25.01.2012 | BERTELSMANN TAKES OVER MANAGEMENT OF THE PRINOVIS HOLDING

Bertelsmann has decided to hive off Prinovis from the arvato group and to incorporate the shareholder-side management of our company at Bertelsmann. This will be done during the first half of the year. The same goes for arvato’s print operations in Spain, Italy and North America.

Bertelsmann will provide further details at a later date.

Prinovis will continue to do business as an autonomous unit owned by our shareholders Bertelsmann and Axel Springer.

25.11.2011 | ARVATO ACQUIRES GRUNER + JAHR’S STAKE IN PRINOVIS

Gruner + Jahr AG & Co. KG has transferred its entire 37.45-percent stake in the Prinovis Ltd. & Co. KG gravure joint venture to arvato, another Bertelsmann division. arvato AG now owns 74.9% in Prinovis, while Axel Springer AG continues to hold 25.1 percent.

26.04.2011 | PRINOVIS BUYS MACHINERY FROM THE INSOLVENT BROSCHEK TIEFDRUCK

The Prinovis Group has acquired parts of the machinery from the insolvency assets of broschek tiefdruck GmbH, a subsidiary of Schlott Group. Prinovis has reached an agreement with the liquidator Dr. Siegfried Beck, Nuremberg, to purchase three assets. The acquisition is subject to antitrust approval.

The machines in question are two 3.60-metre class KBA presses along with pre-press equipment from the inventory of the Hamburg printing firm broschek. The parties have agreed not to disclose the purchase price.

Prinovis will use the assets to optimise its own fleet of machines at the German sites.

04.04.2011 | PRINOVIS LTD. HAS MOVED TO HAMBURG

Effective 4 April 2011 Prinovis Ltd. & Co. KG has moved its head office from Itzehoe to Hamburg, Gasstraße 18. The central contact line is +49 (40) 570130-0. A directions map can be found here.

22.03.2011 | PRINOVIS UK TO INSTALL A PERFECT BINDING LINE

Since production started at Prinovis UK Ltd. in 2006 the company has continuously invested in expertise and equipment to deliver high quality solutions and products to its European Retail and Publishing clients. During this period Prinovis has identified a clear need in the marketplace for high-speed perfect binding, operating with the quality and reliability that only Prinovis can deliver. In making a considerable strategic investment, Prinovis in the UK will be able to offer its customers perfect binding in its Liverpool plant from April 2011.

The six-digit investment encompasses a used Kolbus Publica Binding Line, which will be tailored to meet the needs of retail and publishing clients and will feature 12 gathering stations (upgradable to 24) equipped with static nailers for loose inserts and tip on feeders for product samples and cards. It will further feature a system binder with a min. bulk of 3mm and max. bulk of 65mm. Having the benefit of various wrapping options and Fontana Palletisation, it offers flexible solutions.

Richard Gray, Managing Director Prinovis UK says: “The investment in perfect binding marks a huge step in our course to continually improve our level of service quality for our customers. It also signals a clear commitment of our shareholders. The Prinovis UK team and I are very pleased to add this important facet to our production portfolio.”

11.03.2011 | NEW PRINOVIS SALES OFFICE IN PARIS

Prinovis provides custom-made solutions for individual requirements and convenience related to print and communication. This is why Europe's largest printing service company endeavours at all times to be close to its customers. This is only possible when sales staff are geographically close by. Prinovis has set up a new, joint office to improve the exchange of information and ideas in Paris, 8. Arrondissement. Sales staff specialised for the French market are all located there.

The sales support and customer service remain based at the respective production sites in Germany and England.

You will find the address of the office here.

10.01.2011 | PRINOVIS STARTS 2011 WITH A NEW IMAGE FILM

Right on cue for the beginning of the year, Prinovis unveils a new corporate image film that presents the Prinovis services portfolio in the four areas of Print Solutions, Finishing Solutions, Mobile Solutions and Creative Solutions (mbs Nuremberg).

It was created in cooperation with G+J Corporate Editors, a subsidiary of Gruner + Jahr Germany.

09.11.2010 | PRINOVIS CUTS TIME-TO-MARKET FOR PRINT PRODUCTS AT ALL SITES / FASTER, CHEAPER PRINTING APPROVAL THANKS TO SOFT PROOFING

Prinovis has significantly cut the time-to-market of its print products, by equipping all its production plants with new soft proofing stations. Now all Prinovis printing plants can offer their customers the full printing process without any hard-copy proofing. The printed products are finished to the same standards of quality, with significantly reduced costs for colour-matching at the printing press and print approval.

Soft proofing is a new print approval process that Prinovis is now using at all its production sites. While maintaining the same level of quality, conventional proofing using paper copies is being replaced by electronic transmission of digital proofs under standardised technical conditions at the customer and at Prinovis.

Production and approval processes on the customer side (editing, graphics) already often take place on the screen. Soft proofing closes the "digital gap" in the otherwise completely digitised workflow between the customer and Prinovis.

