Pierre-François Catté announced today the appointment of Marc Garnier as General Manager of CPI France, the French division of CPI. Marc Garnier started today and will be fully in charge after a transition period with Frédéric Mériot, the current general Manager, in September.

Marc Garnier, 44, joins CPI with many years of experience in process industries. He started his career in marketing at Ricard (spirits), moved to BSN (now Danone) and then OI where he held several jobs as business manager, plant manager and international sales director. More recently he was sales director for France, Switzerland, North-Africa and was also in charge of a production site in Lyon (France). After almost 4 years in the role, Frédéric Mériot will leave the company to pursue new career interests.

This transition happens naturally at this time in the history of the group: the financial restructuring was completed last year and CPI France is now taking major steps to transform itself :the start-up and deployment of the new Quantum inkjet web presses, the installation of new production equipment for pocket books at CPI Brodard et Taupin, the launch of CPIdirect.fr, our web portal,, as well as the modernization and restructuring of CPI Bussière. CPI thanks Frédéric Mériot for his contribution. In the coming weeks and months, Marc Garnier will maintain his focus on the strategic re-alignment of CPI France with a special attention to sales, people management and team work.

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Contact : Anthony Morin - amorin@cpibooks.com

The management of CPI, the number one printer of black & white books in Europe, has announced on May 24th the acquisition of German printer buch bücher.de based near Bamberg and specialised in short-run book manufacturing.

“The expertise and the know-how of buch bücher.de ideally fit with CPI Germany’s current offer and strategy” said Pierre-François Catté, Chairman of the Executive Board at CPI.

“Our printing and binding quality puts us among the leading POD printers in Germany“, reckons Robert Höllein, Managing Director of buchbücher.de gmbh.

CPI pursues its strategy of offering to its clients a unique and fully integrated solution to print books in quantities from one to one million. France, UK and The Netherlands already have their own production capacities for short-run in toner or, more recently, inkjet with the installation in France of the first Quantum.

The teams at buch bücher.de and at CPI Germany are already working on the technical and the commercial integration of the new structure.

« We are especially happy that buch bücher.de joins CPI. It is a great opportunity of growth and development for our 2 companies, in a rapidly changing market. Their equipment and market presence will help us develop our one stop-shop offer: from one to one million books» said Ingo Scholz, General Manager for CPI Germany.

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The management of CPI France, the industrial group specialising in book printing, has announced that it has informed staff representatives of a draft agreement to sell its two printing plants to the Qualibris Group. The two companies in question are Imprimerie France Quercy, in Mercuès (Lot Département) and Hérissey, in Evreux (Eure Département).

Along with Aubin Imprimeur, in Ligugé (Vienne Département), these two companies make up the “Offset” division of CPI France, specialising in a range of books in diverse formats, both in colour and in black and white: tourism guides, mangas, practical books and scientific, technical, medical and academic books.
A difficult market environment has forced CPI to look for means and ways of retaining its competitive edge, in order to secure its long-term future. It has become essential to streamline investments, to release the necessary resources for development in the medium term.
Following a successful financial restructuring process, in January 2010, the group launched a modernisation and reorganisation project for its “Cameron” Division, which specialises in monochrome books (General Literature and Paperbacks). Monochrome books represent the core of the CPI business and the group plans to invest €30m in this business in France over the next three years.

In parallel, a thought process was launched for the Offset division, in which CPI has invested more than €32 million, but which has suffered heavily from negative market trends over the last two years:
• Aubin Imprimeur, which is proving more resistant, thanks to its national scope and diversification into catalogues, magazines and packaging, has growth potential and should become a centre of operational excellence for CPI France.
• Imprimerie France Quercy is better placed to position itself in a regional market with strong potential, where its great versatility, from phototypesetting to routing, gives it a certain autonomy in relation to the group’s business activity.
• Hérissey, being a small company, has been most weakened by current trends, but benefits nevertheless from valuable sector expertise, particularly in the printing of mangas, which is an expanding segment.
CPI considered that its strategy of streamlining investments and specialising in printing companies of national stature no longer allowed Hérissey and Imprimerie France Quercy to find means of development within the group.

In this context, the draft agreement to sell to Qualibris represents the best opportunity for these two sites.
Qualibris is a French printing and finishing group at the forefront of four-colour printing of hard or soft bound works, which wishes to strengthen its position in its core business area. In this respect, the acquisition of Imprimerie France Quercy and Hérissey would complement its current product range and enable it to increase its customer base beyond that of its publishers, in the face of competition from Italy and China. The draft agreement would also give it the possibility of winning new markets in binding for existing finishing customers who would like to see their products printed and bound by the same service provider.
Qualibris intends to continue the process it has already started, by placing Hérissey and Imprimerie France Quercy at the heart of the group’s business activity and strategy, developing commercial strategy independently of publishers, in complement to its other businesses (particularly binding), as well as developing regional business activity.
The draft agreement would therefore give Imprimerie France Quercy and Hérissey the chance to restore their competitive edge and benefit from new means of development, particularly thanks to the additional workload that Qualibris is currently sub-contracting to other printing companies.

