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More than 100 jobs under threat in JP print move

Printing of Johnston Press’ flagship Edinburgh titles is set to be carried out by two rival companies from next month, placing 106 jobs under threat.

The company is in consultation with staff after it announced plans to close its Caledonian Offset Ltd operations in Edinburgh and move publishing of The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday to Trinity Mirror’s plant just outside Glasgow, where the Daily Record is produced.

English supplies of the two titles would be printed at Trinity Mirror’s Fort Dunlop plant in Birmingham, if plans are given the green light.

In addition, the Edinburgh Evening News would be printed at the ‘Eurocentral’ facility by News International, 30 miles west of Edinburgh.

Other publishing carried out at the Edinburgh plant would move to JP’s centre in Sunderland, home to the Sunderland Echo.

In a statement, JP said: “Implementation of this proposal would reduce production costs and risks associated with the ageing COL press and will provide improved print quality and publishing flexibility.

“Regrettably this proposal results in 97 production roles and nine distribution and loading bay roles being placed at risk of redundancy.

“Consultation with affected staff and their representatives is under way and every effort will be made to minimize the impact on those affected through transfer, redeployment and voluntary redundancy.”

In a separate proposal, distribution work currently carried out in Edinburgh will switch to John Menzies’ base near the Scottish capital.

Although this would not result in any redundancies, consultation is also under way with affected staff.

David Crow, Johnston Press printing division MD, said: “Transfer of our Scottish printing operations will provide significant cost benefits and quality improvements.

“The proposal to move work outside of Johnston Press was heavily influenced by the need for significant investment in the existing newspaper press at COL and by a shift toward capacity consolidation in the newspaper printing sector.”

Rupert Middleton, Trinity Mirror Printing director of manufacturing, said: “We are delighted to win the contract to print The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.

“Our manufacturing facilities offer a tremendous level of service across a national network and it is testament to the efforts of all involved that we have been awarded the contract to print these most prestigious of titles.”

Comments

doomed (05/10/2009 12:28:49)
Why bother with the word “proposal”?
“Rupert Middleton, Trinity Mirror Printing director of manufacturing, said: “We are delighted to win the contract to print The Scotsman and Scotland on Sunday.”