Under the terms of the new three-year contract Polestar will split printing of the high-profile medical journals across its Bicester and Chantry sites.

The combined portfolio comprises the weekly British Medial Journal (BMJ) and BMA News, the Student BMJ and Student BMA News as well as Veterinary Record and Vets in Practice.

Since winning the print contract two-and-a-half years ago, pre-press and printing has been carried out solely at Polestar’s Chantry site, with some finishing work performed at Polestar Petty.

However due to a requirement by the publisher to squeeze scheduling and turnaround times on its key weeklies, Polestar is to split printing of the BMJ and BMA News between Chantry and Bicester.

Polestar Chantry will print text pages on its KBA 818 72pp press and M600 short cut-off 32pp press. Covers will be printed on a G14 16pp press. Meanwhile, the Bicester site will use its Manroland 72pp press and Polyman 16pp machine.

Polestar marketing director James Povey said: "Our client wanted to tighten up time from data to mailing and the only way we could meet those requirements was to split production across our sites. One of the strengths we have at Polestar is a breadth of firepower that enables us to do that."

He added: "We are absolutely delighted that they have chosen to renew this contract with us. This client has a lot of kudos and we have a great relationship with them so we’re really looking forward to furthering that."

Head of production and operations at BMJ, Catherine Harding-Wiltshire, said: "We’re delighted to renew our contract with Polestar. They have done a great job over the past three years.

"They listen to their clients and adapt to fit a changing environment every time. Polestar has solved our scheduling issues and we can now produce our titles to the deadline we need without the having to split the contract across multiple vendors, saving us a logistical nightmare."

The new arrangement will begin at the end of the month.