Higher Education Print Trends (royle.com)

Viridiam, a full-service print provider in Green Bay, WI, recently purchased a new Versafire LV from HEIDELBERG. The new five-color Versafire further expands the company’s digital print opportunities by offering customers spot colors and extended gamut printing. The new engine will also aid Viridiam in growing its digital print business that began five years ago with the installation of its first Versafire. A proud woman-owned business, Viridiam began in 2015 with the merger of two companies: HC Miller and Van Lanen. Both businesses were fixtures in the Green Bay community with roots dating back to 1887. Today, Viridiam serves a nationwide client base and prides itself on developing comprehensive solutions while focusing on a “speed to market” business model. The G7 certified company boasts four divisions “all under one roof”: commercial print, wide format, folding carton, and organizational products (medical charts, dividers, etc.). “By keeping everything in house, we can really economize a print buyer’s spend,” said President Nick Mares. “Additionally, we can save our customers a considerable amount of time by not having to deal with a variety of printers.”

Expanding its range of in-mould label products and presenting non-UV print shops the ability to compete in this growing segment, Flint Group today announces the global availability of Novastar® D 2000 IML BIO for metallised paper and non-absorbent substrates. According to Jürgen Riedlinger, Director Global Product Management, Sheetfed, “Over the last 5 to 6 years global production of in-mould labels has grown at around 4% per year, due in part to the ability of the technology to enhance the product visibility and brand identification in the market. And we believe in-mould labelling will continue to grow significantly as the manufacturing efficiencies and visual quality it brings gets wider endorsement. Currently in-mould accounts for less than 3% of all labelling, so there is plenty of room for it to grow.” Click Read More below for additional information.

In March 2022, all printing employment was up +0.6% from March. This time, it was production employment that was up (+1.6%) and non-production employment that was down (-0.9%). One gets the sense that the industry’s attempts at recruiting production staff are generally succeeding: in April 2022, all printing employment was up +1.6% from March, with non-production employment down -0.9%. This is the reverse of what we saw in March. Publishing employment had been improving slightly over last summer, took a turn for the worse in the fall, and started to plateau at the end of the year. It was up a modest +0.6% in March, and now up another +0.4%.