New prepress, presses and papers for prosperous APN

Leading the way is a $25 million upgrade to its newspaper printing facilities on the Sunshine Coast, with the development of a new ‘greenfield’ site at Yandina. A new coldset newspaper press, which is due to be commissioned by February 2006, will have capacity for 80 pages of back-to-back colour and online stitching capability. The company is making no comment on what brand of press it will be, but industry sources have narrowed it down to either a MAN Roland or a Goss.

According to Richard Newsome, APN communications director, the development is part of an ongoing upgrade of the company’s sites, although he says, “Yandina is the big one for the foreseeable future.” He commented that claims the company’s printing plants were rundown “overstated the case.”

A second-hand Heidelberg M1000 heat-set web from Rochester is currently being installed at the APN plant in Manukau, New Zealand for the production of long-run magazine and catalogue contracts.

APN’s capital expenditure this year will be $45 million, 50 per cent higher than forecast.

A new newspaper for Auckland, a Sunday edition of The New Zealand Herald will consume $4million in its first year becoming established. Targeted solely at the Auckland region it is nowt intended to compete with the Fairfax national titles The Sunday Star Times and Sunday News

A focus on charging more for its advertising, ‘increasing the yield,’ helped the company lift revenue 9.7 per cent to $599.2 million. The yield grew by 11.5 per cent as the volume of ads rose by 3.6 per cent.