11 April 2011

YMP VISIT TO NEWSFAX

Wednesday 30th March saw eighteen members of the group visit Newsfax in Rainham Essex. The group were met by Andy Willcocks, senior production manager at 3.00pm and were given a brief history of the Newspaper Company.  Established in 1989 they are now the largest independent contract newspaper printers in the UK. They produce in excess of eight million copies a week, London Metro, international, regional newspapers and many well established weekly titles.

The Rainham site is 44,063 sq.ft. and was purpose built following the forced relocation from the former Stratford site to accommodate the 2012 Olympics. Every week in excess of 1000 tonnes of newsprint go through this plant.

The shop floor tour included experiencing production from the huge MAN Uniset presses. Looking at the triple width press, CTP system, inserting lines, data management systems and the comprehensive mailroom equipment. 

The visit was of great interest, very impressive and to hear that both circulation and number of pages are growing regularly for the Metro newspaper, was extremely encouraging. 

A short networking session was held afterwards and it was agreed another meeting would be planned for early summer.