IPMG has surprised the industry with a decision to build a giant new gravure site, due to be commissioned in late 2009. It will be the first publication gravure site to run in the country for more than 30 years, and will produce a variety of printed products including magazines, inserts, direct mail material, brochures and books.
IPMG has indicated the cost of the site will be around $100m, but this is without the printing equipment, which will take the investment past the $500m marker. IPMG bought an old Kimberley Clarke site in Warwick Farm last year, with most observers expecting the company to build a new heatset plant, the company’s decision to go with gravure is raising more than a few eyebrows.
The initial planning proposal involves the modification, refurbishment and extension of the existing manufacturing plant in Warwick Farm into a new facility for print production, warehousing and distribution, approximately 40,250sqm in area. Printing will take place on three eight unit gravure presses located side by side, IPMG says each press is capable of processing over 45,000 tonnes of paper annually, and producing up to 112,000 items per hour for catalogue and magazine production.
IPMG says it has spent significant time over a two year period investigating and evaluating the introduction to the Australian print marketplace of gravure printing specifically for magazines and catalogues.
An application to the NSW department of planning states, “Although the current proposal for gravure printing would be the first of its kind in Australia, it does not come with the traditional risks of introducing new technology into a marketplace.”
IPMG continues, “Current gravure printing technology has been used in Europe for nearly 50 years, with in excess of 150 machines specifically for catalogue and magazine production having been sold in Europe and the USA since 1991.”
Gravure has a 60 per cent share of the European magazine market, and 50 per cent of the catalogue market. Germany has the most gravure presses in Europe with 91, followed by Italy with 32, the UK with 25, France with 21, Holland with 19 and Spain with nine.
The new IPMG gravure site will also include two high speed collating and stitching lines, which will process the product from the presses, collate up to seven printed sections together, stitch and the collated sections. Each stitching machine can produce in excess of 25,000 items per hour, according to IPMG.
The site will operate on a 24 hour, seven days per week basis and will employ approximately 140–150 full time equivalent staff over three shifts. Of these, approximately 70 people will be on site at any one time.
The application is expected to be approved by the NSW department of planning following a 30 day public exhibition of the site’s environmental assessment.
