Wallaceburg Bookbinding & Manufacturing Joins Two Sides

The book manufacturing market has experienced an unpredictable few years. While it has been far from ideal conditions for forecasting and planning, it hasn’t been all bad; indeed, the lack of experiential options outside of the home during COVID fuelled renewed interest in physical books. And while some pandemic-related hobbies such as bread baking and Zoom quizzing will be less in vogue in 2024, it does seem that the demand for printed books has endured. Publishers Weekly cites NPD BookScan research, claiming that while 2022 unit sales of printed books (788.7 million) fell 6.5% below 2021 figures, they are still up 11.8% when compared with 2019. In other positive news, we are seeing a sunnier supply chain picture. Faced with substantial demand, book printers in recent years — desperate to get their hands on paper and fulfill clients’ orders — were regularly thwarted by supply chain challenges and paper availability issues. “In the short term, I would say the paper availability issue has gone away,” says Steve Zweber, vice president of global print manufacturing, operations, and distribution, at Core Publishing Solutions in Eagan, Minnesota.

In these times of unprecedented energy costs it has become clear that the heatset printing sector is now under severe cost pressures from many different areas. The product development team at Flint Group’s Commercial Publication Web Division (CPW) have been assessing how we can develop our products to perform with a lower demand for oven assisted drying. Our development whilst in early stages and yet to be fully proven will also serve to reduce the total cost of print. The Lo Energy series also helps to reduce the CO2 emissions of the heatset printing process making it a secure option for the future of print. Following several tests across our customer base we are pleased to announce that we are now in a position to expand the development of this product. The Prem Eco 7000 Lo Energy Series of inks targets publications produced on improved newsprint and has shown significant reductions in drier utilisation up to 100% dependent on coverage.

Revenues went from $467.8 million in the third quarter of 2016 to $477.7 million in the third quarter of 2017, an increase of 2.1%. This increase is attributable to the contribution from the acquisitions in the packaging division, as well as the favourable exchange rate effect and the organic growth in revenues for the Printing and Packaging Sector. Organic growth in revenues is attributable to higher volume in the packaging division and higher demand for all services to Canadian retailers, namely for flyer and in-store marketing printing services, as well as for premedia and door-to-door distribution services, notably under the terms of the expanded agreement with Lowe's Canada, partially offset by the decline in revenues from the other printing division verticals. Net earnings increased by $3.1 million, from $45.9 million in the third quarter of 2016 to $49.0 million in the third quarter of 2017. This increase is mostly attributable to the increase in operating earnings, partially offset by the increase in net financial expenses. On a per share basis, net earnings went from $0.59 to $0.64. Excluding restructuring and other costs (revenues) and impairment of assets, net of related income taxes, adjusted net earnings increased by $6.0 million, or 13.6%, from $44.1 million in the third quarter of 2016 to $50.1 million in the third quarter of 2017. On a per share basis, adjusted net earnings went from $0.57 to $0.65.