Imago to supply Scholastic ELT Readers

Teenage subjects for teenage language learners
We are all awash with Scholastic ELT readers at the moment, as we supply more and more of this series. Most of the titles are accompanied by an audio CD, based around contemporary, media focussed topics and designed for teenagers learning English.

Bringing more than a touch of Hollywood to our shelves with titles such as Spiderman, Night at the Museum and The Devil Wears Prada in the range, not to mention Michael Jackson and Barack Obama, we are thrilled to be printing these for Scholastic and can’t wait to see which titles come next…. Robert Pattinson special please…

Seeing the Wood for the Trees

In order to achieve our FSC and PEFC certification our in house systems have undergone a major overhaul to enable us to trace materials accurately through the workflow. The staff in each of our sales and production offices undergo regular training to make sure they are all up to speed on the requirements and know where to find all the relevant info. Our annual audit came back recently with some really pleasing comments – Robin Askey of BM TRADA said:

"I must say, I have audited numerous companies in the paper and print industry.... Imago stand-out as being one of the best organised and managed in terms of FSC and PEFC chain of custody I have come across.... [they] have employed excellent use of IT and have provided good training to their staff. I have noted in all of the satellite audits so far....staff have been well prepared and well trained."

Paper Update

Paper prices are the most volatile they have been for sometime – the major reasons are as follows: 

• Paper mills, especially in Europe, have been operating at losses for years and it appears now they are pushing for price increases
• Dockers strikes in Finland – UPM has closed 3 mills and Stora Enso threatening to temporarily close mills this week which will cause a shortage
• Damage to plantations, mills and port in Chile means no pulp will be exported from Chile for at least a month and consequently pulp will be in short supply
 World shortage of pulp
• Chile produces 4.8m tonnes of pulp per annum which represents 8% of world capacity.
• they are the lowest cost producer in the world
• almost two thirds of their production is sold to China and other Asian countries (one third China, one third other Asian countries).
• Mills that have been affected that were supplied Chilean pulp – Garda, Biberist, Hansol Paper, Gold Huasheng Paper, April, Stora Enso, APP, Motril, Finch

Nosy Crow do the right thing

Nosy Crow is a brand new, independent publisher, publishing children’s books and, in the company’s Appiness division, apps for iPhones and other devices. We are delighted that Nosy Crow have chosen to source all their full-colour print via Imago. Imago's leading role in Prelims and PREPS helped Kate Wilson make her decision! Good luck to Kate, Camilla and everyone at Nosy Crow with this exciting new venture.

Slow Boats from China

The economic downturn has caused turmoil in the world of shipping. Last year the decline in trade led to huge over capacity and tumbling rates as the lines competed for their share of the pie. The decision was taken to "mothball" many of the larger loss making vessels in order to reduce capacity and drive prices back up. The result is that space on some routes is now extremely tight and price increases have come in across the board.

A “Slow Steam policy’ has also been introduced to reduce fuel costs and this is adding 3-4 days to published transit times. This policy is said to be on-going.

You can read more about it here