the company “acts as a conduit between the printer and their customers”, so she’s well placed to share some valuable insights.

The St Bride Foundation is well known in print circles. Based behind the church of St Bride at the bottom of Fleet Street, it has been synonymous with the industry since it was founded in 1891. It’s aim then was to provide a social and cultural centre for local people, with emphasis for those in the printing and associated trades. Over the years it became well known for its printing school, library and archives, but is it all about the past? Does it have a valuable role to play in print’s future too?

Image Reports editor, Lesley Simpson, asked chief executive Glyn Farrow about the foundation’s current remit.

With recruitment high on many a print company agenda, Jonathan Malyon, MD of executive search firm M Associates, provides his take on the key considerations/issues/actions needed to find the right people for the right price.

To promote the power of print to the creative community and stimulate continuous innovation...

As a leading player in the printing industry, Fujifilm recognises it has a key role to play in the future of the industry and is committed to raising awareness of the unlimited potential of print among a wider audience, including print service providers, marketers and the creative design community. With a focus on increasing the understanding of print as a powerful communications medium, Fujifilm decided to supporting the ‘Think Bigger Report’, as it recognised its potential to serve as a platform from which to showcase some of the most original ways in which the power of print can be exploited to maximise communications campaigns.

Excuse the pun, but Watford- based Rocket is blasting off. Having secured contracts that increased its turnover by 25% in 2013 it is on an upwards trajectory, hiring new staff, investing in new kit and expanding its factory space to secure what it anticipates being double digit growth again in 2014. Image Reports Editor, Lesley Simpson, met with former Service Graphics and McKenzie Clark man Antony Rider, now Rocket’s commercial director, to discuss the company’s rise and vision for the future. Here’s what transpired.

Tony Hodgson, director of PODi for Europe, provides a heads-up on marketing initiatives you should note for 2014.

Because wide-format print output is often not paper–based, its producers tend to feel sidelined when it comes to organisations like Two Sides waving the flag for print per se. So Lesley Simpson, Editor of Image Reports, met with Martyn Eustace, director of Two Sides UK and of Print Power, to ask whether these organisations can, and do, represent the interests of the wide-format print sector as part of the overall remit to put print back firmly on the marketing communications map.

The 21st century manager's role is to facilitate and coach, not to control, according to Michelle Bailey of Engage for Success, a voluntary movement committed to the belief that employee engagement is a better way to work.

Chime communications’ company icon has undergone the rigorous assessment required to become BS OHSAS 18001 certified. What about you?