What a super-interesting end-of-year it's turning out to be in the world of web offset. Confirmation that York Mailing is to invest in a big new press for its Pindar Scarborough site is noteworthy on a variety of levels. That the company has ordered a 48pp Goss Sunday 4000 is fantastic news for Goss, while being a real blow to Manroland Web Systems given that the both York operations are currently equipped with wall-to-wall Manroland presses. The comment from Mike Newbould Jnr about the York team feeling "far more confident in Goss International as a long-term partner for the future" will surely have resulted in some grey faces at Manroland Web. The other aspect of the investment concerns the have and have-not nature of the industry. Whatever "it" is, some companies have it and York is certainly one of the haves. Just the other week York's chief executive Chris Ingram spoke about his optimism for print's prospects, and that viewpoint has been rubber-stamped with this multi-million pound investment in fresh capacity. Yes, the web offset industry is variously a basket case, a bloodbath and a bad business to be in. But as demonstrated by some notably successful examples, including York Mailing, it can also be bloody brilliant.
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