Offset Printing
Quebecor Media Contracts with MAN Roland for Massive Hybrid Extension Program.
Wednesday 07. May 2008 - MAN Roland North America announced today that Quebecor Media, Inc., one of Canadas largest publishers, has contracted with the printing press manufacturer to convert two of its production facilities into true hybrid operations for newspaper publishing and commercial printing.
The Quebecor Media facilities to undergo the conversion are Mirabel Printing located nearby to Montreal, Quebec, and Wide Web Printing located nearby to Toronto, ON. When the transformation is completed, both plants will be able to use their current COLORMAN newspaper press platforms to efficiently and quickly produce quality newspaper publishing and commercial printing work.
Though both sites have been running modified hybrid operations since early 2007, the addition of MEGTEC “dual dryers,” along with additional printing towers, will make the two plants the first in North America to produce heatset products on such a large scale.
Capable of handling formats up to 54-inches wide, the Quebecor Media plants will be able to produce a variety of newspaper titles, telephone directory work and become a huge outsource production center for the greater Montreal and Toronto regions. In essence, Quebecor Media will own the first real hybrid facilities on the continent capable of combining heatset printing, coldest printing and outsourcing under the same roofs.
In order to fulfill Quebecor Medias vision to bring three different product types together in a single facility, MAN Roland drew from its vast portfolio of press system components, integrating commercial folders, automation and press system controls to create for the publisher a very versatile and extremely flexible print system platform.
“The importance of these installations is that they show newspaper owners and publishers how they can increase revenue with new printing technology,” said Ron Sams, MAN Rolands Vice President Newspaper Web Sales. “By leveraging their printing and operational expertise, theyre able to spread out their capital investment and attract more readers and advertisers with a better printed product.”
“Because press schedules are very full at both Quebecor locations, it was important to develop installation and implementation schedules that will minimize disruptions,” said Sams. “As a result, we have created a dedicated project management team with special resources to execute the challenging tasks that lie ahead.”
“This is press extension project is a very challenging project which will provide hybrid printing capability to our customers. Our vision from the beginning planning phase was to build a printing facility that would be fully utilized nearly 24 hours a day and deliver a lower cost to print on a very flexible printing platform. We are confident that we made the right choice in selecting MAN Roland for this very challenging venture” said Nolin Richard, Vice President of Production for Quebecor Media.
Installation will begin in August 2008, for the Montreal facility with on-edition slated for March 2009. For the Toronto facility, installation will commence in October 2008, with on-edition planned for May 2009.