IPMG to close Alexandria – move to Warwick Farm

Hannanprint, packs up its Alexandria operations after 25 years at the site to settle in a new $90 million facility in Warwick Farm.
The new plant will employ around 280 transferred staff from the Alexandria facility. Approximately 140 staff will be cut over the 12-18 month relocation phase due to automation of production lines.

The centrepiece of the new plant will be Australia's only 98-page manroland Litohoman heatset web press.

Once vacated, Hannanprint’s Alexandria site will be one of the largest properties in the area to become available for lease. Four of the eight printing presses in Alexandria will be retained, with one, the Sunday press, relocated to Melbourne.

According to a press release from IPMG CEO, Stephen Anstice, the relocation will be complete by early 2013. Our aim is to operate the most energy efficient and environmentally sustainable plant possible.

He said the new plant will not represent a huge increase in capacity when it all comes on line. During the process of moving there may even be less capacity at times.

The investment represents the comany's committment to the future of print. "Clearly we think printing is a pretty good business," he said.

The normally reticent company went public with its plans becasue of the size of the project. "We decided to be very open with everyone so that peole can deicde accordingly," said Anstice.

The move to Warwick Farm allows the design of the plant to implement several water and energy reduction programs as detailed in the press release:

• Water will be captured from the roof and up to 3.5 Giga litres of water will be stores for process use.
• Waste water separation and improved water cycle management.
• Electricity consumption will be reduced by using Natural Gas in many of the industrial processes.
• All production areas will be air conditioned with the assistance of heat recovery from the press dryers.
• All facade lighting will be powered by solar panels.
• Within two years, the connection to the South Sydney Freight Line rail network will be completed allowing paper to be delivered to the site by rail and reducing our transport needs by up to 19 trucks movements per day.

As part of the relocation IPMG will be installing a major press in Melbourne and further expanding our Brisbane plant to strengthen our national footprint.

IPMG is demonstrating its long term commitment to the print industry and is invigorated by the changing face of the media and marketing industry where our expertise in both printed and digital media will embrace the changing requirements of our clients.

IPMG is the second largest printing company in Australia. It is also a leader in the trend towards printers becoming marketing service providers. Over the last two years it acquired and developed a portfolio of digital marketing businesses covering managed hosting, digital creative, email and mobile technology platforms and social media.

In July IPMG acquired the remaining shares in Holler Sydney, a leading digital creative agency, furthering the investment in its digital portfolio.

Clients need to reach all market segments and demographics and IPMG will support this by investment in technology and people to provide superior digital and print marketing services.