The transaction, which could be concluded before the summer of 2010, would manifest itself in selling to Qualibris all shares comprising the share capital of Imprimerie France Quercy and Hérissey, with a guarantee from CPI to bring the debts of these two companies to zero beforehand and provide significant financing in order to ensure their transition and operational management under the best possible conditions.

Within CPI France, Aubin Imprimeur is naturally set to develop as a single site for offset printing, in complement to the monochrome books produced by the technology of the Cameron division. Aubin Imprimeur has sufficient critical mass to concentrate the group’s investment capacity and benefit from a dedicated sales structure, particularly in non-book activities (catalogues, magazines, packaging).

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CPI has announced that is has placed an order for a new pocket books rotary press and stitching line. The capital expenditure is in the region of €8m, and will be accompanied by the creation of 20 jobs.

The new rotary press that will be installed is not yet available on the market, and so its implementation will be a world first. The concept is the fruit of a partnership between CPI and two companies who are leaders in their field: the German group, KBA – ranked 3rd in the world and the world’s oldest manufacturer of printing machines – for the rotary press, and the Swiss company, Müller Martini, for the automatic binding of paperbacks as they come off the printer and the complete stitching line.
One of the features of this equipment is “long grain” printing, in which the paper fibres run parallel to the book’s spine, which makes the book lie flat more easily when open, particularly when there are a large number of pages.
With the implementation of this project, Brodard et Taupin will be the leading European printer in terms of deadline/production capacity for general and paperback literature, with two million copies or even more per week, which amounts to 75 to 80 million copies per year, compared to 50 million at the moment.
On 20th January 2010, the CPI group announced its intention to implement a large scale strategic and industrial project between now and the end of 2011 for its “Cameron” division, specialising in monochrome printing of paperbacks and general literature. The project is based mainly on the modernisation of two of CPI’s six printing sites in France: Bussière, in Saint-Amand Montrond (Cher Département) and Brodard & Taupin, in La Flèche (Sarthe Département).

The Brodard & Taupin printing company is set to strengthen its business in order to become the number one reference for the largest press runs of general literature and paperbacks. The particular aim is to make it the key element of CPI’s strategic return to paperback literature, in which the group needs to win back market share.

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March 24th was the official date when Quantum, the most modern book production line in the world, was presented to journalists and to CPI clients. More than 80 publishers and 30 journalists gathered to discover this unique equipment which was officially unveiled by Pierre-François Catté, Chairman of the Executive Board of CPI, and Aurelio Maruggi, Vice-President and General Manager of HP IHSPS.

“Quantum is particularly well adapted for short-run printing (first prints as well as re-prints) which is an ever growing demand from publishers” said Pierre-François Catté.

Scott Chiller, Marketing and Business Development Director (HP), Aurelio Maruggi, Vice President and General Director (HP), Pierre-François Catté, Chairman of the Executive Board (CPI), and Bernard Kieffer, Group Technology & Supply Chain Director (CPI).

Quantum is the combination of an HP T300 inkjet web press, a folding and finishing modiule specially designed by Magnum/Ultimate and an Acoro binding line by Müller-Martini.
Production capacity is of 100′000 books per week in formats ranging from pocket books to A4 at a quality which is equivalent to offset.


Quantum perfectly fits with the existing industrial equipment at Firmin-Didot, which already has 3 Cameron presses and an OCE digital web press for very short runs. CPI clients will benefit from the best existing technologies at all run sizes.

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Press articles :
Global Print Monitor - February, 15th 2010
Graphic Arts On line - March, 23rd 2010
Printing Talk - March, 26th 2010

On November 10, CPI Firmin-Didot manufactured the first 2000 copies of “Au Pays des Pommes d’Argent” by Nancy Farmer, published by Gallimard Jeunesse.

This is the very first title printed on the new HP inkjet web press. This new equipment called Quantum and designed by CPI met all expectations. Quantum is the combination of the HP inkjet web press, the finishing module from Timsons and a Müller-Martini binding line.
This first release marks the beginning of industrial scale digital book printing with an in-line process from the paper reel to the bound book. Quantum replicates in the digital environment the successful Cameron process (end to end printing and binding).

“This title is a re-print of a book initially printed on Cameron and the binding and printing quality is perfect” said Jacqueline Faverger, head of production at Gallimard Jeunesse, who was present at Firmin-Didot for this premiere.

“The Quantum machine is particularly well adapted for short-run printing (first prints as well as re-prints) which is an ever growing demand from publishers. We are especially happy to make this major step with the publisher of Harry Potter in France. This also illustrates our ability and willingness to serve our clients from 1 to 1 million copies” added Frédéric Mériot, managing director of CPI France. In fact, while CPI Firmin-Didot was manufacturing 2000 copies of “Au Pays des Pommes d’Argent”, the Cameron presses at Bussière were busy reprinting tens of thousands copies of the last Prix Goncourt, France’s most prestigious literary prize.
Quantum perfectly fits with the existing industrial equipment at Firmin-Didot, which already has 3 Cameron presses and an OCE digital web press for very short runs. CPI clients will benefit from the best existing technologies at all run sizes.

