Printing and Distribution
"The Network owns Europe's largest and most efficient newspaper printing plant at West Ferry in London's Docklands"
The Network owns Europe's largest and most efficient newspaper printing plant at West Ferry in London's Docklands as a 50/50 joint venture with the Telegraph Group. A second plant at Preston in Lancashire is wholly owned. It has improved our services to reader"s in the past four years with bigger print runs and more colour pages.
Between Monday and Friday, Express Newspapers produces about 2million copies of the Daily Express and Daily Star every day. For Saturdays production increases to 2.36million. Around 1.15million copies of the Sunday Express are printed and 0.75million copies of the Daily Star Sunday.
The West Ferry plant occupies a prestigious 14-acre site near Canary Wharf in London Docklands and can print around 20million newspapers a week. As well as Express Newspaper titles it prints The Daily Telegraph, The Sunday Telegraph, The Financial Times, The Sport and many other major publications.
West Ferry Printers Limited pioneered print automation with the latest 'robot' operation and is an industry benchmark for efficiency and quality. Every week it uses about 3,300 tonnes of paper, 60 tons of ink and 30,000 printing plates. The plant is continually upgraded and plans are in place to provide facilities for extra colour throughout the Express and Star print runs.
Broughton Printers Limited was started in 1988 to print the Express titles for the North of England. It is on a 12-acre site North-east of Preston. The development also provides offices for Johnston Press. It boasts eight printing presses, producing some 11million newspapers per week, making it the biggest printing plant in North-west England, converting 1,700 tonnes of newsprint per week into the written word. Other newspapers are printed under contract and there is a healthy order book including a long-term relationship with Johnston Press North-west titles.
Scottish editions are printed in Glasgow with D.C.Thomson. Copies of the Sunday Express are also produced in Portadown. Outside the UK, Express titles are printed in Dublin, Madrid, Mallorca, Tenerife, Athens, Marseilles, Brussels and Florida.
Worldwide Distribution
Distribution of magazines and newspapers is handled in-house with a 20-strong team working closely with major distribution, wholesale and retail houses in the UK and overseas.
Dedicated analysts control, supply and monitor buying patterns to ensure distribution adapts to changing demand. Coupled with this is a wealth of point-of-sale promotion with the independent news trade, major multiples and supermarkets with whom the Network has developed a powerful rapport over 30 years. Overseas availability is important to newspapers and magazines of world standing, and all Northern & Shell titles are available in capital cities, holiday areas and expatriate communities across the globe.