The five-year deal was officially announced  today (20 April). 

It had been widely anticipated, especially after Walstead embarked upon a major £8m investment in additional capacity at its Bicester site, which will print the titles. 

News UK carried out a detailed tender process before making the contract award, and Printweek understands this involved exploring a number of alternative options including printing on the continent. 

The portfolio of supplements is for the Saturday edition of The Times, The Sunday Times and Sun on Sunday. 

Commenting on the new contract, News UK publishing operations director Alan McCann said: “We have a long-standing relationship with Walstead, who have successfully printed a number of News UK magazine publications for over ten years, and we look forward to developing this relationship further as part of the new printing agreement.”

The value of the contract was not disclosed. 

Walstead Group CEO Paul Utting said he and the Walstead team were thrilled about the expanded relationship with News UK.

“We are delighted to have secured this prestigious portfolio of titles which adds to the ever-growing list of blue-chip brands produced by Walstead,” Utting said.

“This contract further endorses our market-leading position for high-volume publications and adds to the growing number of newspaper supplements secured by the group in the past 18 months. We have developed a strong relationship with News UK but this contract expands that relationship significantly and we are thrilled to have been entrusted with this responsibility.”

As revealed by Printweek earlier this year, the additional equipment at Bicester includes a huge 64pp short-grain Goss S5000 web, a Goss M600 six-unit cover press with inline UV varnishing, and a fifth Ferag Unidrum stitching line for the site – all were among the assets acquired by Walstead after the collapse of YM’s web division.

In addition, Walstead has bought two of the three Sitma paper banding lines from Prinovis, with paper banding a key element of the Sunday Times supplement pack in particular.

The tender process concluded at the end of last year, and the firms have been working on complex transition plans since the deal was agreed “to ensure a smooth transition” as the titles switch from gravure to heatset web offset production.

The phased transition began this month, with Walstead set to take over full production from 1 July. 

The transition phase also includes the upcoming Coronation of King Charles III with the expected uplift in newspaper sales and special supplements.

Prinovis will keep operating until the end of June as part of its own detailed plans for the managed shutdown at the huge Speke site, which is being closed due to declining demand for gravure print across Europe.

Walstead employs more than 800 people in the UK across its five sites: Bicester, Peterborough, Roche, Walstead Binders and Walstead York. It is now the only multi-site commercial web offset printer in the country.  

The overall group, including its sites in continental Europe, has sales of €640m (£565m) and employs 2,230 staff.