Mr Thompson will take up the role after a short period as deputy managing director. He has been with Antalis for over nine years, first as supply chain director and then as packing director. Previously, he held supply chain roles at Tesco, Sainsbury’s and Amazon.

Mr Thompson stated, ‘It is a great honour to be leading the team at Antalis and to take over from David who has professionally overseen the many changes that the company has undertaken over the last 11 years.

‘I intend to lead Antalis through the next phase of evolution, including strengthening its papers division and accelerating the growth in packaging and visual communications.’

Retiring manager director Mr Hunter was appointed in 2012, having previously spent many years in B2B wholesale distribution at companies including Wolseley, B&Q and Jewson.

During his tenure, Mr Hunter navigated the company through several acquisitions and significant growth and changes in ownership. More recently, he has steered the business through a major IT transformation and has driven a health and safety culture throughout the business.

Mr Thompson added, ‘Understanding the many challenges that our customers face is imperative. We will be building on all the good work that has taken place recently including the development of Antalis’ sustainability strategy and environmental solutions that help our customers to achieve their own sustainability goals. Other top priorities for the business will be driving digital transformation and maintaining the company’s priority on health, safety and well-being.’

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‘We are delighted to be joining the B Corp movement, a community of brands, who each seek to deliver positive change for people, our planet and our communities,’ commented Gareth Sheekey, managing director at GF Smith.

The B Corp movement comprises a global group of community-driven businesses in all sectors, united by the shared goal of achieving an inclusive, equitable, and regenerative economy. Certification confirms that a business meets and maintains high standards of social and environmental impact, and that it is actively engaged in the building of a better world.

Mr Sheekey added, ‘We believe we are the first global fine paper supplier to join the B Corp movement and are also very proud to be the largest employer in our home city of Hull to achieve this recognition to date. Our certification score of over 98 shows the importance we place on our role in the world, and we look forward to working with other like-minded businesses across the B Corp community, to deliver positive impacts and changes. We are working hard with new initiatives as we continue to look forward, delivering on our strategic commitments.

‘With the same onward spirt of our founder, George Frederick Smith, we will continue to build a business with purpose and we will use our voice to help build a better tomorrow.’

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Working alongside Creative Gravy, the 12m-high building wrap is covering essential repairs being made to the Flagstaff gate. It features an amalgamation of art created by 30 budding artists from across Oxford, aged between eight and 25 years old. The high-impact design was printed on high tensile PVC mesh on MacroArt’s Durst 512R, then was stitched together to create the mural ready for installation.

The design was created as part of Blenheim’s partnership with local charity Oxfordshire Youth. Visual artist Kate Turnbull was commissioned to lead interactive creative sessions at the palace and assist the young individuals in bringing their vision of this Unesco world heritage site to life. The finished mural combines drawings, digital imagery and text such as poetry. 

MacroArt’s group account director, Mike Hamling, said, ‘This is a new high for our partnership with Blenheim Palace. Not only is it our biggest installation to date with them, but it is also fantastic to support such a great cause that is Oxfordshire Youth. Witnessing young artists take inspiration from seeing their designs now in situ. 

‘Our team worked so hard to bring this to life and I think we’ve created something that we can all be very proud of.’

Samantha Vaughan, head of marketing at Blenheim Palace, commented, ‘What a wonderful project this was! We are extremely delighted with the outcome; our entrance is definitely a showstopper, and we couldn’t have done this without the team at MacroArt helping to create this bold and vibrant artwork.’

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In January 2023, Instantprint officially reached its one millionth customer. To mark the occasion, Instantprint founders Adam Carnell and James Kinsella reprinted the customer’s last order free of charge and hand-packed it.

Since opening its doors to customers in 2009, Instantprint has handled 4.6 million orders and 7.2 million jobs. The period has seen over 30 million website visits, 14 awards and 13,900 Trustpilot reviews, selling seven billion individual product quantities using only FSC-certified paper stocks.

Mr Carnell and Mr Kinsella commented, ‘Celebrating our one millionth customer is such an exciting time for us here at Instantprint. We both think back to when we first started out with just two members of staff in a tiny office in Newcastle. Now, we’re the UK’s largest online printer, fulfilling thousands of jobs each day. It’s such a monumental milestone for us and we couldn’t be prouder of our team and of course, our customers who have helped get us to this point. We can’t wait to share what the future holds for instantprint.’

Placing 13 orders in the last two years, the company has supported Electric Cycle Café by printing a range of business cards, posters, and flyers for their shop. (Their latest purchase of 500 350gsm silk business cards from the Yorkshire printer are currently being used as loyalty cards for customers.)

When Instantprint asked the cafe how they felt about being their one millionth customer they replied, ‘We were very surprised that our tiny cafe had been picked out from such a mountainous market. E-bikes can change the world for the better and we want to tell everyone the good news. ‘Make hills disappear’ is our motto but maybe not this mountain.’

