RR Donnelley commits to buy Poligrafia SA
RR Donnelley & Sons announced a call for sale of 100% of 5,3 million shares of Poligrafia SA, a public company listed on the Warsaw Stock Exchange.
In connection with this offer RR Donnelley signed the final agreement with Baring CEF Investments IV Limited for the purchase of about 56,2% of PoligrafiaŐs stock. RR Donnelley is planning to buy all PoligrafiaŐs shares and expects speedy completion of all transactions.
Poligrafia SA is the third largest printing company in Poland; it prints magazines, catalogues, trade leaflets and brochures, and books. It will now become part of RR DonnelleyŐs European platform, which already includes high circulation printing houses.
Merger of DNT and PAP
A merger of Polska Agencja Prasowa (the Polish Press Agency) SA and Drukarnia Naukowo-Techniczna (the Science and Technology Printing House) took effect on August 31st. It is intended to open new opportunities for both of the companies. Last year both companies generated profit.
Polish Press Agency, which employs nearly 380 people, has a network of offices and correspondents all over Poland and abroad. It offers daily information and photographic service to Polish and foreign media, as well as to state administration and other recipients. It also sells professional economical information service prepared in two language versions, Polish and English, to financial institutions. The history of PAP and its predecessor, the Polish Telegraphic Agency, dates back to 1918.
Drukarnia Naukowo-Techniczna is one of the leading printing enterprises in Poland. Since 1950 it has printed and bound books for Polish and foreign publishers: school and academic text-
books, scientific and technical works, dictionaries, albums as well as fiction.
The planned investments will mainly concern modernisation of the printing base, including a purchase of a CtP system, printing presses and other equipment. After the merger, the printing house operates as a new branch of PAP. The fusion will not cause a change of the production profile of the printing house, which holds a strong position on the market of book printing houses, whereas it will allow the Polish Press Agency to realize its plan of development of publishing operations.
First in Poland Heidelberg Suprasetter 105
A CtP system based on the first in Poland full-format heatsetter Heidelberg Suprasetter 105 was installed in the WALL BDA printing house. It had first been presented at drupa 2004 and its Polish premiere took place in April on the Poligrafia 2005 fair, where it was awarded the Gold Medal.
Suprasetter 105 in WALL BDA is a semi-automatic version allowing manual plate feed, equipped with Glunz&Jensen135HD on-line processor. The whole system works with the newest, 5th version of Heidelberg MetaDimension software. The configuration is complete with a stacker, digital Cromalin for trial prints and an HP plotter.
The WALL BDA printing house has been in operation since 1992. It specializes in production of advertising job printing, calendars, books and magazines, carton packaging and self adhesive labels. The purchase of Suprasetter is the companyŐs next investment step following the installation of Heidelberg Speedmaster CD 102-7+LYYLX offset printing press in April 2005.
History of Solidarity in a comic book
On August 30th,the Eve of anniversary of AugustŐ80 and the formation of NSZZ Solidarnoć (Solidarity), at the Warsaw seat of Duplo Polska, took place an official premiere of a comic book ŇSolidarity Đ 25 years: Hope of the simple peopleÓ with the participation of the publisher, one of the authors of the pictures, and representatives of the sponsors, Danka Polska, Duplo Polska and Arctic Paper Polska. The comic book consists of four short stories, which, besides the history of the strike in the Lenin Shipyard in Gdansk, tell the story of a martyr death of priest Jerzy Popiełuszko. The introduction was written by Lech Wałęsa, who expressed his hope that the book would be read mainly by young people who were born in free Poland. They should learn about the history of their people and nation, and remember about it, to be able to hand down this knowledge to the generations to come. Such is the main goal of this publication, thus the form of a comic book, closest to the hearts of young people. Another aim of its creators was to pay tribute to the heroes of AugustŐ80.
The form of this comic book is unusual: it combines fictional story line with historical facts; among characters there are historical figures. Besides drawings and text, there are also documentary photography of those memorable days.
First run was 3000 books, two hundred of which were personalised and intended for the leading representatives of both opposing sides: they will be given to the members of the first Solidarity Committee, and from ăthe other side of the barricadeÓ, among others, General Wojciech Jaruzelski and President Aleksander Kwaniewski.
Asked about future publications, Witold Tkaczyk (publisher) said he planned to publish a comic book about John Paul II (so far two comic books were published about the Pope, in France and Italy).
