Kent Messenger Group is to install more Goss equipment to increase colour capacity from 48pp to 80pp at its Maidstone printing plant.


The regional newspaper publisher will begin adding two shaftless Newsliner four-high towers to its 11-year-old double-width Goss Visa in January next year. When installation is complete in June 2001, they will complement the two Newsliner units installed last year (PrintWeek, 22 January 1999).


Group production director David Dalton said: "The colour quality from our first two Newsliner towers has been superb, but to keep up with ever increasing demands for colour from our readers and advertisers, we already need a further expansion."


The towers will be configured to the same specifications as the previously units, with Peretta open fountain inking, Goss spray bar dampening system and motorised running sidelay.


The plant prints 21 newspaper titles, including Medway Today, The Kentish Express and The Gravesend Messenger. Its 2.5m weekly copy run also includes contact printing for the The Sun and Metro.


"We always believed they would add towers over four or five years, but didnt really expect it to be so quick," said Goss senior vice president and general manager Shane Lancaster. "Theres just an explosion of need for colour."


Story by Kevin May