Industry News

About 150 workers are expected to lose their jobs in the coming months when RR Donnelley closes its printing plant on Prindle Lane in Danbury, Conn.

The company sent a notice to the state Department of Labor and city officials informing them that they plan to begin the layoffs in July, shortly before closing the plant.

While the notice gave little reason for the closure, city officials said the news wasn't a surprise.

"They (RR Donnelley) have shut down several plants across the country leading up to this," Mayor Mark Boughton said.

Nekoosa, Wisconsin-based Nekoosa Coated Products introduced MagneCote® iSeries, a pre-magnetized RIT certified® sheet for HP Indigo® presses. A “white sensor strip” on the backside of each sheet satisfies sensors in the press to prevent feeding issues. It is the first pre-magnetized sheet certified for this machine.

The Initiative for a Competitive Inner City (ICIC) and Fortune Magazine announced that ColorFX, Inc. (Rank #94) was selected for the 2012 Inner City 100, a list of the fastest-growing inner city companies in the U.S. The Inner City 100 program recognizes successful inner city companies and their CEOs as role models for entrepreneurship, innovative business practices and job creation in America’s urban communities.

Salem, Massachusetts-based Plastilam, Inc. will produce custom imprinted RFID (Radio Frequency Identification) cards for the lodging, hospitality and casino gaming industries.

The U.S. Postal Service will trim 5,000 jobs by closing or consolidating 48 mail-processing plants over the next three months.

R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., a Chicago-based commercial-printing company, agreed to buy Edgar Online Inc. in a $70.5 million deal, gaining a website that lets investors view regulatory filings.

If you’ve been watching the news lately, you’ve probably noticed the same thing I have—U.S. manufacturing is on the rise. Like the latest Katy Perry song, The Avengers and any news involving the Jolie-Pitt family, “Made in America” is hot. Large American companies are either bringing manufacturing back home or they are deciding not to move overseas in the first place. Case in point: General Electric recently decided against building a “green” refrigerator plant in Asia. Switching gears entirely, the company invested nearly $100 million to refurbish an existing plant in Indiana.

Is 3-D printing going to change our world in the decades to come? Sure it is, it’s going to, in fact it already is, entirely change the economics of low volume manufacturing. That, in turn, changes the economics of high volume manufacturing and so we’ll end up with an entirely different product mix, what gets made where and how.

Cleveland-based Proforma has reported that owners participating in the ProVantage Selling System have experienced an average 19.1 percent year-to-date sales growth as of April 2012, comparable to their year-to-date sales in April 2011.

Headquartered in Stamford, Connecticut, Cenveo, Inc. announced results for the three months ended March 31, 2012.