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Prince of Wales opens new press hall

Prince Charles has officially opened Western Mail and Echo Ltd’s new multi-million-pound press hall.

During his visit to Cardiff Bay, the Prince received a 40-minute guided tour of the Western Mail and South Wales Echo’s £18m printing press.

He then unveiled a plaque to commemorate the occasion and pressed the button to launch the South Wales Echo’s print run.

He said: “I am very happy to see how newspapers here operate. I know they play a very important part in the life of Wales and have done so since the Western Mail and Echo began in the 1860s.

“I can well imagine the amount of work that has gone into the production of this smart new operation.”

Prince Charles also praised the investment made by the papers’ owner, Trinity Mirror.

He said: “It demonstrates the company’s commitment to the whole Principality.”

The Prince met the Western Mail’s farming editor, Steve Dube, and applauded the paper’s agricultural coverage.

He said: “If only the importance of agriculture to the country was recognised in a similar way in newspapers in other parts of the country we would have a greater understanding of the importance of the world of agriculture in our lives.”

Keith Dye, managing director of Western Mail and Echo, said the commissioning of the new press had made 2003 one of the most important years in the history of the company.

He was also impressed by the time the Prince spent talking to the print operators – the “backroom boys” who spent most of their careers working in the shadows of the industry.

  • The new press can produce up to 74,000 64-page tabloid pages an hour and uses five tonnes of ink per week. It first began printing papers earlier this year. Read about the relaunch of the Western Mail and the South Wales Echo earlier this year.

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