An 83m investment plan, which will focus on Trinity Mirror's plants at Watford and Cardonald Park in Glasgow, was revealed with the group's interim results last Thursday.

MAN Roland, KBA and Wifag are all understood to be in the running for the deal at Watford, where 12 MAN Roland Colorman 35 presses will be replaced.

Industry sources have suggested that Swiss press manufacturer Wifag is the frontrunner for the order, after it scooped its first UK deal to install a 12-unit, 96pp OF371 press at Trinity Mirror's Oldham plant earlier in the year. Neither party commented on the situation.

Cardonald Park's four satellite KBA Commander presses will be upgraded to print in full-colour. Sources believe that KBA is most likely to be chosen to provide the extra units.

Trinity Mirror's three-year investment programme will give the publisher full-colour capacity for its national titles, including the Daily Mirror, The People and Scotland's Daily Record by early 2008.

The Independent, which is printed on a contract basis at Trinity Mirror's Watford and Oldham sites, is understood to have renewed a long-term printing deal with the group on the back of the investment plans.

Every other national title except the Daily Express and the Financial Times has now announced plans to go full-colour by 2008.
The announcement comes at the end of a period of heavy spending on full-colour presses at the group.

In addition to the 45m joint investment with Guardian Media Group at Oldham, Trinity Mirror has ploughed around 90m into its six regional plants. This has included two all-new plants running full-colour Goss presses in Cardiff and Birmingham.

Trinity Mirror's half-year results showed a 1.2% increase in revenue to 579.3m, with group operating profit up 7.9% to 128.3m.

Story by Josh Brooks