 In 2023, the company also reached its fourth year as a real living wage employer. Vicki Russel, head of human resources at Instantprint, commented, ‘Celebrating our fourth year as a real living wage employer is an incredible milestone. Supporting our workforce and paying them a wage based on real living costs is a true reflection of Instantprint culture. We’re also super proud to support our team in other ways, from having mental health first aiders on hand to supporting colleagues with medical cash plans and critical illness cover, all paid for by the business, these are just some of the benefits our workforce can make use of.’

To become a real living wage accredited employer, the printing firm had to meet requirements from compliance regulations and highlight the importance of internal communications. Additionally, Instantprint has a range of other initiatives and employee benefits such as private healthcare, the cycle to work scheme and critical illness plans.

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Mr Fox has 35 years of selling experience in the industry, having started as an apprentice at MET Graphics back in the late 1980’s. He joined Mayday Graphic Products in 1991 and worked there for 26 years before being part of a management buyout in 2017.

He commented, ‘The acquisition and merging of the two businesses accelerated our growth and Ultraflex Europe is now a sizeable business focussing on the speedy supply of stocked high performance wide format, digital print media to the market.’

‘I’ve enjoyed being a part of the consolidation and I’m looking forward to focusing on driving sales. We are now supplying several larger direct customers and distributors with a much broader range of products. These include rigid and roll media, like first class mesh, front-lit, back-lit and block-out outdoor banners, printable textiles, rigid foam PVC boards and many speciality materials. We hope in time our new partnership with Agfa will help our consumable business grow along with sales of equipment. But the 3.2 and 5m roll market accounts for the largest proportion of our sales and it is where we will continue to specialise.’

Clint Green, managing director of Ultraflex Europe, said of the appointment, ‘We were delighted that Jim Fox came with the Mayday Graphics business when it was acquired, and he has been instrumental in reassuring customers and bedding in new processes over the past three years.  It’s now a logical time to appoint him as sales director of the combined business, Ultraflex Europe, and I am delighted he has taken on the challenge and confident he will continue to grow sales.’

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Mr Aziz has over 24 years’ experience and has worked as a senior leader in marketing across various industries. In this new role, he will be responsible for leading the B2B marketing function including demand generation, campaign marketing, product marketing and channel marketing. He is also a founding member of MarketingKind, a membership community of marketers collaborating with pioneering charities and social enterprises.

Mr Aziz commented, ‘I’m delighted to be joining Canon to help drive sales and revenue through a clear marketing strategy and plan. I look forward to utilising my expertise and experience to deliver innovation, drive a customer-centric approach and further business growth.’

Yusuke Mizoguchi, senior manager director at Canon UK and Ireland, said, ‘I’m looking forward to seeing the impact Khalid has not only on our business goals, but in supporting the team in driving our mid-term plan forward. Now is the time to lead from the front, and I have every confidence that Khalid’s experience and drive will ensure success.’

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Science-based targets show companies by how much and how quickly they need to reduce their greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions to prevent the worst effects of climate change. The SBTi is a partnership between the Carbon Disclosure Project, the United Nations Global Compact, World Resources Institute and the World Wide Fund for Animals. It was set up to define, validate and record science-based targets. So far, a total of 1042 UK companies have had targets validated, with just under 6000 globally.

Denmaur now appears on the SBTi website with a 2030 near-term declaration to reduce its scope 1 and 2 emissions (emissions from fuels, vehicles and purchased electricity) in line with the 1.5ºC pathway set out in the 2015 Paris Agreement. The company is also required to update and publish its progress towards this target annually.

Denmaur’s marketing and sustainability director, Danny Doogan, said, ‘We have operated a robust carbon policy for some time, running side-by-side reduction and offsetting programmes. Aligning with the SBTi enables us to immediately focus on deep cuts to our operational emissions, whilst committing to becoming more transparent with our GHG disclosures.’

The company’s near-term reduction target of 46% by 2030 is based on its 2019 footprint, including that of its Bescot operation, which was acquired from Middleton Paper in 2022.

Mr Doogan commented, ‘With our near-term target now proudly validated, we are beginning to plan our net-zero target which will concentrate on our Scope 3 emissions. These emissions, which will be much more challenging to reduce, are also relevant to the activities of our customers, such as product manufacture and upstream deliveries.’

Denmaur has worked with carbon specialist Nero Carbon to measure its emissions in line with the leading standards, Greenhouse Gas Protocol and ISO14064-1. It will continue to work with Nero on submitting its long-term, net-zero target with the SBTi by September 2023.

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The ColorCut SC6000 is a free-standing, on-demand digital sheet cutter and creaser, with no physical cutting dies or set-up costs. It is targeted at those seeking an affordable, high-capacity device, capable of unattended cutting.

