Declining volumes of magazine printing will see former Newsquest plant shut
Print Week are reporting the demise of the former Newsquest web offset factory in Poole throwing the livelihoods of the 179 workers into the air.
Walstead bought the business off the newspaper group a decade ago but have announced its closure due to falling volumes of magazine printing.
Ian Carrotte of ICSM Credit NEWS said the magazine and newspaper industries have seen a steady decline in volume for several years with the contraction expected to continue.
He said: “Many household magazine titles have seen the numbers of copies printed fall dramatically. From Good Housekeeping to the Radio Times, nobody is safe. When a print firm loses a contract as the publishing firms pulls the title, it has a knock of effect. We hear stories of problems everyday at ICSM Credit members who help to keep our credit circle informed so they don’t take a hit.”
Writing in Print Business in August industry expert Gareth Ward said: “Cosmopolitan was down 32% after the publisher tried to inflict a price increase; OK! is down 19%, worse than Hello which fell 16%; National Geographic down 21%. These are the big beasts of consumer publishing, arguably the titles that are bought regularly rather than as a discretional purchase.
“TV Choice with sales of 1.1 million is the only title with a sale above 1 million. This is 4% lower than in the previous period. Radio Times and TV Times both lost 10% of their sales to 520,000 and 142,000. And so it continues.”
Jo Francis of Print Week noted: “Walstead cited the overall substantial reduction in magazine printing volumes as the reason behind the proposed closure, despite the group winning new business.
The group said that volumes had effectively halved between 2011 and 2018, with further contraction taking place this year and expected for 2020.
“The Southernprint site is the group’s smallest and is size-constrained compared with Walstead’s other UK operations at Roche, Bicester and Peterborough. All of the work currently produced in Poole could be absorbed by the group’s three other sites.
“Southernprint runs three web offset presses: an M600 cover press, 48pp M4000 and 72pp Lithoman. It has two Muller Martini Corona perfect binders and a Tempo stitching line.
“The factory prints for a range of publishers including Immediate Media, TI Media, Bauer Consumer Media, and John Brown Media.
“Earlier this year Walstead shut its Grange sheetfed site for the same reasons, and also trimmed shifts at Bicester.”
For the full story visit https://www.printweek.com/print-week/news/1169098/walstead-begins-talks-over-southernprint-closure
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