Wallace Graphics Installs HP PageWide Advantage 2200 Press (piworld.com)

The BoxMaker, a leading Pacific Northwest manufacturer of corrugated packaging, broke ground on a new production plant in Lowell, Arkansas, on March 16, 2021 as part of a multi-million-dollar investment to effectively address growing demand across the country for digitally produced packaging and displays. The new 60,000-sq.-ft. facility will produce full-color custom corrugated boxes and retail displays using industry-leading digital production equipment, including an HP PageWide C500 printing press and a fleet of high-speed tool-less digital cutting machines. The BoxMaker will be the first company in the United States to operate two C500 machines, the first having been installed and operated in their Seattle, WA plant since 2018.

Color Ink, based in Sussex, Wis., is a family business that has never stopped evolving. From its original roots as an advertising agency in the 1970s, to the decision in the 1980s to branch into commercial printing, to the full-service visual marketing services company it is today, Color Ink embodies the concept of convergence in action. “The company was started in 1975 by my grandfather, Jim,” Austin Meissner, sales and sourcing manager for the shop, says. “He decided to start his own ad agency, but because he was brokering out so much print, he decided to get into commercial printing in 1984. In the late ’80s, the company had become successful enough to move into a dedicated space in Hartland, Wis., before outgrowing that and then eventually moving into its current location, with two buildings and 105,000 sq. ft. of space. But just as Color Ink evolved from an ad agency to a commercial printer, it also embraced new technologies and the shifts in the market as time has progressed. Today, Austin Meissner reveals, they see themselves not as being a commercial printer as much as a boutique printer — heavily involved in a wide mix of projects that include everything from event space, pop-up retail locations, and even interactive elements with light and sound.

The Specialty Graphic Imaging Association (SGIA) Board of Directors has announced that SGIA, the home to professionals in the industrial, graphic, garment, textile, electronics, packaging and commercial printing communities, and NAPCO Media, a business-to-business media company, have entered a partnership that will offer print service providers and industry suppliers an unrivalled platform to connect. The platform — PRINT United, the next evolution of printing expositions in North America — combines the largest printing trade show in North America with the leading producer of multi-channel content for the print community. Over the last 20 years, the print and graphics industry has seen unprecedented changes and consolidation. According to the U.S. Department of Commerce, printing establishments in the United States decreased from 35,016 in 2000 to 24,096 in 2015, a decline of 31.2 percent. At the same time, however, print shops have expanded their range of services. The Idealliance 2016 State of the Industry Report notes that in 2000 86.8 percent of print shop revenue came from lithographic (offset) print technology. By 2016, that number had dropped to 42.3 percent as print shop owners looked to new technologies — digital, inkjet, packaging, mailing, industrial — to increase their revenue and profit. Click Read More below for additional detail.