Review of 2022: November | Printweek

It was the end of an era for publication gravure printing in the UK with news that the last remaining exponent – Prinovis in Liverpool – was to close in June 2023… The CWU announced another series of 48-hour strikes to fall on Black Friday and after Tech Monday and later in the month it added new strike dates that would hit Royal Mail in the busy run up to Christmas… The BBC opened a tender for a four-year marketing print contract worth £1.6m… Simon Paul Inglis King, 65, from Plymouth, the director of a printer that went into liquidation two years ago, was handed a ban after a bankruptcy investigation identified Bounce Back Loan abuse… Irvine commercial printer Fasprint was set to close its doors on 30 November, after 38 years of trading, in an orderly wind-down… Antalis acquired a portfolio of brands including Conqueror, Curious Collection, Keaykolour, and Pop’Set from the administrators of Arjowiggins… Online print specialist Printed Easy completed a multimillion-pound investment that included a complete rebuild of its website and an array of new kit… Fujifilm said it was closing its offset plate production line in Tilburg, the Netherlands, with the production of plates currently made there to be transferred to factories in Japan and China… It emerged that ESP Group had been acquired in a management buyout (MBO) deal… Unions Unite and GMB were balloting their members at UK Smurfit Kappa and DS Smith sites over pay related strike action. They subsequently secured deals…