North Wales Newspapers

Quality and service package clinches North Wales Newspapers contract

North Wales Newspapers (NWN) is a privately owned family newspaper group publishing 12 newspaper titles generating 540,000 copies a week. Among the newspapers published by the group are the award-winning Evening Leader with a circulation of 30,000 and four editions serving Wrexham, Chester, Deeside and Rhyl. NWN is the only Welsh, family-owned mainline newspaper business still printing in Wales.

Recently, NWN has invested £16 million in a new highly automated 2,136 square metre printing plant on Deeside.  And, August 2007 saw the installation of the Group's new KBA double-width Commander Press. The 85,000 cph Commander line includes four Pastomat reelstands and four 8-couple printing towers.

At the front-end, the Group decided to go with a combination of Krause engines and Fuji plates because of the excellent working relationship the companies have forged over the years. The success of that relationship is borne out by the fact that all Krause LS Jet installations in the UK are using Fuji plates.

At NWN, Fuji's LP-NNV plates are imaged on two fully automatic Krause LS Jet 230 Violet CTP lines driven by the Krause JetNet workflow. The Group has also installed two Krause Bluefin HS 650 processors and two Nela VCP Evolution Flex optical punch benders with cross conveyance.

Mark Wall, Director of Operations of North Wales Newspapers' Deeside Print Centre, says: "As part of our evaluation process, we spent several months making site visits to verify the performance, reliability and consistency of not only the CTP engines but also plates and plate suppliers.

"A vital aspect in the selection process of our plate supplier was finding a plate with the ability to hold the dot on plate to maintain colour faithfully during the print run. In today's highly pressurised newspaper environment, our advertising clients expect the quality of their advertising to be the same from the start to the end of a print run. Maintaining good colour reproduction, particularly in relation to corporate colours, is a prerequisite for today's newspaper printer.

"The Fujifilm plate not only provides excellent batch-to-batch consistency in the pre-press and pressroom areas of our business but also delivers exceptional colour holding capabilities during the print run, due to its high resistance to dot sharpening and low press damp requirements."

When choosing its suppliers, NWN was very particular in ensuring that they could all offer a combination of quality, technical support and a willingness to work together to achieve the highest possible standard for the Group.

Wall concludes: "It quickly became apparent that Fujifilm has an excellent working relationship with Krause, with both companies able to offer us a plate and equipment supply package that meets our quality and technical requirements, backed up by a top quality sales and service package. It's certainly no coincidence that all LS Jet installations are running Fuji plates."