Henan Province's Anti-Counterfeit and Secret-Keeping Technology Printing Company buys new six-color ROLAND 700 HiPrint press.

Demonstrating its growing reputation as a trustworthy partner of Chinese printers, Manroland Sheetfed has sealed a deal with state-owned enterprise, The Anti-Counterfeit and Secret-keeping Technology Printing Company of Henan Province.

Union Printing will add a further Universal XL press to its existing Goss press facilities at the Viterbo site, just north of Rome, this spring. The decision to expand comes as a result of high demand for the company's services and, in particular, for its high-quality coldset print solution.

The new Universal XL consists of a four-high tower, with 578 mm cut-off and 1700 mm web width, plus a folder equipped with quarter fold. This expansion will increase capacity for its growing market of 'GDO' (Grande Distribuzione Organizzata) products, primarily supermarket flyers and retail inserts.

• Objectives are shorter throughput times and optimum surface finishing
• Advantage in art printing - haptic qualities and brilliance of uncoated paper retained
• Portfolio expanded to include foil printing

Long KBA Rapida 106 double-coating press goes to St. Petersburg

A high-performance medium-format KBA Rapida 106 with eight printing units and two coaters will be delivered to Typografia Petchatnja in May. The Russian packaging printer specialises in pharmaceutical packaging and is located on the edge of St. Petersburg.

Full automation, highest efficiency, flexibility and productivity are no longer dreams of the future in Bamberg, Germany. The installation of the new COLORMAN e:line 50 with autoprint configuration from manroland web systems is already planned for April 2015. The newspaper press for Mediengruppe Oberfranken offers all latest technologies and automation solutions one can imagine. Beginning in April 2015, the 32 page press replaces the two previous presses from Koenig & Bauer.

With its numerous business fields, the Mediengruppe Oberfranken offers a unique cross media potential to their customers and partners.

• Facility dedicated to packaging press demonstrations, testing and pursuit of advanced printing concepts
• Vpak 500 press features seven web offset units with EB and UV curing and flexo coating

Growing print company MPC Solutions invested in new technology at Heidelberg's 20/20 Vision Open House last week. The £3.5m turnover Barnet-based company has historically bought second-hand but this time round it has signed a deal on a highly specified new Speedmaster XL 75. The new press proved more cost-effective than the second-hand options, saving the company money and offering the potential to boost profits.

"Savings in labour and waste paper alone justify this £1.4m investment," says Tony Crook, managing director of MPC Print Solutions.

Visitors experienced the new Digital Series press and a new mission to be a Total Solutions Partner

With the halls full last week at the global headquarters in St. Louis, Missouri USA, Mark Andy Inc. hosted more than 200 visitors to their 2014 Open House. The primary objective of the event was to provide a unique educational experience for converters, supporting the company's mission to 'be the total solutions partner and supplier of choice offering high quality, innovative solutions that drive customer profitability.' By early accounts, the event was successful and provided a significant testimonial of the company's evolution over the past few years. One label printer in attendance commented, "The event was much, much more than impressive."

SLPP Ltd t/a Links Labels & Tapes have recently installed their second GIDUE Press. Based in Bourne, Lincolnshire SLPP has a history dating back to 1972 through a merger and several acquisitions. The business is privately owned by Reg Rudd and David Egan and has three other directors namely Darren Warman, David Shales and Darren Dutton.

The company is a leading player in technical labels and manufactures the complete range of labels from very basic and plain to multi coloured, including Wet & Dry peel multi-layer coupons, all on numerous substrates and in various formats. Their markets include DIY, motor manufacturers, chemicals and they supply print management and other trade label companies.

After the successful installation of a GIDUE M5 servo press at Imprimerie Harani, GIDUE is proud to announce that a new GIDUE press has been sold to the Algerian converter Concept Emballage.

The company, led by Faycal Akouche, is based in Algiers. It has been working in the labels and packaging industry for many years and has become specialized in the production of self- adhesive labels.

Guests of honour Martin Schröder and André Kuipers arrived to the event celebrating the official inauguration of the new large-format press on board a specially made helicopter from Holbox (2)A yellow helicopter with a green frog on its tail flies across a clear blue sky before landing at packaging producer Holbox in Echt, a city in the south of the Netherlands. Dutch astronaut André Kuipers and aviation idol Martin Schröder both climb out. They are the guests of honour at Holbox to officially inaugurate the first KBA Rapida 164 with double coater in Europe, some nine months after this large press series was launched.

Holbox founder and CEO Jan Hol, his wife and children Martijn, Chantal and Anouk welcomed more than nine hundred visitors to an unforgettable ceremony celebrating his new four-colour KBA Rapida 164 with two coaters on a beautiful spring day in mid-March. The new press with a maximum paper format of 1,205 x 1,640mm (47.4in x 64.5in) has all feasible automation options on-board and achieves a top speed of 13,000sph.

El Comercio in Lima buys second-hand UNISET 75 from Newsfax and expands its printing site

El Comercio in Lima already runs a LITHOMAN commercial press from manroland web systems. Now the company expands its printing site with the first manroland web systems newspaper press in Peru. They invested in a UNISET 75 with construction year 2007 that has been sold by the specialist for second-hand presses, GWS printing systems (Netherlands). As partner of GWS, manroland web systems is responsible for parts of the engineering and the recommissioning of the press.