The regional newspaper publisher has revealed that it is to add a four-colour Universal 70 and a new mono unit to its existing Goss presses at its Highland Web Offset plant in Dingwall, Ross-shire.

The investment will give the plant four 4-high towers by the end of the year, with the mono unit completing an existing 3-high mono tower alongside two existing 4-high towers.

Highland Web Offset general manager Bill Miller said: "This will increase our colour capacity by 50% and our overall pagination by 40%. We'll be able to print 112pp tabloids, with 48pp of those in colour."

The plant currently prints around 600,000 newspapers every week, including all 15 regional weekly titles in the SPP stable.

Miller hoped that the investment would allow the plant, which currently employs 10 full-time staff, to increase its contract work and to add a second shift to the current single-shift pattern.

The investment has been aided by a grant from the local development agency, Ross and Cromarty Enterprise.

Story by Josh Brooks