John Brailsford Printers, a Rotherham shop-fronted business, reviewed several potential products. Company owner John Brailsford remarked, ‘We had looked at a variety of potential solutions, but nothing was quite suited to our needs. Either they were too expensive, were overly complex, or they still needed dies to be produced. The previous Intec machine, the SC5000 was close, but not quite large enough to handle the range of stock that we needed to process. We thought we were just going to have to stick to outsourcing any work that required die cutting.

A call from Ray Hillhouse at Morgana introduced the SC6000 to Brailsford, which overcame the limitations of the smaller model. The SC6000 is a hybrid automated cutter that blends flatbed and sheet-fed technologies, to give a maximum working area of 340 x 710mm, plus  a range of updated features.

Mr Brailsford added, ‘We introduced the SC6000 to our studio people initially. They were able to easily understand the ‘front-end’ of the machine. The output from the studio, including cutting requirements and run length, is encapsulated in a QR code, meaning that all the people at the post-press end of the factory need to concern themselves with is selecting the right stock and scanning the QR code printed on the job.

‘This machine is quite amazing. The results have been quite superb. We keep thinking up new ways of using it – with labels, for example, we are now running through our stock of pre-cut labels, and then we can simply use the SC6000 to kiss-cut the labels for us on plain adhesive-backed stock. That means any sized, or shaped, self-adhesive label is possible, and we don’t need to have the expense of holding any stock of various sized at all.’

Mr Brailsford said, ‘The feeder is a critical element for such a machine, and this one is amazing! It will feed virtually any stock, it seems, eliminating any static issues, and the potential for any doubles.’

Accordind to Morgana, particular attention was paid to the feeding system to ensure good performance levels for card, vinyl labels, or even laminated sheets. The SC6000’s auto feeder accepts up to 900 sheets, raising or lowering as required. 

‘We had been sending work such as short-run boxes, pocket folders, and various other cut-outs, to an external supplier. That kind of work has definitely been on the increase, so this really was the right time for us to bring such tasks in-house – it’s going to cut our outwork bill significantly, and therefore will pay for itself in no time,’ added Mr Brailsford.

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The Agfa Avinci CX3200 3.2m roll-to-roll printer can print both directly to textiles and to transfer paper, and at a speed of up to 270sqm/hr. It also features the Agfa ‘thin ink layer’ technology for low ink consumption.

The Big Display Company had never purchased from Afga before. Marketing director Jack Murphy commented, ‘We are really pleased with the results from our first Agfa print engine. Our old dye sub machine needed replacing with repair bills growing each year, so our raw material supplier suggested we talk to Agfa.’

‘We knew what the business wanted, we’ve purchased many machines over the years, so I asked Agfa lots of technical questions and their replies came back immediately – I suppose it’s the benefit of dealing directly with the manufacturer. I had looked at other suppliers, ones that we are more familiar with, and there were cheaper machines available, but they were going to be more expensive to run. Agfa has a good reputation and the Avinci delivers what we need.’

According to Mr Murphy, the final tool in clinching the deal quickly with Agfa was its finance package, which allows customers to lease whilst purchasing the Agfa wide format equipment and software. He added, ‘Once the decision was made on the printer, the finance deal was a great solution for us and very quick to set up. The finance, coupled with the service offered by Agfa have been very impressive.’

The Big Display Company, based in Slough, is a family business, originally established in 1978 by Vince Murphy as Bullseye Awards and Garments. For many years it specialised in the production of trophies and awards; today, they still produce the iconic annual BBC Sports Personality Award. Over the years it has diversified into many other areas, from banners and rigid boards to fabric gazebos, flags and tablecloths. Today it employs 25 people and supplies customers across the UK. It now has an arsenal of printing systems and a Zund GS 3.2m cutter to complement the Avinci.

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Paul Willems, product management and business development director for EMEA, said, ‘Roland DG Connect enables us to provide faster, more proactive support to our customers, and allows users to easily visualise the status of their machine, calculate profitability, and quickly download media output profiles. Many of our customers use this solution today successfully, supporting the growth of their business.’

The business dashboard provides expanded functionality to enable multi-dimensional analysis of a variety of data, such as ink consumption, printing time, output in square metres and usage time.

The multi-user function allows customers to view information on devices which they own but do not have physical access to, which should be useful function for companies with devices at multiple locations.

The automatic backup function of VersaWorks Rip software automatically saves print settings and restores them when needed.

‘As consumer needs continue to diversify and trend cycles shorten,’ Mr Willems added, ‘it is becoming increasingly important for businesses to create and deliver unique value in a timely manner. In the printing industry, on-demand printing using inkjet printers is common, and an increasing number of customers are using different types of printers together or installing multiple printers to improve productivity. Under these circumstances, knowledge of how to operate printing operations efficiently and without waste has become critical to achieving a highly competitive and sustainable business.’

A campaign to celebrate the launch of the subscription service will run until the end of December 2023.

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