This significantly shortens the approval process, as proofs no longer have to be physically delivered. Customers and the Prinovis staff working on the project can examine the proof simultaneously and discuss requests for changes. Accordingly, despite moderate technical investment, the transition to soft proofing is absolutely cost-efficient for both customers and Prinovis.

Prinovis is investing several hundred thousand euros in the new technology, which by the end of this year will see 48 soft-proofing stations set up at the four German sites and at Liverpool. This will make Prinovis the only provider in high-volume illustration printing able to make this innovative customer service so widely available.

The Prinovis site in Liverpool has been working with the soft proofing process since 2006. Since 2008 a team led by Prinovis project manager Dr. Hans Wulf has been developing the soft proofing process for use throughout the Group for colour matching at the printing press. This requires uniform technical standards for the approval stations (monitors, standard lighting) and standardised file formats (PDF/X).

Prinovis began using soft proofing across the entire approval process with individual test customers at Dresden and Nuremberg back in early 2009. The positive response led to the Prinovis management’s decision to offer soft proofing at all sites from late 2010.

Prinovis thereby proves that soft proofing is an ideal choice even for the high-quality gravure printing segment.

Jürgen Freier, President of Sales and Marketing, says: "Prinovis wants to offers its customers the best possible service in every respect, and is always prepared to invest in this. Soft proofing creates significant added value for our customers in terms of speed and cost reduction. Our goal is to highlight the benefits of soft proofing to as many of our customers as possible. In future I expect there will be a significant shift towards soft proofing in print approval processes."

21.10.2010 | PRINOVIS WINS ‘ERA AWARD’

‘MY VOLUME gravure’, a new paper jointly developed by Prinovis and the paper manufacturer Myllykoski, won prizes in two categories at the ‘European Publication Gravure Award Ceremony’ in Zurich on 27 September: Prinovis won the ‘Excellent print results on coated paper under 70g/m”’ award for the 6/10 issue of ‘Red Bulletin’ magazine, while Myllykoski won an award for ‘Innovative Product’. The two companies had spent about three months developing a new gravure paper called ‘MY VOLUME gravure’. The new paper is much lighter despite having 20 percent more volume, making it the first truly matte alternative in the gravure paper market.

The ‘European Publication Gravure Award’ is presented annually by the European Rotogravure Association (ERA) to promote gravure printing.

20.10.2010 | DR. BERTRAM STAUSBERG APPOINTED NEW MANAGING DIRECTOR OF THE NORTHERN GERMAN PRINOVIS SITES

The Prinovis Group management team is undergoing a personnel changeover. Dr. Bertram Stausberg, currently Managing Director Operations at Prinovis Nuremberg, has been appointed Managing Director of the Prinovis Ahrensburg and Itzehoe sites effective November 1st, 2010.

He succeeds Dr. Klemens Berktold, who is leaving the company by mutual consent due to differing opinions about the company’s future strategic direction.

Bertram Stausberg’s functions will be transferred to Jens Lörke, currently Head of pressroom at Nuremberg and Andreas Deusser, currently Head of paper management at Nuremberg. Both will report to Daniel Welzer, Chief Executive Officer of Prinovis Nuremberg.

Thorsten Thiel, CEO of Prinovis, comments: "Klemens Berktold managed the Prinovis operations in Ahrensburg and Itzehoe and before that in Dresden with great professionalism and commitment. I’d like to thank him warmly for his work and wish him all the best personally and professionally. Bertram Stausberg has already worked very successfully as a Director Operations at both Ahrensburg and Itzehoe and knows both sites well. I wish him good luck and the best of success in his new role."

Daniel Welzer: "I’d like to thank Bertram Stausberg for our excellent cooperation during the past year and am very glad that in Andreas Deusser and Jens Lörke we have two competent leaders on board who will continue to develop our site in future."

11.10.2010 | PRINOVIS CREATES MORE ATTRACTIVE ADVERTISING ENVIRONMENTS FOR MOBILE APPLICATIONS

The Prinovis Group, a leading European provider of integrated communications services, is expanding its portfolio of mobile communications solutions. The latest product is an innovative content management system (CMS) that allows dynamic management of content for mobile applications (apps).

The online-based Prinovis CMS has a feature that allows for enhancing content on Tablet PCs, and especially the ads displayed on them. Videos, pictures and links can be flexibly added to the apps in real-time, without specialist IT expertise.

This gives the app’s publishers (e.g. editorial staff) a greater degree of independence from their technical services providers, and a lot more flexibility in updating the content of their app.

Media brands can thus offer their users more up-to-date information and their advertisers a more attractive environment for displaying their ads. The new CMS even makes it possible to integrate e-shop solutions.

As a result, Prinovis offers unique advantages over existing CMS.

Prinovis’s Mobile Solutions unit has steadily expanded its range of services since its establishment in early 2009. In addition to custom online CMS for mobile devices, it also offers successful customer loyalty tools such as Mobile Couponing and Online CMS for generating and managing mobile websites. Mobile Solutions is an fast growing business division at Prinovis.

As Europe’s largest gravure group, Prinovis specialises in bespoke communication services tying in to its core business of printing. In addition to Mobile Solutions, Prinovis offers print, finishing and creative services.

