Printer to hire 50, double capacity of Loveland facility

LOVELAND – Quebecor Printing Loveland Inc. is more than doubling the capacity of its Loveland plant in a $5 million expansion that will add 50

jobs.

The subsidiary of Montreal-based Quebecor Printing Inc. is adding 25,000 square feet to its 110,000-square-foot facility at 1 Directory Place.

Part of that expansion includes the purchase of two new printing presses that will more than double the plant’s capacity to print telephone directories.

The expansion is expected to take annual sales at the plant from $25 million to $50 million.

“That’s close,” Sam Butler, Quebecor’s Loveland controller, said of the estimate. “It’ll take a little over two years to do that.”

Added Chris Rudge, president of the Quebecor Printing Directory Group, based outside Toronto, “We are going to be more than doubling the capacity

of that plant. There’s no question about that.”

Quebecor’s local investment means that the nation’s two largest commercial printers both will have expanded in Northern Colorado recently. Archrival

R.R. Donnelley Norwest Inc., a subsidiary of R.R. Donnelley & Sons Co., the nation’s largest commercial printer, recently added 100,000 square

feet to its Greeley plant, taking the facility to 270,000 square feet.

Both Northern Colorado operations focus on printing telephone directories, with Quebecor’s Loveland facility printing 250 different directories.

R.R. Donnelley employs 370 in Greeley, compared with 130 people employed by Quebecor in Loveland. That number will grow to about 180 with

the expansion.

Loveland-based R.C. Heath Construction Co., the general contractor, is expected to complete the expansion by Aug. 1.

Concurrent with the building expansion will be installation of two high-capacity Baker-Perkins G-16 presses, for a total expansion cost of $5 million.

“If it goes over that, then you’ll be talking to a different person next year,” Butler quipped.

Quebecor launched its Loveland operation last July after purchasing U S West’s directory-printing operation in Loveland. Butler said the company

purchased the plant to accommodate a 10-year, $250 million contract with U S West and to develop future business opportunities in the western

United States.

“We have a lot of potential additional business that we’ve identified in the western United States,” Butler said. He said substantial potential exists to

increase business in U S West’s territory, which is one of the fastest-growing in the region. Additionally, California’s economic recovery should

increase opportunities there.

Movement of people, business startups and an overall healthier economy add to the potential to print bigger and better telephone directories. Healthy

businesses want bigger ads, color, pictures, etc., Butler noted, all of which increase revenues and profits for directory printers.

Gary Calleo, vice president and division director for R.R. Donnelley in Greeley, said Quebecor is correct in pegging the West as a growth market.

Additional population means bigger phone books – and more of them, he said.

“I’d say they have a pretty accurate analysis,” Calleo said.

Quebecor is the largest commercial printer in Canada, second-largest in the United States and one of the largest in Europe. The company, a subsidiary

of the Quebecor Inc. newspaper and periodical conglomerate, employs 23,000 worldwide and is listed on the New York Stock Exchange under the

ticker symbol PRW. The company’s stock closed April 26 at $17.25 a share.

About 95 percent of the Loveland plant’s business is in telephone-directory printing, Rudge said. Quebecor operates two directory-printing plants in

the United States, three in Canada and one in India.

Additionally, the company prints a wide variety of products, including magazines, inserts, circulars, books, catalogs, checks, bonds and banknotes.

The company maintains more than 100 facilities worldwide.

Examples of the company’s printing contracts include Parade magazine and USA Weekend. The company has printed Reader’s Digest for 28 years

but is losing the contract to R.R. Donnelley.

Quebecor Printing reported revenues of $736 million for the first quarter of 1996, up 7.1 percent from the $687 million posted in first quarter 1995.

Net income grew to $19.3 million, compared with $17.3 million for the first quarter of 1995.