CPI Firmin-Didot buys a digital web press for cover printing
The same week, the CPI team at Firmin-Didot started production on a new HP Indigo digital press. The factory of Mesnil-sur-l’Estrée now has its own printing capacity for covers, which assures quality and reactivity to our clients.

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Press contact: Anthony Morin

An agreement has been unanimously signed between CPI’s shareholders and all 18 members of the lending pool.

At the beginning of 2009, CPI notified its lenders of a breach of its financial covenants, established in September 2005 when the Group entered into an LBO.

The new agreement signed yesterday provides for:

- The exit of existing shareholders from the company’s share capital

- Lenders taking direct ownership of the company’s share capital and providing 30 million euros to finance CPI’s new development plan.

Moreover, CPI’s current management team invests in the company alongside the banks.

The main elements of this financial restructuring are :

- Current shareholders abandon all their debt and equity stakes in the company

- Total financial debt is reduced from 420 to 123 million euros, including senior debt revised downwards from 328 million to 123 million euros.

- Issuance of mandatory convertible bonds (ORA) for a total amount of 40 million euros to the benefit of senior lenders.

- Granting by some of the banks of the existing syndicate of a 30 million euros revolver credit facility.

- Access to a flexible leasing and factoring line of 27.5 million euros

Throughout the 6 month negotiation, discussions were conducted in a constructive and professional manner. Lenders and shareholders consistently demonstrated their desire to preserve the future of the company and have made significant financial sacrifices to that end.

Pierre-François Catté, CPI Chairman of the Executive Board, « is very happy with the spirit in which this transaction was realised, and with the ability of the company’s employees to remain focused on day-to-day operations and on maintaining customer satisfaction in a difficult environment. More than a year of work was needed to reach this agreement, providing the company the financial capacity to continue to innovate and improve the quality of our products and services offered customers .»

Upon completion of this restructuring, the entire capital will be owned by the existing lenders. RBS will remain the agent of senior lenders.

In terms of corporate governance, CPI will have an independent supervisory board and an executive board. The supervisory board will consist of people from the book industry as well as industrial and marketing experts. The executive board will be chaired by Pierre-François Catté.

The lead advisors on the transaction were Lazard for the senior lenders, Houlihan Lokey for the company. Legal counsel to the company were Weil, Gotshal & Manges ; senior lenders were advised by Ashurst while the funds were represented by Willkie Farr & Gallagher and Latham & Watkins.

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Meet us at the book fair in Frankfurt from Oct 14-18th. The team of CPI Deutschland will be happy to welcome you on their stand (Stand C 1337 Halle 4.0).  You will discover new products such as the CPI-smartcover and exclusive finishing techniques.  We will also detail how environmental standards are applied in the manufacturing processes at CPI.  We are looking forward to meeting you there!

CPI has revolutionised text printing at its Chatham site with the

installation of Timson’s new ‘Zero Make-Ready’ press.

Conventional printing presses need to stand idle between jobs, while plates are installed and made ready for the next section to be printed.
But CPI Mackay’s new ‘ZMR’ can move from one job to the next without stopping.

The record-breaking large format press has two printing units on each side of the web, allowing the machine to continue printing while the next set of plates is being installed, with no loss of production time.
As one run ends, the next unit is accelerated to the exact press speed and brought into register, taking over with a new run. Putting the new ‘ZMR’ through its paces in the US last year, before its UK launch, a record 311 make-readies were achieved in a 24 hour period.

No make-ready downtime means the new ‘ZMR’ can deliver what is believed to be the UK’s most efficient book printing operation. The press has been designed with short-run book printing in mind, while retaining the
long-run efficiencies of web printing. Having two units, the ‘ZMR’ also offers the flexibility of printing in two colours, with exceptional quality.

Commenting on the commissioning of the new press, CPI UK Trade Sales Director Mike Austin said: “Our recent programme of significant investment at Mackays, not just in the new ZMR but also with the Corona binding line, means that CPI is well placed to meet the needs of today’s UK publishers. We’re very excited by the changes at Mackays and the improved service we can now offer our customers.”

Among the first publishers to see their work on the ‘ZMR’ last week were Jennifer Corin, Phil Evans and Kate Tolley from Transworld, pictured with Mackays’ Operations General Manager Andy Watts (second from right).

CPI announced today that the new inkjet press designed by HP will be installed at Firmin Didot in France.

Over the last 10 years the teams at Firmin Didot have developed a real know-how in short-run book printing and digital printing.

Their expertise will be much valued as the tests start in September. The press is planned to be fully operational by Jan-Feb 2010.