UK newspaper printer West Ferry Printers – a subsidiary of Express Newspapers – could be following the work when it leaves its Docklands home for a new site, likely to be close to the M1/M25 motorways north of London.
The move would follow News International’s move from Wapping to its Broxbourne supersite… and former partner the ‘Daily Telegraph’ which pulled out of a West Ferry partnership to print there.
West Ferry’s owner Richard Desmond has committed to a $145.5 million spend on new KBA coldset/heatset hybrid presses and ancillary equipment for its two sites over the next five years. The order is KBA’s biggest this year.
First stage is to have four Commander CT compact lines totalling 22 towers, together with a Ferag mailroom, in operation early in 2012.
More printing towers and heatset dryers are to follow “at a later stage”.
The plans will print the ‘Daily Express, ‘Sunday Express’, stablemates the ‘Daily Star’ and ‘Daily Star Sunday’ as well as contract work including ‘Daily Sport’.
The hybrid upgrade will enable group magazines to be printed in-house “in time”, as well as other semicommercial work.
The four highly automated, double-width presses – with 22 reelstands, 22 compact four-high towers and four heavy-duty KF 7 jaw folders – will be served by an automated paper logistics system.
Express has KBA Commander lines at its Broughton Printers in north west England, and chief executive David Broadhurst, who is responsible for both sites, says high-level automation will dramatically reduce operating and maintenance time. Features include automatic plate changers, automatically adjustable roller locks and bearing units which provide for automatic adjustment of printing pressure.
The 90,000 cph presses have a 578 mm cut-off and maximum web width of 1460 mm.
KBA consoles will include EAE’s production scheduling and presetting software, and West Ferry have specified a significant amount of Baldwin technology following a successful installation at Broughton. This includes web cleaning equipment, ink train cleaning systems and Maxima spray bars.
Broadhurst says the investment is split between the north and south print centres. An option to upgrade the northern England sites provides 12 more CT towers and two folders, plus an extra tower for the Commander there.
