Quad Plant Ahead of Schedule

OKLAHOMA CITY—Quad/Graphics has accelerated the timetable for launching its new gravure operations, located here.

"We are encouraged by growing client interest in our newest location and confident that the timing is right to pull the trigger on gravure in Oklahoma City," says Tom Quadracci, president and CEO of Quad/Graphics.

Two new 108˝ Cerutti gravure presses will be installed and made production-ready in 2004 rather than in 2005, as previously announced. The two gravure presses will complement the two web offset presses that will start up this summer when the company officially opens the facility.

Currently, the printer is constructing Phase I to house its initial web offset and saddle stitching operations. The plant will feature a reconditioned Heidelberg M-1000 and a new MAN Roland Rotoman. Phase I encompasses nearly 217,000 square feet. Once construction permits are secured, Quad/Graphics will immediately start building Phase II, which will add 311,000 square feet. By mid-2004, the facility will measure close to 530,000 square feet.

As the plant size expands so, too, will the number of employees. Employment will grow from nearly 100 during the first year of operation to many hundreds in subsequent years as work is added to fill the press capacity. "In less than a year from the time we start up our Oklahoma City plant, we'll already have grown it to mega-sized proportions," Quadracci states. "We fully anticipate that, in time, the plant will grow to well over 1 million square feet and employ more than 1,000 employees."

Oklahoma City will be Quad/Graphics' third gravure production facility. The company entered the gravure market in 1986 with the opening of its Lomira, WI, plant and expanded its gravure presence with the startup of its Martinsburg, WV, plant in 1997. Over the past 17 years, Quad/Graphics reportedly has added half of all new gravure capacity in the industry between its Lomira and Martinsburg plants.