Quad Restructures Book Platform
SUSSEX, WI—Quad/Graphics has announced an investment and restructuring initiative for its book manufacturing platform to create production and distribution efficiencies. The company plans to invest more than $15 million during the next several months to strengthen its book manufacturing platform in Martinsburg, WV. This investment is in addition to previously announced capital expenditures to enhance its book-component manufacturing capabilities in Leominster, MA, as well as recent multimillion-dollar investments in digital press technology at the company's Fairfield, PA, and Dubuque, IA, book facilities.
As for platform restructuring, Quad will close its Buffalo, NY, book facility in the fourth quarter of 2011. The action is part of the company's ongoing process to integrate operations and remove excess and inefficient capacity following its acquisition of Worldcolor. The Buffalo plant, which specializes in mass-market paperbacks, has begun stepping down operations immediately. Client work will be moved to Quad's Martinsburg, WV, and Leominster, MA, facilities. The Buffalo plant employs approximately 400 people.
The company's planned investments in its Martinsburg book facility will augment existing services for trade-book publishers, while also accommodating and advancing services for mass-market paperback publishers. Among the planned investments are upgrading press equipment and replacing all binders with more productive models.
The printer also expects to realize distribution efficiencies by concentrating more work in Martinsburg. The book facility is near its existing Martinsburg magazine and catalog plant, and Fairfield book plant. In Leominster, MA, Quad will install a new, high-speed, color press with in-line UV coating for producing covers, dust jackets, end papers and inserts.
- Companies:
- Quad/Graphics