The investment was first flagged up by PrintWeek last September, following TM's announcement it would spend 83m to achieve full colour across its print sites by 2008, but TM has refused to confirm details of Watford's upgrade until now.

MAN Roland beat off competition from KBA and Wifag to win the deal. It will replace the existing 12 Colorman 35 presses with five nine-cylinder satellite Colorman presses from October, due for completion in early 2008.

TM refused to put a figure on the investment, but confirmed that this year's 60m press investment, cited in last week's results, would be shared across Watford, Oldham and Cardonald.

The newsgroup said production had started at the revamped Oldham site, its joint press investment with Guardian Media Group (GMG) Regionals, which includes a state-of-the-art Wifag OF371 press.
Plans to print full colour by 2008 will continue across all its sites "with the exception of Liverpool and Newcastle".

The newspaper group's full year results reported a slip in revenues, down by 1.7% to 1.12bn, but a pre-tax profit increase of 1.2% to 209m.