Quad/Graphics to Expand West

PEWAUKEE, WI—The largest privately held printer in North America is going to become even bigger.

Quad/Graphics announced it will construct a new print production facility on 168 acres of land 12 miles southeast of downtown Oklahoma City. The facility, which carries an initial price tag of $65 million, is slated to eventually offer web offset and gravure printing. Site preparation will begin this spring, with live production to start in the spring of 2002.

"Oklahoma City is for printers," notes Harry V. Quadracci, president and founder of the Pewaukee, WI-based company. "The location will serve as our gateway to the West as we continue with our nonstop growth. As with all our plants, the Oklahoma City facility will offer our clients the most advanced print production capabilities anywhere."

While the plant will initially encompass 193,000 square feet, Quadracci says the facility will have the potential to grow to as large as one or two million square feet, and house up to 24 presses and more than 40 pieces of finishing equipment. As many as 100 jobs will be created during the first year of operation, a figure that should grow to 600 inside of four years.

Oklahoma City won out over several Western cities during the company's one-year site search. It was chosen for its central location within the United States, which enables expedited distribution of product to both coasts. The site is located off I-240 at Sunnylane, providing instant accessibility to I-40, the primary east-west interstate corridor that bisects the country. Quadracci adds that the availability of rail distribution, along with plentiful labor and affordable utilities, made the Oklahoma City site attractive.

Oklahoma City is within one day's drive of Quad/Graphics' existing production plants in Georgia and Wisconsin, thus facilitating interplant shipments. The new site is also a two-hour drive from Dallas, where Quad/Graphics' owned Parcel/Direct—a ground-residential parcel delivery business—is building a new 150,000-square-foot sorting center. This proximity creates opportunities for Quad/Graphics to cross-dock printed product with parcels, creating the critical mass necessary to deliver deep into the U.S. Postal Service (Sectional Center Facilities and Destination Delivery Units) and realize distribution savings on behalf of its clients.

Quadracci points out that the USPS rewards distributors such as Quad/Graphics and Parcel/Direct for transporting mail closest to its final destination, thus helping the USPS reduce costs associated with handling and transportation.

He states that the plant will be equipped with the latest in printing technology, solidifying the company's position as the printer "with the most modern base of installed equipment in the industry. Our new technology gives clients the decided advantage of refined capabilities and running speeds unattainable at other printers."

Quad/Graphics specializes in print production of magazines, catalogs, books and other commercial products.