SHANGHAI

The Binding Industries Assn. has announced the winners of the 2012 Product of Excellence (POE) awards. For more than three decades, the POE awards have recognized outstanding examples of craftsmanship in binding, graphic finishing, information packaging, and custom loose-leaf manufacturing.

BOLINGBROOK, IL—Shanghai Electric (SEC) is now the second-largest shareholder in Goss International, having completed the deal set in motion last June. Jochen Meissner, CEO of Goss, believes the investment "should send a strong signal to printers and publishers regarding our strength, stability and long-term capacity to deliver value." SEC is one of the largest equipment manufacturing groups in China. SEC subsidiary Shanghai Printing and Packaging Machinery (SPPM) manufactures a wide range of printing press and finishing equipment.

Messe Düsseldorf will participate in PRINT 09 in order to promote its worldwide program of international printing trade fairs, including drupa 2012, print media trade fair (to be held from May 3 - 16, 2012 in Düsseldorf, Germany), Pack Print International 2009, International Packaging and Printing Exhibition for Asia (scheduled for September 23 – 26, 2009 in Bangkok) and All In Print China 2011 (to take place from November 14 – 17, 2011 in Shanghai). At PRINT 09 booth 6515, drupa 2012, Pack Print International 2009 and All In Print China 2011 information will be available.

Shanghai Electric (Group) Corp. (SEC) and the shareholders of Goss International Corp., including majority shareholder MatlinPatterson Global Opportunities Partners, have reached an agreement for the utility and equipment manufacturing conglomerate to become the second largest shareholder of the printing equipment supplier by acquiring newly issued shares of Goss International preferred stock. This transaction is currently under governmental review for final approval and is subject to other customary conditions to closing.

The Ludwigsburg site of Heidelberger Druckmaschinen AG (Heidelberg) is celebrating the 60th anniversary of its folding machines. In 1949, Kurt Stahl and Adolf I. Döpfert founded the company Stahl & Co. Maschinenfabrik Ludwigsburg. Shortly afterwards, engineer Kurt Stahl constructed and presented his first folding machine, while businessman Adolf I. Döpfert built up the sales side of the company.

InfoPrint Solutions Company, a joint venture between IBM and Ricoh, today announced that it continues to drive the worldwide adoption of TransPromo, an innovative marketing technique combining personalized marketing with trusted statements such as bills. This is via the opening of InfoPrint Innovation Centers, coupled with running TransPromo pilot promotions to demonstrate the business benefits of its use. InfoPrint’s customers using its full-color, continuous forms drop-on-demand inkjet printing system, the InfoPrint 5000, are also running successful trials, with direct mailers and transactional printers around the world.