BUSINESS | NEWS 10 email: editor@printmonthly.co.uk May | June 2026 - Issue 360 printmonthly PrintMonthlyMagazine printmonthly_signlink printmonthly Foilco, a UK specialist in hot stamping foils, has been acquired by Japanese manufacturer, Washin. Established in 1987 in Greater Manchester, Foilco specialises in the marketing and supply of hot stamping foils for premium packaging, print, and product decoration. Founded in 1924, Washin is a global manufacturer of hot stamping foil with a main focus on decoration in the plastics market, as well as specialising in technical coatings. The deal gives Foilco access to Washin’s extensive portfolio of over 3,000 colours and 300 grade formulations. Foilco directors, Matt and Paul Hornby, first met representatives from Washin in 2025. The company was reportedly impressed by Foilco's technical knowledge, ambition for growth, and its appreciation for what has been built since it was founded in 1987. Reach, a commercial news publisher for the UK and Ireland, has announced it will be consolidating its print operations in order to improve cash generation and save on costs. The news means the closure of print sites in Saltire and Watford this year. With brands like the Mirror, Express, Daily Star, Manchester Evening News, and BelfastLive, Reach is one of the largest news organisations in the UK. In September 2025, Reach announced it was cutting hundreds of journalism jobs in a bid to create more video content and share content across its various titles. The latest plans from Reach mean the work done by the Saltire print site in Scotland is moving to Reach’s Oldham site, with a smaller portion of work going to DC Thomson’s facility in Dundee. DC Thomson is a media company that publishes the likes of The Evening Telegraph, The Sunday Post, and The Beano and Dandy comics. The work undertaken by the Watford site is planned to move operations to Broxbourne via a commercial outsourcing agreement. Reach says a thorough consultation process with all impacted employees of both sites has begun. The proposals could affect around 247 jobs across both print sites. The change has been highlighted as ending a long history of printing in Watford which has industry roots as far back as the early 19th century. The Watford site was said to employ 147 people, and was once the largest printing plant in the world Foilco acquired by Washin Reach brings an end to historic print operation Washin’s hot stamping foils includes flagship brand, KOMA FOIL By Jonathan Pert By Jonathan Pert HP has entered a reseller agreement with manroland Goss for the latter’s digital finishing solutions, FormerLine and FoldLine. Described as a “long-term strategic collaboration”, the arrangement will see HP offer the finishing solutions to complement its HP PageWide Web Press series of inkjet web printing platforms. This, HP says, will enable fully integrated production lines from print to finished book blocks or newspaper products. FormerLine is designed as a roll-to-book block solution for short and medium book runs, allowing for print runs of up to 10,000 copies in industrial digital printing. Used together with HP PageWide Web Press systems, HP says this offers the potential for a throughput of up to 7,000 book blocks per hour, each with 160 pages. As for the FoldLine multi-purpose system, the solution is designed for web speeds of up to 305m/min and can run a range of applications such as newspapers, commercial print, and direct mail. The deal comes after Manroland Sheetfed – a separate business to the manroland Goss operation – announced it had entered into insolvency proceedings (see next page). Quadient, a global automation platform designed to power secure and sustainable business connections, has announced a partnership with UK-based print service provider (PSP), Print Evolved, to launch a new intelligent mail fulfilment centre. The new centre in Tunbridge Wells is designed to deliver faster, more personalised mail services for organisations across the UK, allowing Print Evolved to significantly increase the volume of customised mail it produces. The implementation brings together Quadient’s production mail inserters, dynamic envelope printing, and AIMS data integrity software to build a fully automated operation. The automated processes can manage each step from order to delivery, with features that can improve speed, visibility, and regulatory accuracy, while also reducing manual work and shortens turnaround times. The company installed and brought its new mail fulfilment centre in Tunbridge Wells into service within eight weeks of the order. The new automated Quadient production line can manage each step from order to delivery HP sign reseller deal with manroland Goss Print Evolved and Quadient launch new mail fulfilment centre Manroland Goss is a separate business to Manroland Sheetfed By Jonathan Pert By Rob Fletcher
RkJQdWJsaXNoZXIy MjM0NDIxOA==