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Having followed the story through from when Landa Corporation’s financial struggles started to surface, to a stay of execution granted by the court to enable them to raise more funds to keep the company afloat…the increasingly inevitable conclusion has now been reached and FIMI Opportunity Funds has been successful in acquiring the debt-ridden digital printing company in a relatively complex USD$80m debt restructuring plan.

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One of Australasia’s leading paper and packaging companies, Opal (a member of NIPPON Paper Group), opened the doors to its Melbourne facility recently for a self-styled Innovation Expo, which enabled the company to show customers its application of new digital printing and cutting technologies, ‘creating a wonderland awash with vibrant colours, show-stopping design and clever engineering’.

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Durst Group has announced the full integration of GMG’s spectral colour management technology into its proprietary Durst Workflow software as well as into the open Smart Factory portfolio of its Open Software Initiative. Michael Deflorian, Director Business Unit Software & Solutions at Durst Group, says: “This will enable us to deliver new levels of colour consistency: fully automated and highly scalable.”

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Headquartered out of a facility at 10, Orbit Drive in Rosedale, Auckland, a dedicated Orafol NZ operation has now been officially launched and welcomed into the broader ANZ fold, marking a major milestone in the company’s expansion and further commitment to its local presence across Australasia.

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swissQprint has officially unveiled the last two new flatbed printer models in its award-winning Generation 5 line-up – the Topi 5 and Oryx 5 - and exclusive Australian swissQprint distributor, Pozitive Sign & Graphic Supplies, has confirmed that all five Generation 5 printers (including the Nyala 5, Impala 5 and Kudu 5 can be ordered locally from today.

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Industry reports that Starleaton has recently re-commenced trading as Starleaton Pty Ltd, using the same website and branding of the business that was recently placed into liquidation. are likely to be met with a mixed reception with many employers, suppliers and even customers presumably still significantly impacted by the crash of the company earlier this year.

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FIMI’s proposed USD$80m acquisition of Landa Digital Printing has hit a potential speed-hump, midst claims that the administrators - Sigal Rosen-Rechav and Shlomi Filiba – have inserted ‘unauthorized costs’ and ‘an unacceptable and unauthorized deviation’ on FIMI’s original offer. Representing FIMI, partner Gillon Beck acknowledged: “This is a very complex deal. It’s not a walk in the park, it’s very, very difficult, but if we didn’t believe there was a chance of success, we wouldn’t be here.”

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Color-Logic is widely recognised as the benchmark in metallic and special effect design technology, so receipt of formal certification that the Konica Minolta AccurioLabel 400 Digital Press is compatible with the Color-Logic process, offers an industry-recognised assurance of the press’ capacity to produce high-impact, vibrant colour, metallic labels.

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A technology preview model of Screen’s new Truepress LABEL 520AQ water-based inkjet label press, will be shown on the Screen stand D55 in Hall 5 at the upcoming Labelexpo Europe later this month (16^th-19^th September, Fira Barcelona Gran Via exhibition centre). This is in addition to previously released news (see here) that Screen’s Truepress LABEL 350UV SAI-S digital press will be printing live and continuously throughout all four days of the show.

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Widely recognised as one of the world’s leading providers of renewable packaging, biomaterials, and wooden construction products, the latest investment in Stora Enso’s Oulu (Finland) mill and production unit, tips its investment scales to just over €1.7bn between 2019 and 2025.

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As the dust starts to settle on the GBP£146m acquisition of Metamark by UPM Raflatac, Ball & Doggett is poised to expand the Metamark product portfolio locally and has launched the Metamark Passport Competition to showcase the versatility and creativity of the Metamark product range.

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Konica Minolta Australia, Macquarie University, and the Australia and New Zealand Recycling Platform’s (ANZRP) TechCollect have partnered to launch the ‘Rethink e-recycling Drive’: a community initiative aimed at reducing landfill and giving unwanted technology a second life.

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Avery Dennison has signed an agreement to acquire the U.S.-based flooring adhesives business of Meridian Adhesives Group – which includes Taylor Adhesives, Polycom and Frontier Products brands – at a purchase price of USD$390m. Upon completion of the transaction, the flooring adhesives business will become part of the Avery Dennison Materials Group business.

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In line with its Reconciliation Action pledge, Ricoh Australia has partnered with not-for-profit organisation, Yalari, to fully fund a six-year scholarship for one indigenous student’s secondary education from Year 7-12. Waverley Stanley AM, Founding Director of Yalari says: “This scholarship is creating pathways that will ripple through families and communities for generations to come.”

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Driving an ambitious agenda towards the reduction of greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions across its value chain by more than 50% by 2030 and reaching ‘net-zero’ by 2050, Epson’s targets have now been formally approved by the Science Based Targets initiative. SBTi is a corporate climate action organization that has developed standards, tools and guidance to enable companies ‘to set GHG emissions reductions targets in line with what is needed to keep global heating below catastrophic levels and reach net-zero by 2050 at latest’.

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Jane Jackson (Ball & Doggett), Arlo-Cyrus Bruhn (NEO/Valiant Press), Chisato Moriguchi (Advance Press) and Annabelle Radford (working in a private technical college in Sydney) have officially been named as the winning candidates for the ‘2025 HP Indigo Scholarships’ (sponsored by Currie Group), which will see them complete their Level 1 HP Indigo Certification Training at the Currie Group Training Centre in Hawthorn, Victoria.

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Following a report (here) that suggested HP and Israel’s biggest private equity fund, FIMI Opportunity Funds, were the front runners to acquire Landa Digital Printing, FIMI has now emerged with an USD$80m ‘offer’ for the beleaguered company. But the move, which seems predicated on the fact that Landa has been backed into a corner, still requires approval from a creditors' meeting and court approval.

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Laying claims to a new era in high-speed digital inkjet printing for print and packaging converters, Agfa is celebrating a major innovation milestone as its customer The Delta Group completed beta testing of the new SpeedSet Orca – a versatile single-pass water-based digital press that is capable of speeds up to 11,000 B1 sheet an hour.

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Canon Production Printing Oceania has announced that the company’s complete range of market-leading industrial label and packaging solutions will now be supplied locally. Australian and New Zealand print service providers and converters will now be able to access all Canon high-volume digital production inkjet systems locally through CPP including the sale, installation and servicing of Edale (a Canon company since 2022) flexographic label and carton converting systems, as well as the upcoming Canon LabelStream LS2000 digital label press.

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Ian Young has joined Celmac as General Manager Finance & Administration, to oversee a transformation of the company’s operations support platforms, through the planned introduction of new business intelligence tools and e-commerce capabilities, as Celmac gears itself up for further growth and expansion. Wayne McIntyre, founder of Celmac, says: “Our focus on systems and technology will increase capacity and efficiency, as well as create a platform for future growth.”

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As part of the multiple-site events of the State Library’s Rare Book Week 2025, the Penrith Museum of Printing is staging a free 2-hour session on Tuesday 21st October (1.30-3.30pm) - N.B. date yet to be 100% confirmed but firm date to be announced in September - where it has invited three expert speakers to explain how fonts were created, the impact of the Linotype machine and the evolution of book structures.