The print merry go-round in Canberra shows no sign of abating, with the latest moves being Focus Press buying PMP’s digital business and staffing it with ex-Blue Star employees.

Those employees were laid off when Blue Star’s Canberra business was sold to Opus Group last month. The PMP staff working in Canberra before Focus bought the business have also been laid off, but many rehired by Focus. Among the Blue Star staff taken on by Focus is Ian O’Connor, the ex Blue Star ACT general manager, who will run the Focus business in the ACT. It is the first move into Canberra for Focus, the surprise is that it didn’t happen sooner, given that Focus has been in the vanguard of the green printing movement for a decade now, and the government and its agencies are keen to be seen to be reducing their environmental footprint. Focus is now looking for premises for its new business, which will run the ex-digital kit at PMP, and will add sheetfed capacity to it in order to become a serious player in the nation’s capital. Focus will then be a direct competitor of Opus Group businesses in Canberra. The move caps a busy time for Focus, which has just opened its new $6m print facility in Wollongong.

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