Fujifilm Graphic Systems U.S.A.

KANSAS CITY, Mo.—On January 19, it was announced that Fuji Photo Film Co., Ltd. had signed an agreement to acquire Sericol from an investment group led by Saratoga Partners. The deal is expected to close in late February. Sericol is the world leader in the production of premium inks and other consumables for the screen-printing and narrow web industries. It has also aggressively expanded and taken a leading position in the wide format digital ink market. Sericol has a strong reputation for its technical support services and business partnering programs with its customers. Sericol is known for the quality of

Offset plate suppliers stretch to manage conventional- and digital-world needs. By Susan Friedman Many offset plate suppliers are stretching to be in two places at once—edging conventional technologies up a notch while running like mad to win the digital marathon. Convention rally On the conventional side, Dwight Collier, national sales manager for pressroom products at Pitman Co., a distributor of printing consumables, equipment and services, sees "a conscious effort to continue to improve plate latitude in a variety of environments." Three areas of emphasis, he notes, are developing coating weights that are more resistant to abrasion, improving grain structures to achieve a more efficient