News International has opened the world’s largest print plant at Broxbourne, Hertfordshire. The plant houses 12 state-of-the-art printing presses covering an area the size of 23 football pitches.

The completion of the Broxbourne plant represents the final stage in News International’s £650 million investment in next generation print technology at its three strategically located plants across the UK. Broxbourne complements new press plants in Glasgow and Knowsley. The three plants deploy 19 MAN Roland presses allowing all four News International titles – The Times, The Sunday Times, The Sun and The News of the World – to print full colour on every page with enhanced quality and to triple print speed thus achieving later deadlines.

James Murdoch, chairman and chief executive of News Corporation, Europe and Asia, said:  
“This new Broxbourne facility represents an enormous advance in our capabilities – a truly state of the art printing system that we are confident will deliver real innovation to our readers and advertisers for years to come. Our investment of some £650m should be ample answer to those who believe the business of journalism, in print, is a business for yesterday’s readers, not tomorrow’s. At News, we believe that print will continue to be a driving force in our business, even as we expand and grow in this connected age.”
 
The Broxbourne plant can produce more than 1 million copies per hour of a full colour newspaper - three times the speed of the old presses.

The three plants are at the forefront of print innovation. This builds on a pioneering tradition which started in 1814 when The Times was the world’s first paper to use steam driven presses. In 1868 The Times invented the modern rotary press. The News of the World still holds the record for the largest print run of any English language newspaper when it printed 8.6m copies in 1950 and The Sunday Times published the first colour magazine and went on to pioneer the multi-section newspaper.

The technology in the plants conforms to the latest environmental standards.  The electricity supply is from green energy and the newsprint is made primarily from recycled paper with any added virgin fibres sourced from sustainable managed forests.

All three plants are operated by Newsprinters Ltd, part of the new manufacturing division of News International.  The scale of the operation and the speed of the presses give News International the opportunity to generate additional revenue through contract printing.  The Daily Telegraph and The Sunday Telegraph will be printed at the new plants in the future.