The closure will affect around 40 staff, 20 of whom will stay for a few months to help transition the work to Transcontinental's other facilities.

In an interview with PrintWeek, Transcontinental spokesperson Nancy Bouffard suggested there was combination of factors behind the closure, including ongoing consolidation taking place in the Canadian printing industry.  

But Bouffard also stressed the remaining Transcontinental locations are better able to offer a variety of print related services, all in the same footprint. "Our customers are asking more and more for added-value printing services," she said. "We have made a lot of investments to update our printing equipment in most of our locations and those updates allow us to provide to our customers more creative printing products, more efficiently."

Transcontinental is the fourth-largest printer in North America and the Spot Graphics plant produced department signs, indoor and outdoor PoP material, aisle markers and 3D cutout letters and logos.

Consolidation casualties were not restricted to Canada, with reports that RR Donnelley will close its South Bend Indiana-based facility, shedding around 100 jobs, again citing overcapacity in the market.