01/02/2008

A four million pounds expansion of a printworks owned by  Herald publishers, Newsquest, is expected to protect more than 100 jobs.

The investment - at the plant in Cambuslang - has been on two, new giant tower prints units, and the revamping of a third tower, which enables the plant to meet a requirement of full-colour, 128-page compact-sized newspapers for rival publishers, Associated Newspapers, which recently signed a deal to continue printing the Scottish Daily Mail and Scottish Mail on Sunday at the plant until 2022.

Twelve giant towers were already installed at Cambuslang, some with the ability to print only in black and white, but the new investment means there are  now 14 full-colour towers.

Parts of the  giant press hall had to be dismantled before the towers - each weighing 80 tonnes and 12 metres high - could be installed.

Cranes were used to fit them in two sections in an eight-month installation period with Newsquest senior managers  working in partnership with engineers sent from Wurzburg, Germany, by the manufacturer, KBA.

However, publication of The Herald, Sunday Herald and Evening Times, and another 30 titles continued uninterrupted with pages racing through the print hall at more than 25 miles per hour.

Says production editor, Alistair Gay: “It was a considerable task to extend our print centre without disrupting publication to any of our titles. But we delivered and I am very happy. We now have the flagship print centre for Newsquest and one of the most productive print works in the UK. We have the ability to produce more than five million newspapers every week and full-colour 128-page tabloid newspapers in half the time it previously took.”

Newsquest has eleven other print sites in the UK.

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