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Breaking News from Label & Narrow Web - Visit us at http://www.labelandnarrowweb.com
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Advanced Vision Technology (AVT) has introduced the next AVT - GMI integration steps in its long-term “One Company” strategy. The sales and marketing of AVT and GMI in the Americas (North, Central and South America) will be unified under the leadership of Lance Shumaker, president of AVT Inc. in the US. The joint team will continue serving the industry with both AVT and GMI product lines, while answering the specific needs of the industry’s various segments.
The consolidations of AVT and GMI sales and marketing in the EMEA (Europe, the Middle East and Africa), and Asia-Pacific regions were implemented earlier this year, and now all sales activities worldwide are integrated. Also, the California and Texas facilities of GMI will be consolidated under one roof in Rockwall, TX, USA. This process will be completed by March 31, 2009.
Shlomo Amir, president and CEO, commented: “When we acquired GMI in 2007, we set forth a long-term integration plan as part of our ‘One Company Vision.' The two steps we announced today are part of this plan. The sales integration provides enhanced market coverage and better support to our customers and partners, as well as having one focal point for the combined AVT/GMI solution offering. The consolidation of GMI operations in Rockwall, Texas, provides improved operating efficiencies and performance, and combines R&D activities in one location. These integration steps will help facilitate faster realization of cross market opportunities.”
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Avery Dennison Corporation (NYSE:AVY) announced the death of Philip M. Neal, the company’s retired chairman and chief executive officer. He was 68 years old and died of heart failure at his home on Oct. 29.
A global leader in office products, Avery Dennison, headquartered in Pasadena, CA, USA, is a Fortune 500 company that makes a wide range of products, including specialty tapes, peel-and-stick postage stamps, and labels for automotive, industrial and durable goods applications.
Terry Schuler, a former senior vice president for human resources for Avery who retired in 2007, said Neal was influential in three areas key to the company's growth: leadership development, workplace safety and customer service. Schuler also noted that Avery was the first firm in its industry to establish business in China, in the early 1990s.
"Phil gave huge emphasis on developing leaders internally," Schuler said. "Every one of Avery's five CEOs was internally developed. Avery was recognized in 2005 and 2007 by Hewitt, a major consulting firm, as one of the top 20 companies for leaders in North America."
Schuler also noted that Neal developed his own successor, current President and Chief Executive Dean A. Scarborough.
“Phil Neal’s death is a blow to all who knew him,” said Scarborough. “This company has lost one of its best leaders. He will long be remembered for his dedication to Avery Dennison and his focus on developing leaders in every area of our business around the world.”
Prior to joining Avery Dennison, Neal was associated with...
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Denmark is to introduce self-adhesive technology to its postage stamps next year (2009) when the nation’s postal service, Post Danmark, switches from gum-backed stamps to self-adhesive versions in response to public demand.
The Danish postal service has invested in new printing machinery that can produce self-adhesive or the traditional gummed stamps and will join other nations, such as the United Kingdom, in having the self-sticking stamps available for public purchase.
Post Danmark is one of the few authorities in the world still using the Intaglio printing process and until the adoption of the new printing machine was unable to make the change to self-adhesives. The move is also environmentally friendly because “our total carbon dioxide emission will become less,” says Allan Bo Hansen, sales and marketing manager of Post Danmark.
The move has been welcomed by FINAT, the global trade association of the self-adhesive industry. Jakob Landberg, the Danish member of its PR committee, said: “We see this as another stamp of approval for the use of our technology.”
Stamp collectors need not fear – the adhesive can be soaked off to enable the stamps to be mounted conventionally in albums.
The self-adhesive stamps will be released next October or November
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Primera Technology, Plymouth, MN, USA, a manufacturer of specialty printers, announced the introduction of its LX200e high-resolution bar code label printer.
The LX200e utilizes monochrome high-speed inkjet printing technology. With 1200 dpi print resolution, the printer has almost six times as many dots per inch as most thermal transfer bar code printers. It prints onto labels, tickets, tags and coupons for a wide range of applications, including those in which higher levels of security, confidentiality and durability are required.
Unlike thermal transfer printers, the LX200e uses an inkjet print head instead of ribbons. Thermal transfer ribbons leave behind a record of everything that has been printed. In many applications, such as healthcare or government, secure collection and disposal of ribbons is required in order to meet confidentiality and security requirements. The printer is shipped with Primera's label creation layout software called NiceLabel SE.
All popular bar codes are supported, including linear and, optionally, 2D bar codes such as PDF417. Fonts as small as 2 points are highly legible and perfectly formed. An additional benefit of the LX200e is that ink replenishment is fast and easy: instead of threading a ribbon, just snap out the used printhead and snap in a new one.
“For almost two decades, thermal transfer printers have dominated the bar code printer market,” said Mark D. Strobel, Primera’s vice president of sales and marketing. “But now, our new inkjet-based LX200e is available. For many applications it’s a better choice. Inkjet printing has been accepted for virtually all...
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UPM plans to restructure its Label Division's European operations in order to secure profitability in a weak economic environment. The company plans to close down a number of self-adhesive labelstock production lines and reduce slitting capacity in the UK, France, Germany, Hungary and Finland. The number of employees affected is estimated to be 340, which corresponds to about 20 percent of UPM Raflatac's total personnel in Europe. The restructuring is estimated to be complete by the end of 2009.
The Label Division will book restructuring costs of approximately €25 million and an approximately €9 million non-cash impairment charge for redundant assets in the fourth quarter 2008. The cash costs will occur in 2009.
The planned actions will improve UPM's Label Division's cost competitiveness and profitability, according to Jussi Vanhanen, president of UPM's Engineered Materials Business Group. The aim is to reduce operating costs annually by about EUR 25 million. The planned actions will have no material impact on the division's sales.
UPM's plans include: permanent closure of two coating lines, one in Scarborough, Engand, and the other in Nancy, France; further reduction of coating capacity through shift reductions in Scarborough, Nancy and Tampere, Finland; closure of two slitting and distribution terminals, one in Düsseldorf/Ratingen, Germany, and one in Tatabanya, Hungary; slitting capacity reduction in Tampere, Scarborough and Nancy through shift reductions.
"Due to the weak economic conditions, market demand for self-adhesive labelstock is currently declining in Western Europe, and we foresee no short-term change in this trend,” says Vanhanen. “We recognize the remarkable...
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