The print group has renewed its contract to print Weekend for the Saturday Guardian, which has a print run of around 450,000, and Observer Magazine for the Observer with a circa 330,000 run.

Both are printed gravure and saddle-stitched at Polestar Sheffield.

However, two other titles currently printed by Polestar, the small-format The Guide weekly listings supplement for the Saturday Guardian, and the Observer Food Monthly magazine, will be printed by the Guardian’s own print operation from the beginning of July after the current contract expires.

Polestar group sales director David Gray said he was pleased the group’s long-standing customer relationship with the Guardian would continue.

“We’re happy to keep the two that we’ve got,” he said. “The Guide is a much smaller product and we are still managing the polywrapping for the Guardian. With a product like that it’s always been an option for them to take it in-house.”

Polestar’s new contract with Guardian News & Media runs until 2019.

Bob Steadman, director of newspaper operations at Guardian News & Media said Polestar provided the media group with an “excellent service”. “We are very pleased to reaffirm our commitment to this partnership with an extended contract,” he said.

PrintWeek understands that Guardian News & Media has invested in two new Muller Martini Primera stitching lines in order to facilitate the in-house move, with the stitchers already installed at its London and Manchester print sites.

A half-Berliner format section can be quarter-folded to an A5 product on the stitchers. The heatset covers will be printed externally.

Polestar Chantry currently prints The Guide.