DMGT completes press expansion

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Monday 22 November 2004

The Daily Mail and General Trust announced today that it has completed its introduction of new generation print plants for the Daily Mail, The Mail on Sunday, Evening Standard and Metro.

The £135m investment concluded with the commissioning of the final new press at the Harmsworth Quays print centre in London by Lord Rothermere, Chairman of DMGT.

Lord Rothermere said "We can now give our readers and advertisers more colour, more pages and better printed newspapers than anyone else in the UK. I would like to congratulate our management team who have done a brilliant job coming in below budget and almost 12 months ahead of schedule. While our rivals are still talking about their plans to replace old equipment, we have quietly done it.”

The Daily Mail owner’s DMGT have invested more than £135m in the new plant at Harmsworth Quays and at their regional printing centres during the last five years.

The eight new, eight unit presses at Harmsworth Quays can produce 128-page Daily Mails with 64 pages of colour and 168-page Mail on Sundays with 128 colour pages. Folders in the publishing room have been strengthened, the reel room and the plate-making equipment have also been modernised and re-equipped. The eight presses each print an average of 75,000 copies per hour.

Working with their regional newspaper group Northcliffe Newspapers, DMGT have also upgraded their satellite print facilities in Stoke, Derby and Bristol.

The use of regional print plants for DMGT’s national titles has enabled the papers to be printed closer to the areas where they are distributed.
The strength of DMGT’s position is emphasised by the Print Industry Research Association (PIRA) which forecasts a growing demand for colour advertising while the market for black and white stagnates.