Fairfax closes three regional print plants in Australia

Media giant buys new Goss double-width presses for Ormiston and its new greenfield site at Christchurch while sounding the death knell for Warrnambool, Nowra and Wagga Wagga.

In a one-two combination aimed at upgrading the company’s colour printing capability following the Rural Press takeover, Fairfax is closing smaller plants to concentrate on developing its major printing hubs. A Fairfax spokesman said the decision was driven by an increased customer demand for full-colour advertising, pagination growth and better capacity utilisation at the high quality, more modern presses.

Up to 50 jobs will go in the regional shutdowns with the printing work transferred to other printing sites within the group, including Canberra, Albury and Ballarat. Some of the workers will be offered positions at Ballarat while others will be given redundancy payments.

As part of the technology upgrade of the major plants Peter Kirwan, managing director of Goss in the region, announced at the recent SWUG conference that Fairfax has placed an order for two double-width Goss Uniliner presses for its Ormiston and Christchurch sites, ending months of speculation. The new presses, which have a top speed of 80,000 cph with automatic web width change, will bring the two plants up to speed by considerably boosting their colour capacity.

According to a report on www.smh.com.au Steve Walsh, federal secretary for the printing division of the Australian Manufacturing Workers Union said the plant closures had been on the cards for some time but were hastened by the Rural Press merger.

"It doesn't make it any easier for people who have lived in the regional communities all their lives and are now losing their jobs," he said.