Quad/Graphics Steps Up Its Operations Timetable

PEWAUKEE, WIS.—Quad/Graphics announced that it will open its new roto-gravure operation in Oklahoma City, Okla. a year ahead of schedule. Two new 108"-wide gravure presses will be installed and made production-ready next year rather than in 2005, as previously announced. The gravure equipment will complement two web offset presses that will start up this summer when the company officially opens the facility.

In turn, the company has revised its construction plans. Currently, it is constructing a 217,000-square-foot plant to house its web offset and saddle stitching operations. Once those construction permits are secured in the next six weeks, Quad/Graphics says it will immediately add another 311,000 square feet to the plant to accommodate the gravure operations.

As plant size expands, so too will the number of employees, says the company. Employment will grow from nearly 100 during the first year of operation to many hundreds in subsequent years as work is added to fill press capacity.

"In less than a year from the time we start up our Oklahoma City plant, we'll already have expanded it to mega-sized proportions," predicts Tom Quadracci, president and chief executive of Quad/Graphics. "We fully anticipate that, in time, the plant will grow to well over one million square feet and employ more than a thousand people."

The plant reportedly will feature the industry's fastest, most productive gravure presses, regardless of size. The machines, manufactured by Italy-based Cerutti, will be equipped with "jack rabbit gravure" technology: full automation from cylinder loading through signature delivery, including computerized process-control systems by QTI, Quad/Graphics' research and development subsidiary.

This will be the company's third gravure facility.