Fairfax outsources printing of Southland Times to Allied Press

Friday 23rd March 2012

Fairfax Media will close its printing presses at the Southland Times and outsource the work to Allied Press, avoiding a $10 million upgrade to its plant and leading to the loss of eight jobs.

The shift will be on May 20, according to a statement published on the Southland Times website. Fairfax general manager of print and distribution Danny Trainor described Allied Press as “our industry partners in Dunedin”.

"Due to the age of the press and its restrictions on printing colour we needed to look at alternatives,” Trainor said. “Fairfax had two options – to upgrade the press at a cost of around $10 million or to share the printing resource with Allied Press.”

The move is likely to result in the loss of eight full-time and 13 part-time jobs and will “ensure the Southland Times continued to be a strong business.”

Allied Press operations director Ray Clarkson said winning the contract would allow his company to get better use of its own presses and workers.

“Being an independent publisher meant Allied Press had no large group to fall back on,” Clarkson said.

Fairfax posted a loss of A$401 million last year, after taking charges against its mastheads. Like other newspaper publishers it has faced an outflow of advertising as more consumers went online.

The media company managed to bolster its balance sheet by spinning off a third of the shares in auction website Trade Me last year, having loaded the subsidiary with debt and extracted $220 million in dividends in its last full year of ownership.

The shares fell 1.3 percent to 75 Australian cents in trading on the ASX. The stock has fallen from as much as A$1.88 in February 2010.

BusinessDesk.co.nz

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