The Duke of York has officially opened SMG’s new £38m state-of-the-art printing plant.

The purpose-built facility at Cambuslang, close to the M74, is one of the most modern newspaper plants in Europe and now prints the Evening Times, The Herald and Sunday Herald.

Prince Andrew, who is a special representative for international trade and investment, was given a tour of the building by production director George Martin, SMG publishing chief executive Des Hudson, and Calum MacLeod, SMG deputy chairman.

During his hour-long visit, the duke unveiled a commemorative plaque to open the new plant and chatted with printing and production staff.

The Cambuslang site was chosen in 2000 after almost two years of searching for a new home to replace the outdated press hall in Albion Street in the Merchant City in Glasgow, where SMG’s paper had been printed since 1980.

The first paper to roll off the new presses was the Evening Times, on February 27 this year.

The Herald and Sunday Herald followed and by the end of May all SMG newspapers were being printed at Cambuslang.

The plant also prints the Scottish Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday under contract and, in total, will produce some three and a half million newspapers a year.

SMG’s Des Hudson said: “The official opening marks the culmination of almost four years’ work for a team of colleagues from every part of the business.

“This means that for the Evening Times and our other titles we can now produce world class standards of printing and colour reproduction on presses running twice as fast as before.”

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