Ferag systems streamlines newspaper mailroom

The Portsmouth print facility of Johnston Press, a UK and Ireland regional news media group, has commissioned a new Ferag equipment based mailroom.

The new mailroom operation, delivered to budget and on schedule in conjunction with the company's new triple-width MAN Roland Colorman XXL press, forms part of the GBP50 million overhaul of Johnston Press's Portsmouth site, which is improving operating efficiency, as well as generating additional contract printing revenues from News International.

Incorporating inserting, stitching and trimming technology from Ferag AG, the new Portsmouth mailroom is the latest in a line of Ferag installations at Johnston Press plants, including those in Leeds, Edinburgh and Peterborough.

Johnston Press publishes 318 local and regional newspapers across UK and Republic of Ireland, including 18 daily, 166 paid-weekly, 132 free weekly and two Sunday titles.

Enabling the production of newspapers at full press speed - over 80,000 copies per hour - the new mailroom comprises two lines of Ferag's latest post-press processing technology.

Each press folder is linked to a UTR pick-up station, which provides superior flexibility for the pick-up of print products at the folder delivery and offers a '2 to 1' offset facility, ensuring even- and odd-numbered bundle formation and cutting chain speed by half during production, which, in turn, extends the life cycle of the chain and reduces noise levels.

Also installed is an MSD inserting drum with Rollstream pre-collecting technology to increase inserting capacity, Multidisc winding and unwinding for product storage, Multistack with its proven one second cycle time for maximum output capacity, and Smartstrap strapping.

Additionally, the system includes a Streamstitch and SNT-U Trimmer, which will enable Johnston Press to offer its customers the opportunity to generate additional revenue from Xtrawin applications such as inline stitching, trimming, Memostick and Memoflag.

The system also includes the further benefit of a top sheet label application for programmed production, achieved by transmitting the latest data from Johnston Press's in-house sales system direct to the Ferag stacking lines and allowing the newspaper copies to be produced in a programmed run, rather than standard size bundles.

Peter Griffiths, managing director of Johnston Press in Portsmouth, commented: "The decision to select a Ferag system for our new mailroom was taken only after a rigorous evaluation.

In a market as competitive as ours, we had to ensure that our investment would give us the best possible return both financially and by optimising the capacity of the presses.

Crucial to our decision making were the performance and flexibility offered by systems and we concluded that Ferag's modular technology was the best fit for our specific requirements.

That we made the correct choice has since been confirmed as, between them, WRH Marketing UK and Ferag have worked closely with us to complete the project as planned and, importantly, on time.

David Crow, divisional managing director at the Printing Division of Johnston Press, added: "A component of our strategic planning is to maintain the core strength of our newspaper publishing activities by investing in modern full-colour printing capacity to produce high quality publications in the most cost-efficient and environmentally-friendly manner possible.

The completion of the project at Portsmouth provides clear evidence of our commitment and has enabled us to drive contract printing revenues, in addition to securing further printing efficiencies.

He continued: "WRH Marketing UK and Ferag have been a key partner not only in the Portsmouth project, but also in either upgrading or installing new mailrooms at our facilities in Leeds, Edinburgh and Peterborough.

We've been very impressed by their ability to deliver complex systems to the agreed schedules and budgets and look forward to working with them as a long-term service partner to help us maximise our mailroom productivity.

Marcus Evans, WRH Marketing UK's managing director, explained: "We were delighted to be chosen by Johnston Press to upgrade existing mailrooms or supply new ones at so many of their print facilities and we have worked hard to ensure that their trust was not misplaced and to fine tune their systems for optimum performance.

He explained: "With the projects at Leeds, Edinburgh, Peterborough and Portsmouth all successfully completed, and with a further project involving the expansion of the mailroom at Johnston Press's Carn facility in Northern Ireland now under way, we're confident that the capability of the new Ferag systems to handle a much wider range of products and produce a greater capacity than ever, will give Johnston Press the competitive advantage they need to maintain their position in the market.

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