Blogs

So, the Pantone colour for 2024 is 13-1023 Peach Fuzz, ‘a velvety, gentle peach whose all-embracing spirit enriches mind, body, and heart, bringing a feeling of tenderness and communicating a message of caring and sharing, community and collaboration’. Let’s hope for plenty of that in the new year!

A reminder that the BPIF led annual ‘Carols for Printers’ service will take place at 6pm at St Bride’s Church in Fleet Street, London, next Wednesday (13 December) so get along it you want to make merry -  there’ll be mulled wine and nibbles afterwards.

OK, so COP 28 is in full swing. With that in mind, how do you think we can better come together to discuss the environmental impacts of the print industry as a whole, and work out a cohesive strategy for the future?

BIG news alert - here at Image Reports we’re delighted to be looking forward to 2024 under new ownership. We’re now part of Datateam Business Media, which took over SDUK in the summer and which will run the next iteration of the event alongside its Printwear and Promotion Live! exhibition at the NEC in February. Datateam has also just bought Sign Update so as you can imagine, there are exciting plans - more later...

Congratulations go to Dominion Print in Bradford for winning one of the Yorkshire and Humberside Family Business Awards. The company clinched the gong in the manufacturing sector - which has me again pondering over whether most firms in the print ‘industry’ consider themselves manufacturers, or service providers. Which best suits your offering?

How was it for you? The IPIA seems pretty chuffed with what Chancellor Jeremy Hunt had to say in the Autumn Statement yesterday, and on the face of it, the measures look like they should help PSPs grow business, but what’s your grassroots take the situation?

Do ‘you’ - by which I mean anyone in your company - attend many conferences? If so, is there a specific type of event/focus? If you don’t, why not? I’m just trying to get a handle on who’s hungry for what type of info - it’ll help me shape the mag’s content as we move into 2024. Thank you.

I’ve just been reading a piece in The Times about Ofgem coming under fire for issuing inaccurate advice to SMEs about their legal rights in relation to being able to reclaim fees paid to energy brokers. Are you taking any actions under the redress scheme?

The UK comes top of the ranking in Europe’s top 100 for profit per employee according to new research by global fintech group Plus500. Do you use your own profit per employee data to any strategic end?

How much ‘out-of-home’ ad work do you do - and is that volume/value increasing or decreasing? I ask on the back of a presentation by WOO president Tom Goddard at the organisation’s second Asia Forum in Bali last week, where he outlined a growth strategy. I’m wondering how you see print performing in the UK OOH sector….  

With November upon is I thought I’d issue a timely reminder of the IPIA’s Recognising Excellence 2023 event in the Midlands on 29th of the month. The association is doing a lot to advance issues that impact the print industry so it’ll no doubt to a good forum to exchange ideas and info.

OK, let’s talk wages. What do you pay your staff? It was a topic that came up in the Widthwise discussion last week, and with news of wide-format print sector supplier Innotech having just been accredited a Living Wage Employer, I’m wondering if there’s much of a regional variation in who gets paid what. I’ve talked to various trade bodies over the years to see if it’s possible to do a proper large-scale study, but it’s always been too complicated - and too costly. Any ideas?

I’m loving the video integration technology WTTB has bought into - what a fab way to make print more engaging. Of course, we’ve been talking about the possibilities and opportunities for integrated print offerings for many years, but we still rarely see really ‘wow’ large-format examples. Have you been involved in bringing any to life?

As you will see from today’s lead news item, Fespa UK is expanding its waste academy offering, which has me wondering what kind of targets you all have as individual PSPs - and whether there should/could be a waste recovery target for the large-format print sector as a whole?