The four presses, which represent the first FPS installations anywhere in the world, were officially opened today by INM chief executive Anthony O'Reilly and former MP for the region Seamus Mallon.

O'Reilly said: "Our decision to develop an additional state-of-the-art print centre in Newry came about for several reasons. First, even with four great print presses in Belfast's Royal Avenue, we had simply run out of capacity... Newry was chosen as an ideal location given its strategic position on the north/south corridor, excellent infrastructure and availability of skilled employees."

The £20m investment will go to work on Rupert Murdoch's News International portfolio of newspapers, including 300,000 copies of the Irish distribution of the News of the World and The Sun every Saturday. It will also print The Mirror and The Star in a contract that spans 15 years.

The Belfast Telegraph, which also belongs to INM, will remain at its Belfast site, which has been recently upgraded to boost output.

However, the Belfast facility will have a long way to go to match the Newry plant's 90,000 copies an hour.

Each week, the Newry plant will pump out 4m newspapers across 32 titles.

The versatile Goss FPS is also capable of printing full-colour, high-quality magazines in a range of formats.

The Newry plant comprises the FPS towers, one 2:5:5 jaw folder and three reelstands.