30.09.2010 | PRINOVIS PRESENTS INTERACTIVE SOLUTIONS AT ‘MAIL ORDER WORLD 2010’

The Prinovis Group is presenting new communications products at this year’s Mail Order World (28th — 30th September — Deutscher Versandhandelskongress) in Wiesbaden, Germany. As a provider of all kinds of communications solutions related to its core product, printing, Prinovis is increasingly developing solutions in the fields of mobile and interactive B2C communication.

As of the opening of Mail Order World 2010 and under the heading ‘activePrint’, Prinovis now offers ‘Interactive Solutions’. This involves advising customers who have to date relied only on electronic distribution and communication channels for their B2C relations, on the use of printed products in combination with digital media.

Interactive Solutions includes solutions like Augmented Reality, PictureClips and Guided Shop. The aim is to infuse marketing content with emotional and fuel end customers’ imagination for products through interactive experiences. The integrated Guided Shop solution also lets eCommerce operators take the service in their shops to a new level with personal, immediate user consultation.

activePrint creates a bridge between the digital and analog worlds and successfully unites printed and digital content in a wholistic concept. It allows for combining printed products like catalogues, magalogues and magazines with digital elements such as Augmented Reality, 2D-Codes and apps.

Prinovis will advise potential customers for print services, products from its Interactive Solutions series, and the activePrint concept at the company’s stand (108 in Hall 1).

21.09.2010 | ROGER SCHWARZ APPOINTED CIO OF PRINOVIS

Roger Schwarz, 49, has been named Chief Information Officer (CIO) of the Prinovis Group with effect from January 1st, 2011. He will continue the review of the IT landscape at Prinovis started in summer 2010, and will work with the IT managers at the sites to draw up a proposal for a suitable future IT structure and organisation. Schwarz will report to Prinovis CFO Ulrich Vollmer.

Even while earning his degree in Information Technology at the University of Kiel, Roger Schwarz gathered his first professional experience in production and software development at Dr. Rudolf Hell GmbH. Following his studies, he initially worked for the Fred Westphal Group. Other career stations included a stint at Hamburger Sparkasse, where he served as Head of the IT department. He currently works is a managing partner in charge of IT Consulting at the Vater Group in Kiel.

Ulrich Vollmer: “The ONE SAP project among other things shows us how important it is to have a coordinated IT structure with uniform systems and standards. Roger Schwarz will help us to identify the necessary IT- related measures and strategic decisions for Prinovis’ development and then put them into action. I wish him the best of luck and success with this important task.”

23.08.2010 | MATTE, BULKY AND NEWLY DEVELOP0ED: "MY VOLUME gravure"

Prinovis worked with the paper manufacturer Myllykoski to develop an absolute novelty in gravure: a matte bulk paper called “MY VOLUME gravure”. “MY VOLUME expands Prinovis’s range of paper varieties, enabling it to offer customers a greater diversity. The new paper also allows Prinovis to compete with offset competitors for the first time — in the past, matte bulk paper was only available in offset grades.

“In ‘MY VOLUME gravure’ we have created a paper grade that opens up unique applications for customers and printers alike,” says Monika Voigt confidently. In her role as Head of Central Quality Assurance Paper, she supervised the entire development process for Prinovis, from planning to paper production to print trial. The advantages of “MY VOLUME gravure” are obvious to her: “Our new paper has a very compelling, unique look and feel.”

"MY VOLUME gravure" is available in three grammages: 57, 65 und 75 g/m². With 20 percent more volume than conventional papers, a 75-gram paper can, for instance, keep up with 90 g/m² papers. This allows us to save weight with MY VOLUME, which is then reflected in comparatively lower overall paper costs. So the new grade allows Prinovis to offer customers a more cost-efficient paper variety for high-quality printed products like catalogues, supplements and magazines.

Prinovis and Myllykoski will be entering the race for the ‘European Publication Gravure Award 2010’ in September in the categories ‘Innovative Product’ and ‘LWC Papers <70 g/m²’ with “MY VOLUME gravure”. The award is presented by the European Rotogravure Association (ERA) to promote gravure printing.

18.08.2010 | PRINOVIS DEVELOPS APPLICATIONS (APPS) FOR THE iPHONE AND IPAD

In recent weeks, several customers have chosen to entrust Prinovis – beyond printing their titles – with adapting them for the iPhone and iPad Apple mobile platforms. Readers get to enjoy a high-quality digital reading experience: while the magazine concepts have been retained, their content has been enriched by photo spreads, videos and some individualized functions, and their presentation and usability has been optimised for the iPhone and iPad.

A specially developed content management system for iPad apps makes it possible to easily and conveniently configure the content for each app. Country-specific versions of the basic apps can also be managed in this way. The design and content are handled separately, enabling varying degrees of flexibility and interactivity. It is also possible to integrate ad management and direct sales (e-commerce features) into the apps, and to let users contribute - the apps provide links for direct interaction with social media like Facebook.

With the development of iPhone and iPad apps and an intelligent content management system, Prinovis emphasises once more that the company is transforming itself from a pure gravure printer into a provider of wide-ranging interactive communications services.